Patrick Gannon may have a guardian angel guiding his educational journey and calling.
Patrick Gannon may have a guardian angel guiding his educational journey and calling.
“No, never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be coming back to St. Helen’s as a teacher or principal,” Gannon said. “However, I’m so thankful that God had this plan for me. Our school is so special and I can’t imagine working anywhere else. Our students, families, teachers, staff, pastor and parish are truly amazing groups of people.”
Gannon is the first principal of St. Helen Catholic School in Newbury Township who is not a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame.
Gannon started attending St. Helen — which offers preschool through eighth-grade education — in the first-grade.
“Saint Helen’s school is a truly special place,” Gannon said. “When you enter, you feel like you’re at home and with your family. Our teachers and staff create a family atmosphere in the classrooms and school. I have always told the students that we are family and that we need to care for one another and work together.Our school theme this year is ‘Together We Are Family’ because of the emphasis we place on the family feeling at our school. We are incredibly thankful to have such caring and faith-filled (students), families, teachers and staff members at our school.”
There are 212 students this year at St. Helen — which first opened its doors in 1961 — and enrollment is on the rise, Gannon said.
“When I graduated in eighth-grade, I was one of the two students to receive the Distinguished Graduate Award from the Sisters of Notre Dame,” Gannon said, adding he went on to graduate from Notre Dame Cathedral Latin and the University of Dayton.
While at UD, Gannon studied middle childhood education, with concentrations in mathematics and social studies.
“My family is always a great example of how to live the Catholic faith and as a student, I heard Father Jay (McPhillips) and others talk about the priesthood,” Gannon said. “While I am so thankful for all the men who are called to serve as priests, I didn’t feel God calling me to that vocation. I married the love of my life this past summer and we’ve been married a little over two months.”
Gannon did his student teaching at St. Helen School in Dayton and was hired for a teaching position at St. Helen in Newbury before he completed his senior year at UD.
“It was a great feeling the last few weeks at UD, knowing that I would be going home to teach at St. Helen,” Gannon said.
The past seven years, he taught fifth- through eighth-grade, mainly mathematics and religion, and some social studies and reading. The past two years, Gannon was assistant principal in addition to being a fifth- through eighth-grade math teacher.
Gannon, who has an uncle and aunt in the teaching field, has always been interested in education, but former St. Helen Principal Sister Christin Alfieri was one of his biggest influences.
“Sister Christin is the reason I chose to become a principal,” Gannon said. “I had never thought about becoming a principal until Sister Christin shared that she envisioned me becoming principal when she retired.”
Alfieri first approached him about being principal while he was a student at UD.
“I told her, ‘I haven’t started teaching yet and you already have my next job lined up?,” Gannon said. “Sister Christin had a huge impact on my teaching career. She was always around to guide me and lend a helping hand. The first year of teaching is a steep learning curve.”
On the morning of June 7, 2013, during Gannon’s second-year of teaching, Alfierisuddenly passed away.
Just the day before, Alfieriwas honored for her 40thyear as a nun, her Ruby anniversary.
“Our school community was devastated,” Gannon said. “The special thing about Sister Christin was the incredible amount of care she put into our school and each student. The summer, after Sister Christin passed away, was when I first considered Sister Christin’s words of becoming a principal. There were people in the school, church and the local community that approached me and reminded me that Sister Christin wanted me to become the principal of Saint Helen’s.”
So Gannon earned his master’s degree in educational administration at Ursuline College and became St. Helen’s new educational leader.
“It’s difficult to put into words the respect I have for Pat. I had the pleasure of teaching computer class to him many years ago,” said school secretary Judy Romagni. “Now, I have the pleasure of working for and with him. We are all very excited about Mr. Gannon’s journey to become our principal. It puts him in a unique position that no other principal has been in before. He has a history with St. Helen school and a school spirit that he was able to share with his students over the past few years. Now, as principal, he continues to share that spirit not only with the students, but his staff as well. He has an enthusiasm for the school that is contagious and makes us all want to go that extra mile.”
Rachel O’Reilly, who graduated last year and is now a freshman at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin School, said Gannon was a kind teacher who truly cared about the personal wellbeing of all his students.
“Sister Christin loved St. Helen school and did anything she could to keep it moving forward. However, the most important influence she had was on Principal Gannon,” Romagni said. “She saw in him the makings of a great teacher, but also as someone who could eventually lead St. Helen school forward and continue the vision she had for St. Helen school.”
