Non-Jesuit Takes Over At Seattle Prep -- Catholic School Hires Layman From U.S. Capital As Its Principal

A non-Jesuit is settling in as the new headmaster at Seattle Preparatory School.

For Christopher Conroy, his appointment as the independent, Jesuit-run high school's first permanent principal in two years is more a reflection of the times than a signal that radical change is coming to Seattle Prep.

As the ranks of Jesuit priests decline, Conroy said, ``the leadership in Jesuit schools for years has been moving toward the lay leadership nationwide - lay people are increasing in their calling to service in the church.''

With less than two weeks in his new job, Conroy, 32, says he senses a more informal atmosphere on Seattle Prep's 7-acre campus on North Capitol Hill than at his last job at the prestigious Georgetown Preparatory School in Washington, D.C., also a Jesuit school.

There, he was assistant dean of students for two years, then dean - a position similar to a vice principal - for five years.

The shift from the East to the West Coast brings him from an all-male student population of about 400 to a co-ed student body of more than 600 at Seattle Prep.

``I was ready for a little more down-to-earthness,'' Conroy said, adding that he and his wife, Karla, married 13 months ago, were eager to put down roots in a community ``that seems to be good for raising a family.''

They've moved into a Capitol Hill apartment, he said, and are looking around for a Catholic parish in which to become active.

The Jesuit order - the Society of Jesus - was founded in Paris by St. Ignatius of Loyola 450 years ago. Over the years, it has been at the forefront of the church's intellectual, educational and social movements, noted for spawning independent, critical thinkers with political acumen.

As principal at Seattle Prep - one of four Catholic high schools in the city but the only one that's Jesuit - Conroy is responsible for the day-to-day academic operation of the school.

He will oversee curriculum, student activities, teacher training and staffing at the school, reporting to the school's president, the Rev. Thomas Healy, a Jesuit who since 1973 has been the equivalent of the school's chief operating officer.

``I see my role as helping people - students and faculty - to identify their own talents and abilities to lead,'' Conroy said. This week, for instance, he's been meeting with faculty members to hear their personal visions of what the school should be.

``The idea is to interpret their thoughts into a collective vision that I can then express back to them,'' he said.

Last week, he joined an overnight freshman orientation session for new Seattle Prep students at a Warm Beach camp west of Marysville. Such orientations, he said, help pull new students into the life of the campus and help acquaint him with the student population.

What makes the Jesuit educational philosophy stand out, he said, is its emphasis on religious as well as academic values.

``We're concerned with the total formation of the person: the intellectual, the imaginative, the creative, the physical, the whole person,'' he said.

That emphasis, Conroy said, has endured from the school's formation in September 1891, when the Jesuits opened the new school for boys on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Spring Street in downtown Seattle.

The school eventually developed into separate college and high school components, now known as Seattle University and Seattle Prep. Seattle Prep's present campus is at 11th Avenue East and East Miller Street.

Conroy said his decision to accept the Seattle Prep position came after he spent a couple of days in March on the campus, talking to faculty members, questioning students and observing classes.

``I came away with the impression that this school has a very strong community of students and faculty, parents and alumni,'' he said. ``It's a whole sense of family and community here.''

Besides leading, Conroy said he expects to do quite a bit of learning.

He is still learning about Seattle Prep's unique Matteo Ricci College program, named after Italian-born Matteo Ricci, an early-day Jesuit who traveled to China to develop new religious teaching methods.

In 1975, Seattle Prep, cooperating with Seattle University, began the six-year Matteo Ricci program of high school and college studies, and at the same time began admitting girls.

All students at Seattle Prep follow the same basic curriculum for grades 9, 10 and 11. Near the end of their junior year, students must decide whether they will begin the Matteo Ricci program with early entrance at Seattle University, attend another university or remain at Seattle Prep for their senior year.

Through the program, a student can earn an undergraduate degree from Seattle University at the end of six academic years - the first three at Seattle Prep and the final three at Seattle U.

While Conroy is the first lay Catholic to receive a permanent assignment to the principal's post, he is not the first lay person in that job.

Last year, the school was headed by interim Principal Dennis Olson, an English teacher at the school, and the year before by Mary Lee McDougall, Seattle Prep's academic vice principal.

The last permanent principal, Father Tom Bunnell, served for 12 years before he took a sabbatical, then resigned to teach in Peru.

Mary Beth Gemperle, a Seattle Prep trustee and member of the search committee, said Conroy was one of five finalists.

``The things that stand out in my recollection are his experience in administration and teaching, and his Catholic, and specifically Jesuit, background,'' Gemperle said.

None of the candidates for the job was a member of the Jesuit order. ``No priests applied,'' Gemperle said. ``We put out the word as widely as we could. The numbers of priests are decreasing and the ones left choose where they want to spend their time.''

Father Healy, the school's president, said Conroy was one of two finalists with experience in a Jesuit school.

``When everything was put together, he just seemed like the right one for the job,'' Healy said.

Reared in a Catholic household in a west-central Pennsylvania town of roughly 55,000, Conroy attended Catholic schools before attending a public high school and graduating at the age of 16.

After stints in campus ministry at Loyola College in Baltimore and St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, he joined the faculty at Georgetown Prep, where he was in charge of student activities and the school's boarding school.

Conroy said he senses a warmth in Seattle Prep's co-ed student body different from the Georgetown student population.

``There's a certain wholesomeness about (Seattle) Prep students,'' he said. ``Their attitude is more relaxed and laid-back.

``A co-ed environment tends to help foster an increased sensitivity to women's issues, the role of women in society, and women as equals in terms of academics,'' he added.

Seattle Prep's student population is now nearly 50 percent female. Nearly 30 percent of the students are non-Catholics, and about 21 percent are minorities.

Conroy sees that diversity as a healthy mix. And he comes to a school that's financially healthy, with a waiting list for admission.

``It's a good time for a new challenge,'' he said. ``I see this particular role as a ministry. I don't see it as a job. It's something more profound than that.''