Dialog Editor
Bishop Malooly has appointed Carol A. Ripken as interim principal for St. Mark’s High School in Wilmington during the 2012-13 school year.
Ripken, who has been an assistant superintendent of Catholic Schools since 2009, will return to the schools’ office at the end of her interim role at St. Mark’s, the bishop said.
“She is a wise and skillful Catholic educator who makes student –centered decisions with confidence,” Bishop Malooly wrote in a letter announcing the appointment to St. Mark’s community. “Miss Ripken communicates in a manner that is refreshingly direct and specific; she is an outstanding team builder and innovator.”
Carol A. Ripken
In addition to four years’ experience as principal at John Carroll High School in Bel Air, Md., and seven years as principal at the Institute of Notre Dame in Baltimore, Md., Ripken also served as associate superintendent in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
In the Wilmington diocese, Ripken, 58, has supervised the Catholic secondary school program, teacher licensing, teacher mentoring and diocesan professional development.
“I think this appointment is great for St. Mark’s and the diocese,” said Cathy Weaver, Catholic schools’ superintendent for the diocese. “Carol has the experience, wisdom and ability to sort through difficult issues and to reach out to people with grace and goodness, which will be important as St. Mark’s moves forward.”
“I am very happy to do this,” Ripken told The Dialog. She has been serving for the last few months as a facilitator in helping the St. Mark’s community determine the characteristics needed in a new principal, before Bishop Malooly tapped her for the interim post.
“Over the course of the last few months I have spent quite a bit of time at St. Mark’s and seen and felt a tremendous amount of the spirit at the school. I look forward to working with the faculty, staff and all the school’s constituencies.”
Ripken is scheduled to begin at St. Mark’s on July 9. Mark Freund, who served as principal there for 14 years, left this month to take a job as a principal in Florida.
Bishop Malooly wrote in his letter to the St. Mark’s community that “The Catholic Schools Office will continue to offer support and encouragement” to the school during the leadership transition. “I am confident that this will be a time of creativity, growth and excellence in Catholic education, with a clear focus on the students attending St. Mark’s High School.”
