WILMINGTON – It’s been a busy August for Patricia Scott, who started in her role as Padua Academy’s first president earlier this month. She has ideas for the all-girls high school in Wilmington since arriving at Padua after five years in the same role at Archbishop Carroll High School in Radnor, Pa.
While at Carroll, she helped bring about the opening of a wellness center in the building, and this summer, the school unveiled its new turf athletic field.
She said she loved everything about Archbishop Carroll “except that drive.” But when the position at Padua was created, she remembered something she had told her daughter, Haley, who graduated from Padua in 2019.
“I told Haley, ‘If I ever have a chance to help that school, I’m going to do it,’” Scott said in her office in mid-August. “I love everything about single-sex education, as a parent, as an educator. It’s nice to get back in that world again. Padua’s just near and dear to my heart. I just love what it did for my kid; I loved everything about it, and for me it was a chance to get back to a place that gave my family so much.”
Scott certainly is no stranger to Catholic education in the Diocese of Wilmington. She grew up in north Wilmington and attended Immaculate Heart of Mary School and Archmere Academy. She had experience with single-gender education at the all-boys Saint Edmond’s Academy in Brandywine Hundred, serving as its first female principal for more than a decade. She also has been on the boards of directors for both Padua and Salesianum School.
She seemed like a natural for the Padua presidency; even her co-workers at Archbishop Carroll told her that.
“It’s a little bit of pressure, but at the same time, it’s good pressure. We can do a lot of good things here. It’s already in its bones good and strong. It’s just a matter of figuring out how else we can help these girls thrive. That’s the bottom line,” she said.
Her focus will be enrollment, advancement, finances and facilities. She believes the correct people are in place to make things happen. Scott said she will be analyzing the data to help determine what needs to be done to attract and retain students.
She said Padua is perhaps the best-built school she’s ever worked at, but there are upgrades that need to be made to the interior. She wants the school to jump to the forefront of the minds of potential students and their families. She will work with the principal, Mary McClory, to make that happen.
One item that has crossed her mind is the possibility of creating an outdoor space for the students, somewhere they can go during the day just to get out of the building for a few minutes. She plans on asking the students how she can improve their experience at Padua. Her door, she said, will always be open, and she expects to walk the halls at least once every day.
Alumnae relations also is on her radar. Scott wants to honor the women who graduated from the school and make them want to be more involved.
“I know that there are a lot of alums out there — I found this in all my experiences — that just want to be asked, that just want to be part of it,” she said.
One alumna has already expressed her excitement about the possibilities. Haley Scott keeps in touch with many of her classmates, and she let her mom know what they think.
“The first thing she said was, ‘My girls are so excited. We’re going to figure this out and rally the troops and get everybody involved at Padua,’” Scott said her daughter told her. “I think the time is now to rally the troops.”
A longer-term goal is to create a home for Padua’s outdoor athletic teams. The Pandas are competitive in most sports despite being road warriors. They play most home games in field hockey and lacrosse at the Chase Fieldhouse, and they will split soccer this season between Abessinio Stadium and Hockessin Soccer.
“I feel very strongly about athletics,” Scott said. “There’s a lot that comes from that: community building, your alums have a place to come back to watch games. It adds to the community feel of a school. And I’m a big believer in that.”
The obvious question is the location of a facility. Scott would prefer to stay in the city of Wilmington. She will spend some time this year trying to come up with some answers.
“Maybe there’s things that we’re not even thinking about,” she said.
She and her husband, Brian, live near Rockford Park and are members of St. Ann Parish. They have a son, Drew, who lives near his sister in New York. They like to travel and to spend time in Avalon on the Jersey Shore.
But now that vacation is over, her focus is on one thing.
“My goal will always be to do what’s right for kids.”
