MILLTOWN — Patrick Tiernan did not arrive at Saint Mark’s High School until August, but the new president has hit the ground running. He’s got a lot on his plate as he seeks to continue the momentum generated by his predecessor, Tom Fertal, who left to help establish a new Catholic high school in Dover.
Tiernan, who was previously the principal at St. Mary Magdalen School in north Wilmington for five years, has spent his first month at Saint Mark’s meeting with faculty and staff, and getting a sense of what is going well. He has been working with the board of directors to better understand Saint Mark’s finances, facilities and advancement.
He has been trying to establish what the baseline is at the school, then doing three things: reimagining, reconnecting and reaffirming. Saint Mark’s has its ongoing capital campaign, “amazing facilities and grounds,” and new opportunities for innovation with students, Tiernan said.
Once that is done, school leadership will “reimagine, what does that future look like? You have your hands, your feet, in kind of those three words simultaneously,” Tiernan said. “That’s the care of the institution.”
Tiernan is working with a new principal, Eileen Wilkinson, who is focused on the academic side of things. As part of the capital campaign, Saint Mark’s has added an esports studio, robotics lab and broadcast center, and renovated the theater, among other improvements. A new dance studio is being constructed, and there are more renovations for the visual and performing arts. There are plans to do work on the band room and the athletic facilities.
Tiernan has been making calls and having meetings with Saint Mark’s benefactors and people with an institutional memory of the school. He likens this work to what he did as a classroom teacher.
“It’s about fostering those relationships. It really is that listening tour, listening to people in terms of what’s gone really well. How do we continue that? The momentum within the momentum,” Tiernan said.
One of the things he wants to accomplish is to introduce himself and Wilkinson to the Saint Mark’s community “and then certainly let them know how they can be a continuing part of our shared mission.”
The school opened this academic year with 809 students, which is higher than last year. Wilkinson said school leaders and the faculty have to know how to build on that success.
“There are many things that are in place that are working so well,” she said. “How do you continue that progress? I think for both of us coming from a range of experience, we bring the best of what we have learned.”
Tiernan said he was excited for the opportunity to move to Saint Mark’s; he has worked in high schools before. He has been watching the progress there over the years.
“For the last five years, I’ve been able to admire Saint Mark’s from the outside. I’ve always said that publicly, and to watch that growth and enthusiasm and passion for the community. In this position, the opportunity to truly care for the institution, care for graduates, as the diocesan high school, that’s incredibly humbling and empowering. I think there’s such a good spirit here, to be a part of that really was a vocational calling, if you will,” he said.
Wilkinson is excited about the new pairing leading Saint Mark’s.
“That is what the president-principal model of leadership is two sides, one coin,” she said. “It’s been about six weeks. I think it’s a pretty good team.”
