Schools, administrators benefit from Skillman training
Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 26, 2005

Detroit – Three Catholic schools and three Catholic school administrators in Detroit this year will receive a boost from the Skillman Foundation.

The foundation will place intern assistant principals at St. Scholastica, Gesu and Christ the King Elementary schools. The administrators will be paid salaries and receive much on-the-job training, thanks to a $180,000 grant from the foundation.

This is the third year of a three-year “principal proficiency program,” which the foundation hopes will train principals for Detroit schools, while at the same time helping schools that can’t afford to hire an assistant principal.

“Most of our city schools don’t have the finances to have an assistant principal,” says Bernadette Sugrue, an associate superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Detroit. “It really frees up time for the principals so they can focus on specific areas of concentration.”

Sugrue says the main task of the assistant principals is to help students improve their test scores.

But that’s not all there is. The administrators go to national conferences, meet with principals from other schools in the area, attend workshops, and get to experience each day what it means to run a school.

“It gives someone at least a year to walk that path and be mentored by a principal who has experience,” Sugrue says.

In its first two years, the program has been a success. Already it’s reached its goal of providing a qualified principal to a Detroit school.

Last year, DeLisa Jones applied for the Skillman internship, was accepted, and stepped out of her teaching position at St. Martin DePorres High School and into the front office as assistant principal at Loyola High School.

This year, she’s becoming principal of the school.

The training program, she said, was a tremendous help.

“The internship really made me more aware of what a principal has to be involved in,” Jones said. “It helped me to see how I, as a leader, could assist in the growth and the continuation of school programs.”

Through her internship, Jones met many other administrators from Catholic, private and charter schools; worked closely with the staff and curriculum at Loyola; and taught her how to be an effective leader.

“It also made my aspirations more solid,” she says. “It solidified my desire to be a principal.”

Though she’s the first to take a principal position in Detroit – as were the hopes of the Skillman Foundation’s program – Jones is the second Skillman intern assistant principal to take the helm of a Catholic school. Michael Kaminski accepted his post as principal of St. Pius X Elementary in Southgate last year after serving as intern assistant principal at St. Scholastica.