When Marion Bishop walks through the door to her new office at St. Francis Catholic High School this summer, she will literally be making history.

Bishop has been appointed to serve as the first president of the east Sacramento Catholic high school, which is also breaking new ground as the first diocesan high school to employ a president-principal administrative team.

It’s a job that Bishop seems to have been preparing for most of her professional life. Prior to her appointment to the post at St. Francis, she worked for more than five years as public relations and development coordinator for Catholic schools in the diocese and directed the SUCCEED (Sacramento Urban Catholic Children’s Equal Educational Development) program for inner city Catholic schools in Sacramento.

Bishop has also served as a teacher in Catholic schools in San Francisco and Sacramento, as president of the Diocesan Catholic Parent Council and chairwoman of the Diocesan School Board, and has held leadership positions at St. Francis, at Jesuit High School in Carmichael and St. Mel School in Fair Oaks.

“I have really tried to listen to what God was telling me,” she said of the professional choices she has made along the way. “I feel I have to have a ministry.”

Thomas Butler, superintendent of Catholic schools, noted that Bishop “brings some wonderful qualities to St. Francis. I’m very excited about exploring the role of president in a diocesan high school in Sacramento…putting the job description into a lived experience.”

As president, Bishop will simultaneously be wearing development, marketing and public relations hats and something else.

“What we’re really about is building a faith community,” she noted. “High school is both the most exciting time in a young woman’s life and the most difficult time. I want those girls to know they belong to a bigger family and are loved tremendously by God.”

In pairing up with principal Kay Gaines, Bishop hopes the school may become a model school in meeting the expanding demands of secondary administrators in an increasingly competitive educational environment.

“The secret will be to work closely with Kay, to partner with her,” she noted, emphasizing that a successful partnership will “make the school shine.”

The two educators first got to know each other about 15 years ago when Bishop’s daughter Leah attended St. Francis, where Gaines was working as a teacher. Bishop immediately took a leadership role in the parent club. Gaines says the talent Bishop brings to the job will enable her to focus on her own passion, which is growing the school academically.

“My love is the everyday life of the school. Both of us will be working on the spiritual development of the school,” she said. “It’s a perfect match.”

Having already met with Gaines and members of the St. Francis staff, Bishop sees “awesome opportunities” awaiting in the 2001-2002 school year.

“Because I’m going on to a campus that has such a strong foundation and wonderful traditions, I don’t look at this as something to fix, but something to build upon,” she said.

As the new president, one of her first challenges will be the all-female high school’s capital campaign to fund an expansion. The expansion will include a new science wing, fine arts and library resource center, gymnasium, dining facilities, classrooms and aquatic center.

“St. Francis is a very desirable place to be, but the campus is ready to explode,” said Bishop, who noted that the school’s enrollment is 780 but there is a demand to accommodate more than 1,000 students. “To meet the needs and talents of the young women who want to attend, physical expansion is really imperative and imminent.”

St. Francis, as one of the designated ministries included in the diocesan capital campaign drive to raise $50 million over the next year, is expected to receive $5 million of that total sum for expansion, which is expected to begin in the spring of 2002.

Bishop strongly believes that the key to successful development is fostering interpersonal relationships.

“A lot is just listening to where people are, making them feel valued, that their gift will not only help others but also themselves,” she said. “It’s really matching talent and opportunity.”

One of the real challenges, she added, will be in leading the St. Francis community to focus on its role as a leader in the larger school community. With that goal in mind, she hopes to lead the way in developing projects such as a “big sister” mentoring program linking St. Francis students with students from the Sacramento SUCCEED schools.

Looking to the year ahead, Bishop says she is exhilarated but expects to be saying a few extra prayers.

“I’m going to a campus where the young women I meet will become part of my life. And I’m going to be touched in unimagined ways,” she noted. “It will give me a greater humility than I’ve ever experienced.”

Copyright © 2001 Diocese of Sacramento - All Rights Reserved

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