By Guest Contributor Sarah Ryan
After 13 years as Principal of St. Brendan School, Sister Maureen O’Connor, CSJ will be leaving to take on a position with the Province Leadership Team of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet starting on July 29.
“I’ll miss the supportive parents, the very generous and caring school community, the dedicated faculty and staff and of course, the outstanding students,” Sister Maureen said about her time at St. Brendan. “The school continues to grow, we have an enrollment of almost 300 students…so we’re grateful for that and grateful that St. Brendan’s school has played such an important part in the formation of so many young people.”
Msgr. Terrance L. Fleming, pastor of St. Brendan Catholic Church, said Sister Maureen has been “a very stabilizing person in the school. The enrollment rose. The curriculum changed. She was a big backer of technology. Our sports teams got better. Our afterschool activities probably quadrupled. We have a lot of new families. She took something that was solid and made it a lot better.”
Before her tenure at the Catholic elementary school, Sister Maureen served as the Provincial Superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph, a role which has now been dispersed into the team of leaders she will be joining. Sister Maureen will reach her 60th anniversary with the Sisters of St. Joseph in March of 2019. The Los Angeles Province consists of 300 Sisters encompassing the states of California, Arizona, Idaho, Hawaii and Japan.Sister Maureen described what her new role will entail.
“I’m looking forward to working more directly with the Sisters, helping them with their ministries and how they can respond to the call of the church in this twenty first century,” Sister Maureen said.
Meanwhile, Collette Young, Upper Grade Vice-Principal and 8th Grade Teacher at Saint Teresa of Avila School, will be taking on the role of Principal of St. Brendan this coming year.
A farewell mass at St. Brendan Catholic Church was held in Sister Maureen’s honor on Sunday, June 10 at 11:30 a.m. followed by a reception in the parish hall. At the reception, Msgr. Fleming presented Sister Maureen with funds raised by the community to send her and a friend on a trip to Japan at the time of her choosing.
Sarah Ryan, a Hancock Park resident, is a rising sophomore at Brown University.
