HUNTERSVILLE — Julie Thornley has been named principal at St. Mark School in Huntersville after working for Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools for more than a decade at St. Ann School as a counselor and St. Patrick School as assistant principal.
Thornley, a member of St. Mark Church, has a degree in social work from George Mason University, with a minor in music education and a master’s degree in school counseling from North Carolina State University. She has a post-master’s certificate in school administration from UNC-Charlotte and was part of the Aspiring Principals program.
Thornley has worked as a behavioral therapist with at-risk youth involved with the juvenile justice system in alternative settings as well as a school counselor in public schools. She has also taught piano lessons for more than 35 years.
“It’s very exciting to be not only principal, but to be principal of a K-8 population,” Thornley said. “I started my education at a St. Mark School in Indianapolis and it’s neat that I’ve landed at another St. Mark School as principal.”
She said she’d like to see St. Mark School and parish become more closely connected, with more parishioners involved in the school and more students engaged in parish activities.
“My educational philosophy is rooted in my Catholic faith,” Thornley wrote in a letter introducing herself to the school community. “I believe that all learners possess strengths and gifts given to them by our Lord. With that belief, it is the duty of every educator to ensure that all students are given every opportunity to grow spiritually, academically, socially and emotionally.”
She stressed that she wants to put an emphasis on the students being united in the goal of being Jesus to others.
“Our priority is to grow spiritually as a community,” she said.
St. Mark School has more than 700 kindergarten through eighth-grade students.
— Kimberly Bender, online reporter
HENDERSONVILLE — Margaret Beale has been named the new principal of Immaculata School, succeeding Meredith Canning.
Beale has taught middle school social studies, language arts and religion at Asheville Catholic School for eight years. She holds a Masters of Education in instruction and curriculum and a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Beale was an integral part of taking a struggling school and helping to transform it into a growing and vibrant Catholic institution, according to an announcement from Father Christian Cook, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church and Immaculata School in Hendersonville.
The principal search committee was impressed with Beale’s accomplishments and her positive and uplifting attitude, Father Cook said.
While at Asheville Catholic, Beale started an organization for girls that sought to instill leadership skills and reinforce Catholic values.
Beale has focused her career on promoting and maintaining positive, constructive relationships with parents, teachers, alumni and her principal to help build a strong community. She said she will be focused on doing the same at Immaculata School. She said she has high expectations, which requires her to be firm in her expectations of students, and of her teachers and school staff. She aims to guide students towards those high goals through encouragement and love, she noted.
“We welcome Ms. Beale’s enthusiasm and drive to Immaculata Catholic School, and to our parish,” Father Cook said in his announcement. “It is a time to be excited about the future of Immaculata, under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the guidance of God, in His Holy Spirit.
“Being the principal at Immaculata is a vocational call to Beale, and she placed God at the center of her discernment to accept this position.”
Beale said she loves to be involved in every facet of Catholic school life, regularly attending athletic events, musicals and academic competitions and cheering her students on. Fostering these positive and supportive relationships with stakeholders will be a primary focus for her, she said, as she seeks to bring an energy and enthusiasm to build up and grow the school.
Opened in 1926, Immaculata School had more than 140 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade last school year.
— Catholic News Herald