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Arlington, Va. – The National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) will present seven Catholic Secondary Education Awards to Catholic school educators who contribute to the richness and diversity of American Catholic education at its annual convention April 26-28 in New Orleans, La.

The awards are given annually and were established in 1984 by the Secondary Schools Department’s executive committee to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of high school staff members, including principals, teachers, campus ministers and others.

 

“I am so pleased to honor these outstanding educators,” said Phil Robey , executive director of the NCEA Secondary Schools Department. “They do heroic work without much fanfare, yet their impact on the future is immense. With dedicated professionals like these in our Catholic high schools, I am confident that we have a future full of hope.”

 

The Catholic Secondary Education Awards will be given at a luncheon on Thursday, April 28. The recipients are: 

• Rick Martin, campus minister, Marist High School , Eugene, Ore. Rick Martin has spent more than twenty years serving as the Director of Campus Ministry and a teacher of theology at Marist Catholic High School. Mr. Martin has been a strong, unassuming, but highly effective leader, providing four years of strong, innovative theology classes, a four-year retreat program, a Christian service program and a Catholic Culture program, aimed at helping the school grow in its Catholic identity. He developed and leads a Christian Leadership course for selected juniors and seniors. It centers on the spirituality of leadership, using Jesus as a model, and includes activities that help students experience leadership as public action on behalf of the Christian community to bring about the reign of God.

• Rev. Robert Carroll, O.Carm., President, Salpointe Catholic High School , Tucson, Ariz. As principal of Mt. Carmel High School in the inner city of Chicago in the 1980s, every aspect of school life improved significantly during his tenure, especially Catholic identity, academics, fine arts, technology, and athletics. The school received the Blue Ribbon Award from the U.S. Department of Education in 1984. In the 1990s, as principal at Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein, Illinois , the school received the Blue Ribbon Award three times during his tenure (1996, 2002, 2007). He is the only Principal in the country to have supervised four Blue Ribbon Awards.

• William Hambleton, President, La Salle Academy, New York , N.Y. In 2008, as the first lay president of La Salle Academy , he reached out to the Hispanic community, resulting in the largest incoming freshman class in a decade. Working with the Board of Trustees, he moved the student body four blocks to share space with another school, and leased the high school building to a for-profit school. This arrangement has stabilized La Salle Academy ’s finances and allowed it to build an endowment. Mr. Hambleton has also changed the school culture, improving morale and attendance. Because of his efforts, La Salle Academy will continue its mission of educating the underserved and most in need.

• Donald Nitti, Math Instructor, Cotter Catholic High School , Winona, Minn. Mr. Nitti has been a Catholic educator for 38 years, 25 of them spent at Cotter Catholic High School . His teaching mastery has led him to mentor teachers in the field of high level math, and to be highly respected by his students and peers. Mr. Nitti is the kind of teacher who can make really hard math problems, to be worked out after school and on weekends, not only sound like fun, but actually be fun. Perhaps this is why he was inducted into the Minnesota State High School Mathematics League Hall of Fame in 2010. He has coached the Cotter math team for 24 years and, in that time, taken his team to the state tournament on 13 occasions, finishing first or second the last four years. Math, he points out, teaches “clear thinking and solid reasoning, things everyone really needs to make decisions based on sound information.”

• Beth Ann Simno, Vice President and Vice Principal, Mount Carmel Academy , New Orleans, La. Ms. Simno began her teaching career at Mount Carmel Academy in 1978, leaving a job with the state of Louisiana to pursue her desire for a teaching career. She serves as a consultant to other new Catholic High School principals, helping them learn what makes Mount Carmel so successful. She stresses that school leaders have to find what fits the culture of their school, and what works for them personally, rather than replicate what Mount Carmel does. The talents and faith of Ms. Simno were made vividly clear at the time of Hurricane Katrina. Her efforts and wise decisions allowed the school to reopen four months later, with 1,038 students returning. Her principal, Sister Camille Anne Campbell, states: “Beth Ann Simno is the key to much of our fruitfulness, our stable enrollment, our happy faculty, and the spreading of Carmelite spirituality. She lives our spirituality each day.”

• Patrick Smith, English Faculty/Admissions Director, DeMatha Catholic High School , Hyattsville, Md. Mr. Smith has been a classroom educator of literature at DeMatha Catholic High School for more than 20 years, during which time he has served concurrently as department chair, campus minister, Christian service coordinator, basketball coach, big brothers moderator and admissions director. His service to faculty outside DeMatha has included giving workshops for middle school teachers, presenting numerous times at conferences on pedagogy and scholarship, founding middle school writing contests and a week-long writing camp for middle school students. Each year at a freshman retreat, Mr. Smith speaks to the students about the meaning of family – its creation, obligations and rewards – creating an atmosphere of family that is central to DeMatha’s belief that Catholic education is about the active formation of young men who will witness Gospel values.

• Margaret Williamson, Principal, Northwest Catholic High School , West Hartford, Conn. In 1987, Mrs. Williamson began as Vice Principal for Academics at Northwest Catholic High School . She is a well-rounded administrator whose accomplishments include the integration of technology into every classroom, introducing the Professional Learning Community model for faculty, and encouraging faith development through the “First Things First” initiative, where she teaches the basics of the Catholic faith at faculty meetings. Her attendance at Northwest’s athletic events is legendary, and her unflagging support of the teams has earned her honors from the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference. She is the recipient of the 2009-10 Archdiocesan Distinguished Principal Award from the Archdiocese of Hartford.

 About the Convention

NCEA's annual convention and expo, which draws educators, administrators, pastors and parents from throughout the nation, will offer general sessions, liturgies, departmental meetings, and development and technology sessions. The event at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center will also feature an exhibition of the latest in educational products.

Keynote speakers will include Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking and noted death penalty opponent, and Father Michael Himes, professor of theology at Boston College and frequent speaker on Christian theology, sacramental principles and ethics.

The 35th anniversary convocation of the National Association of Parish Catechetical Directors and the annual meeting of the Catholic Library Association will take place concurrently with the NCEA convention.

NCEA, founded in 1904, is a professional membership organization that provides leadership, direction and service to fulfill the evangelizing, catechizing and teaching mission of the church. NCEA's members include elementary schools, high schools, parish religious education programs and seminaries.

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