Alliance for Catholic Education
“It is never too late to be what you might’ve been.”
~ George Eliot
There would’ve been nothing particularly remarkable about the year 2019.
It wasn’t marking any big world events. There were no song tributes. The numerals aren’t even catchy. They don’t end in zero or five. They don’t rhyme.
Yet it will go down in history as a benchmark. The year before everything changed. The year things were “normal.”
Brigid McClelland was like most people, going about her business, her energetic spirit serving her well as the dean of students at St. John Paul II Catholic School in Minneapolis. She was discerning whether to join the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program at the University of Notre Dame, excited about her future.
And yet, she couldn’t deny there was still this feeling. Philadelphia was calling her home. So she answered, accepting the assistant principal post at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School in South Philly, one of the Independence Mission Schools. She also joined the 19th cohort of the Remick Leadership Program.
Things just felt right.
Eight months later, that foundational sense of home and community would be tested, strengthened, and redirected.
As the pandemic raged and daily life was blurred by worldwide struggle, the schools were hit particularly hard. Many teetered on the verge of solvency. Brigid’s neighborhood was no different. A year into the pandemic, she was asked to oversee the closure and merger of their sister school, St. Gabriel Catholic School, with St. Thomas Aquinas.
“It was really devastating. A lot of the staff were born and raised in that community, and they had gone to St. Gabe’s their whole lives,” Brigid said. “I didn't go in and try to reinvent the wheel. I just started getting to know the staff one by one. ‘What can I take off your plate? How can I help you?’
“They saw I wasn't there just as a middleman. I grew to care deeply about everybody. Oftentimes, many of the staff would gather after school sharing fond memories and reminiscing.”
Brigid was present. She listened.
She learned St. Gabe’s was more than brick and mortar: it was the people, the tight-knit community, the generations of families.
“The pastoral guidance and instruction that we've learned at Notre Dame and Remick—meeting people where they are, building relationships—the intentionality with which you strive to develop that can really be a paradigm shift, if you want to be successful,” Brigid said.
The end of the school year came and St. Gabriel’s doors closed. There was no time to process. Brigid was due on Notre Dame’s campus for Remick Summer, but before she could leave she got a call. More changes were coming. Another one of the Independence Mission Schools, St. Cyril of Alexandria, was leaving its campus and moving a mile away to its mission parish, St. Philomena's.
They needed someone to lead that process.
They needed a principal for the new school.
They needed Brigid.
“I felt called.”
Brigid McClelland is now a first-year principal at SS. Cyril and Philomena school in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, and her perspective may surprise you.
“I was fortunate to enter my career in leadership through COVID-19.”
“Despite everything going on in the world it's really the best way to do it because it's a baptism by fire,” Brigid said. “You're encountering things: events, behaviors, challenges that you couldn't really prepare for. Living them and learning from them has been for me— sometimes I go crazy, my hair is turning gray—but I wouldn't do it any other way.”
Brigid hit the ground running.
“It’s been go, go, go for the last year. The excitement of getting to learn about and mold a new community—helping it grow, thrive, and succeed—it’s so rewarding.”
She said that the Remick community and classes helped prepare her for this moment.
“Remick really inspired me,” Brigid said. “I was utilizing and applying a lot of the concepts: from analyzing budgets, to pastoral leadership, to HR, to executive management… Everything that I've learned in Remick has prepared me for taking on the role.”
And she couldn’t ask for more from her faculty and staff.
“They willingly give of themselves. That's the backbone of our school culture—the Christ-like morals—that our teachers display.”
Brigid said, “My confidence has grown a lot as a leader. As assistant principal I was suffering from decision paralysis. In this role you can't twiddle your thumbs. You have to trust your instincts. And then learn from that decision to apply to your principal playbook for future years.”
As her playbook grows, her perspective matures. Brigid is laser focused on what is best for the students in her care.
“I don't feel the need to have everybody like a decision. I think about the 157 children who walk through the doors every day and their parents who are working their tails off and giving their children over to us,” she said. “It’s their expectation that we're forming them academically and spiritually.”
“You can’t always make popular decisions, but you have to make the right decision.”
Seemingly undaunted by the challenges, where does Brigid find joy?
“The children,” she said. “I love kids. I’m excited to interact with them. One of my favorite things to do is arrival in the morning. You get to welcome each child by name.”
Brigid believes being a visible and involved principle is critical.
“I was told once all a child wants is a caring adult in the school,” Brigid said. “If they have one person, one adult that they can go to then you're doing the right thing.
“Our school is really good with that. I think that's a strength. I think that's an asset that I bring to the table as a leader. I want the best for these students and I'm willing to figure out how to get that and be an advocate for these students. By the time they're leaving us in eighth grade they’re moving towards what we like to say in Remick: college, career, and heaven.”