As you know, our long-time teacher and current principal, Nancy Valdiserri, will be retiring at the end of this school year. Please join us in thanking her for her years of service to our community and wishing her all the best in her next chapter. Mrs. Valdiserri, we’ve been blessed to have you and congratulations on your well-deserved retirement!

As I’ve also shared previously, earlier this year, I appointed an ad hoc committee of school and parish leaders to conduct a search for our next school principal. The committee worked with the Archdiocese to develop and administer a thoughtful search plan that included stakeholder surveys, regular communications, and a structured candidate evaluation and interview process. We received four applicants for the position. Three of those applicants were women and all were white. All applicants had current or former administrative experience and offered strengths and skills that would certainly benefit our school and community. The committee interviewed three of the four applicants, and of those, we invited two of the applicants to each attend a school Mass, tour the school, and meet with me.

After careful consideration, prayer, and consultation with the search committee, I am happy to announce that I have hired Mrs. Beth Borland as the next STA School Principal! Mrs. Borland has served as the Principal at St. Joseph Catholic School in Shelbyville since 2020. Before that, she was the Assistant Principal at St. Luke’s for five years. She came highly recommended by former colleagues, the current Pastor at St. Joe’s, and her neighbors – many of whom, like Mrs. Borland, live in Butler Tarkington and are parishioners at St. Thomas.

Please join me in welcoming Mrs. Borland! She is excited to join us at St. Thomas Aquinas and you will all have opportunities to meet her soon!

Fr. Varghese Maliakkal