When the 2017-18 school year begins, Sacred Heart School will welcome a familiar face and a somewhat familiar face as their administrative team with the hiring of Mark Register as administrator/principal and Sam Jones as the Dean of Students, a new position at SHS.
Returning to Sacred Heart
Register has been associated with the school for more than 28 years, first as a teacher from 1985 to 1992 and then as administrator from 1993 to 2014.
“I decided to return to Sacred Heart because it seemed as if I had something more to give,” Register told the Democrat Wednesday night during the school’s enrollment night. “I have been working with the Center for Human Services since I left Sacred Heart and I enjoyed the work and felt it was of real value, but this (Sacred Heart) has been my life’s work.
“Sacred Heart was very lucky to have both Dr. (Gary) Manning and Holly Wilson during the last years,” Register added. “They both did a very good job in their respective positions.”
Manning has accepted a position as an adjunct instructor at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, and Wilson is relocating to Springfield with her family.
Register commented that he has some goals he would like to accomplish in his second tenure at Sacred Heart.
“When I started in the fall of 1993 it was clear that Sacred Heart needed to grow and that we needed to make adjustments in both our curriculum and facilities across the board to make the school viable for the 21st century,” Register said. “Now it’s a little different … in this last phase, however long that might be, I really want to put SHS in solid footing both financially and in terms of looking at a sound and solid succession for future leadership here. Those strike me as very important.
“I think that we are blessed to get Sam and I am looking forward to working with him, he is a very intelligent and thoughtful young man,” Register commented. “The good Lord willing, Sam may be a part of the succession plan but I truly think that (the choice of administrators) is something that is not wise to be left to chance.”
In terms of finances, Register commented that as a private school their stability comes in terms of enrollment.
“One message that I will share with the faculty is that people make a real sacrifice to pay tuition necessary to send their children here,” Register stated. “It is incumbent upon us to give them the experience knowing that their investment is well-placed.
“That comes in terms of both academics and it also includes a wide-ranging, well-run extracurricular program, but the real key is a spiritual one and comes from the fact that we can pray here in school,” Register added. “I want that to be taken very seriously because the spiritual development of the students is a high priority and I want it to be recognized as such.”
Register said he is looking forward to working with his staff, many of whom he has worked with before, to accomplish these goals.
“I have a long history with some of these folks and I hold them in very high regard,” he commented. “I truly look forward to working side by side with them again as I do with getting to know and working with the younger teachers who have also made the commitment to Catholic, Christian education.”
New face, new role
One of the new faces Register is looking forward to collaborating with is Jones. With eight years of teaching experience at both State Fair Community College and Smithton, this will mark his first experience in administration.
“It really wasn’t something that was on my radar,” Jones commented Thursday night. “I always thought that I wanted to be in the classroom for at least seven years before I looked into an administrative position, I wanted to be a strong teacher first.”
Jones, who coached soccer at Sacred Heart last year, leading the Gremlins to a third place finish in the boys Class 1A State Soccer Tournament, said it was Manning who first approached him with the idea of an administrative position.
“Dr. Manning floated the idea to me earlier this spring,” Jones said. “We talked about it but it wasn’t something I really considered a great deal at the time.
“Then in late May, early June we spoke again,” Jones added. “To be honest one of the biggest driving forces in my decision was my children.”
Jones and his wife Sarah have two young children and finding a good educational home for them was something that weighed onto his decision.
“My children were a huge factor in my decision,” Jones added thoughtfully. “I thought how cool would it be to work in the same building where my children go to school.
“I was fortunate that my mother was my first grade teacher and my dad taught fourth grade in the same school,” he added. “I know how important parental involvement is in the life of a child and I didn’t want to be one of those dads who was never home for my kids. Having children can change your priorities a lot.”
Jones wants to develop those positive relationships with his Sacred Heart kids as well.
“I really want to work on building those relationships here, especially with the elementary students,” Jones said. “I want to be a part of the education of the students all the way through from preschool until their graduation.
“As a high school teacher by the time they came to me they were kind of finished products,” Jones observed. “I want to be in the classrooms and read to the little ones and offer help and advice to all of the students here.”
Jones said he feels he has already started to form some of those relationships during his one year as the SHS soccer coach.
He will remain in that position in addition to his role as dean of students, adding that at times extracurricular activities allow for deeper bonds to form than are possible in the classroom setting.
“I have been fortunate,” Jones reflected. “Smithton has some amazing values and is a very special school and were it not for my five and a half years of teaching there and the variety of opportunities they allowed me that prepared me and helped me reach this point, I wouldn’t be ready to accept this position.
“Smithton is a unique place that is not like any other and it took a special job to leave that,” he added. “… but if this is what I wanted to do and the opportunity was at hand, I felt I had to take it.”
Jones commented that “God probably laughs at the time-lines we make,” so Jones didn’t feel it was his place to question his arrival at Sacred Heart, adding it was in “God’s time and not mine.”
