Local all-boys high school gets first female principal

Local all-boys high school gets first female principal|Local all-boys high school gets first female principal
Photo courtesy of Susan Natale|Photo courtesy of All Hallows

All Hallows High School, just west of the Grand Concourse on East 164th Street, is getting a new principal this fall.

Susan Natale succeeds its long-time principal, Sean Sullivan, who will stay on as Principal Emeritus during the transition and continue his five-decade association with the school.

All Hallows, an all-boys high school with a 110-year tradition, has never had a female principal before, but Natale, currently the Iona Preparatory School’s dean of academics, said that she believes her experience as an educator is more relevant than her gender and said that the values of the school will remain constant during the transition.

“I know it is a big deal to have the first woman principal, but I have the knowledge and the experience to lead the school,” said Natale, who is a Mathematics teacher. “I am looking forward to taking all of the 23 years of knowledge and experience and bringing it to All Hallows.”

Natale said that she initially became a Math teacher because she loved the subject and wanted to share it with youth, including those who may have fallen behind on fundamentals.

Natale, a school administrator since 2006, got her start teaching at the Ursuline School in New Rochelle, where she taught for 10 years before moving onto Iona Prep.

She said that she wants to boost technology at All Hallows by expanding the number of classes that use Chromebook computers, as well as making All Hallows an AdvanceED STEM certified school, part of a national accreditation program in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines.

“We are educating students of today for jobs that don’t even exist yet,” said Natale. “Technology is changing so fast you cannot say that by the time someone who is a freshman now graduates from college, the changes they will see are going to be exponential,” she said.

Another part of a her five-year plan is having every educator in the school become a Google Certified Level 1 educator, since technology is an increasingly important part of schools and our world.

“From a cultural standpoint I would love to see more parental involvement,” said Natale. “Currently the school does not have much of a parents club and I would like to see that change.”

She said she will continue to produce graduates in the Christian Brothers tradition who are critical thinkers and ethical leaders.

Her door will always be open, said Natale, and she is looking forward to working with Sullivan.

“I look forward to continuing to serve the students of All Hallows, as I have throughout my entire career,” said Sullivan, principal at All Hallows for the past 23 years.

The appointments were made by Ronald Schutté, All Hallows’ president, who said that Sullivan will also be teaching Calculus.

“I’m delighted that All Hallows will still have the benefit of Sean’s wisdom and experience, and that Susan will have access to his encyclopedic knowledge of the school’s history and traditions,” said Schutté.

Reach Reporter Patrick Rocchio at (718) 260–4597.
Sean Sullivan will be appointed Principal Emeritus of All Hallows High School next school year.
Photo courtesy of All Hallows