June 4, 2010
Mater Dei, Holy Family: Two principals named for 2010-2011 school year
Christopher Tanner has been named principal at Mater Dei High School in Evansville; Sally Sternberg has been named principal at Holy Family School in Jasper. Click for a larger version.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
Two principals have been named for the 2010-2011 school year, one at Mater Dei High School in Evansville, and the second at Holy Family School in Jasper.
Christopher Tanner has been named principal at Mater Dei. He replaces Tad Dickel, principal at the high school since 2007 who is its newly announced executive director.
Sally Sternberg is the newly named principal at Holy Family School. She replaces Jeanne Heltzel, Holy Family’s principal for the last 10 years.
The Board of Trustees of Mater Dei High School made the announcement that Tanner is the new principal. “After an extensive search that included several well-qualified individuals, Christopher Tanner was chosen to continue to build on the strong tradition of excellence in Catholic education at Mater Dei,” said Dickel.
As principal, Tanner will serve as the chief academic officer and will have direct oversight over academics, extracurricular activities, athletics and spirituality. He will report directly to the executive director.
Donna Halverson, diocesan director of schools, said, “I am very pleased that Chris Tanner has been selected to serve as principal of Mater Dei. He will be a tremendous asset to the school, and I look forward to seeing the school continue to grow under his leadership.”
He holds a bachelor of arts degree in education from Franklin College and a master’s in educational administration from Oakland City University. He has taught social studies at Princeton High School for 13 years, and is a parishioner at St. Joseph Church in Princeton.
He said, “I look forward to working with the staff, students and parents at Mater Dei High School. The tradition at Mater Dei in both academics and extracurricular activities is second to none. I am excited to continue and improve upon these traditions with a strong faith-based approach.”
Dickel’s selection as the first executive director of Mater Dei High School is a result of the direction approved by Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger and announced in December of 2009 to change the governance model of Evansville’s two Catholic high schools.
Using the new model, Mater Dei and Memorial continue to collaborate and share common practices in many areas, while each is governed by its own board of trustees and led by its own executive director.
Memorial’s executive director is expected to be named this summer.
Sally L. Sternberg has been named principal at Holy Family School in Jasper, according to Halverson.
For the past nine years, she has been an educator in public schools in southwestern Indiana. She currently is the math department chairperson and a math teacher at Southridge High School in Huntingburg.
She also taught in the Evansville-Vanderburgh School Cor-poration as a math teacher at both Bosse and Harrison high schools.
She holds a master’s degree from Oakland City Uni-versity, and a bachelor’s de-gree from the University of Evansville.
In an application letter, she wrote, “My faith is important to me,” adding, “I firmly believe that my morals, values, beliefs and ethics were formed early on as the result of both a structured home life and my Catholic school upbringing.
“As a result, I value Catholic education and welcome the opportunity to practice my faith more fully and openly in the Catholic school setting.”