“Susan Gibbons has devoted her entire career to Catholic education in our Archdiocese,” said Archbishop Dennis Schnurr. “She will be a steady hand as superintendent, just as she was as interim superintendent.”
Local Catholic schools saw enrollment declines in recent years, and Gibbons said her simple, big-picture goal is to provide viable schools that provide “an excellent Catholic education.”
“Most of our schools are pretty stable in terms of enrollment,” she said. “With population decline and demographic shifts, that always causes nervousness in the schools. But the bottom line is, if you have a good product, people are going to come.”
On Monday, Gibbons recalled walking just a block or two up Dorothy Lane as a child to attend St. Albert the Great School in Kettering. She graduated from Alter High School, and after college at Mount St. Joseph’s, came back to Alter in the late 70s, teaching math and French for two years.
From there she moved to Seton High School in Cincinnati in 1980, serving as a math teacher, administrator, and then principal from 1997-2010. With the archdiocese, she has been regional director for elementary and secondary schools.
Archdiocesan officials said there are 111 Catholic schools in their 19-county territory, including 19 schools in Montgomery County. The 7,416 students in Montgomery County Catholic schools are roughly the same number as in the Kettering or Beavercreek public districts. In addition to staff in Cincinnati, there is a Catholic schools office in Dayton, headed by Deputy Superintendent Laura Meibers.
“I’m a really collaborative type of person,” Gibbons said. “This is a big job, and I know we have a lot of challenges, but we also have a lot of good things in the works. My hope is that we’ll all continue to work together and pray into a really bright future for our families and the children of the diocese.”
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