Vice Principal Readies for New Leading Role

Stevie Connelly took a quick glance into the empty principal’s office at Notre Dame High School, smiled to herself and then walked down the hall to her much smaller vice principal’s cubicle.

To the casual observer, Connelly merely seemed to be looking for Principal David Doyle.

But she was actually surveying what will become her office in September when she takes over as the first woman principal in the 50-year history of the Roman Catholic college preparatory school.

Connelly will take the helm in the fall from Doyle, who is leaving to pursue a doctorate.

“I am thrilled to have been chosen principal of Notre Dame High School,” Connelly said. “I have been overwhelmed by the support I have received from the entire school. That support is what is going to make this job so enjoyable, because one person can’t do it alone.”

And how does she feel being the first woman to lead an institution founded by the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1947 that only went coeducational in 1983?

“I don’t see the principal’s position as a man’s job or as a woman’s job,” said Connelly, who is married and has two children. “The principal is a person who is dedicated to the students and to the school.”

To find a new principal, the school launched a nationwide search that was narrowed to two finalists, Connelly, woman’s dean and vice principal in charge of attendance and discipline, said. After a grueling, 12-hour day of back-to-back interviews with the board of directors, administrators, faculty, staff, students and parents, she was awarded the top job.

“It has to be the right fit between a school and a principal,” said Connelly, who has been an educator for more than 16 years, most of them spent at Louisville High School in Woodland Hills. “There were lots of qualified people out there, but I thought that I was the right fit and I hoped the [school] community felt the same way.”

As principal, Connelly, who holds a master’s degree in education from Cal State Northridge and another in private school administration from the University of San Francisco, expects to oversee the school’s 50th anniversary celebration as well as growth in the school’s physical plant, academic programs, athletics and extracurricular activities.