Kay McMahon leaves Kearns-St. Ann School

Courtesy photo/Tom McMahon

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Kay McMahon

SALT LAKE CITY — This year was the last as an educator for Kathleen (Kay) McMahon, who served 27 years at Kearns-Saint Ann Catholic School, the last 16 as principal.

"It’s been my home away from home for all those years," McMahon said, adding that she will remember most the people she met and worked with through the years. "I have students – not just that I taught but that I was principal for – that come back to see me regularly."

McMahon’s career included teaching stints at Kearns-St. Ann as well as at Millcreek Junior High School in Bountiful and J.E. Cosgriff Memorial School in Salt Lake City. She grew up in the area and attended parochial schools. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and literature, then a master’s degree in educational administration.

She was inspired to become an educator by Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word Sister Kathleen Daly, "who had been my favorite teacher at Kearns-St. Ann," and later offered her a teaching position at the school, McMahon said.

She has won many awards, including being named a National Catholic Association Outstanding Teacher of the Western U.S., an Outstanding Educator from the Diocese of Salt Lake City, and she was twice the Rotary Club Teacher of the Year for South Salt Lake.

Kearns-St. Ann School began as an orphanage founded by the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross; later, the was run by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word until it shifted to lay leadership in the mid-1990s.

The sisters emphasized a peaceful environment and "had such a sense of joy," McMahon said. "They were just happy people – which didn’t mean they couldn’t give you the teacher’s stare ... but they were highly compassionate. They were very involved with the preferential option for the poor before that ever became the preferential option for the poor.... I always felt that the reason I was there as principal was to carry on those charisms. That’s what I felt why God had me there."

When she took the helm, the school was undergoing a renovation; during that process she had been a facilitator in the meetings with faculty, parishioners and the wider community over the issue of whether to renovate or construct a new building.

"Everybody wanted to renovate, thank God," she said. "It’s such a beautiful building. You’re never going to find another place like it."

The school has retained items from the orphanage days, such as a story-high painting of Bishop Lawrence Scalan by the grand staircase.

"We just have a lot of memorabilia that fits in there; it wouldn’t fit in a brand-new building," said McMahon. "I believe there’s so much love in that building. Both orders of sisters did everything they did out of love and I think the lay people that followed them do what they do out of love. I have a lot of people that come to the school for the first time and they say they can feel something really special there. Some say it’s a peaceful feeling, some say it’s nurturing, some say it’s loving."

During her years, the school has seen many changes. It was the first in the diocese to receive a grant to incorporate smartboards in the classroom. McMahon also welcomed many students who were refugees from other countries, believing that they were a "wonderful thing for our school and our community.... They made us see the beauty of all cultures."

In addition, she began a quarterly program of tracking students’ academic performance, and started an after-school program for Title I 8th-graders. "Now they have so much more confidence," she said.

Holy Cross Sister Catherine Kamphaus, superintendent of Utah Catholic Schools, said McMahon has been "a real hands-on principal. She was quiet but firm. I think if you ask any of the principals they would say she was one of the most gentle, spiritual people they knew.... The thing that stands out is the community that she built at her school. That’s the first thing that I think about when I think of Kay."

In retirement, McMahon plans to visit family, spend more time reading and trying different crafts, she said, but "I’m going to miss the students and faculty and staff."