SALT LAKE CITY — After eight years as the principal at Saint John the Baptist Middle School in Draper, and before that at Saint Francis Xavier School in Kearns, Patrick Reeder has accepted a new challenge in his professional career: running Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School in Salt Lake City, which has students from kindergarten through eighth grade.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed my eight years as principal at SJBMS, and I will treasure the relationships that I have formed with faculty, staff, students and parents at the Skaggs Catholic Center,” which houses an elementary and a high school as well as the middle school, Reeder said. “Nonetheless, I am excited for the opportunities and challenges that I will face at Our Lady of Lourdes.”
Among the plans that Reeder has for Our Lady of Lourdes is expanding the classes that are offered in the middle school academy, which offers seventh- and eighth-grade students an enhanced curriculum taught by a combination of faculty from the elementary and Judge Memorial Catholic High School. The high school shares a parking lot with the elementary school.
“I would like to expand on the options that the academy offers, such as the elective choices and, for the lower school, I hope that we can increase enrollment,” Reeder said.
Our Lady of Lourdes School has many good options for parents to consider, he said.
“The Utah Fits All scholarship has been very beneficial toward many members of our parent community and we want to see those grades become more robust as we increase the enrollment,” he said.
Though the facility isn’t new, “the previous principal did a great job in keeping the school building in beautiful shape and has done a lot of updates,” Reeder said, though one of the areas that he would like to improve is the lunch program.
Since taking the position of principal at Our Lady of Lourdes, he has hired some faculty and worked with them. “I also want to help our new teachers to understand the culture of OLOL and the charism of our school,” Reeder said.
To be a part of the Our Lady of Lourdes community is an honor, he said. “As principal at Saint Francis Xavier and at SJBMS we would often compete with OLOL in sporting events, and numerous times I saw OLOL as such a wonderful community as well as diverse,” he said. “I am really happy to now be part of it.”
Reeder moved to Utah from Oregon in 2009 to take the job as principal at St. Francis Xavier. “I was raised in Catholic education, and I said yes to moving here because at that point in my life I needed some changes and it was a great opportunity,” he said.
Utah Catholic Schools are “so warm and so embracing; very community oriented,” he said.
Having the opportunity to be a principal at three Catholic schools in Utah has been wonderful, he said. Each has “their different flavor, different focus, but each one of them has been a gift to me, has helped me to grow as an administrator, as an educator and in the Catholic community.”
He is thankful for the support of the St. John the Baptist Middle School community for the past eight years, and will miss them all dearly, he said, but added that he is looking forward to guiding Our Lady of Lourdes School in the coming years.
“I am so pleased to be here,” he said. “I am looking forward to a long relationship with all the community and to help them to thrive and continue growing.”
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