Sister Karla McKinnie heads Special Needs Program

Intermountain Catholic

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SALT LAKE CITY — Holy Cross Sister Karla Mc-Kinnie became the director of the Special Needs Program Aug. 1. Daughter of Charity Sister Stella Marie Zahner, who held the position for 17 years, is now the associate director.

Sr. Karla comes to the Special Needs program from Saint Andrew School, where she was principal for four years. In 2006, she began preparing to open the school with Holy Cross sisters Catherine Kamphaus and Genevra Rolf, Utah Catholic Schools superintendent and associate superintendent, respectively.

As director of the Special Needs program, Sr. Karla will work with low-income families in need of tuition assistance. The students are referred to the program by principals or pastors; families are interviewed for financial information and allotted funds based on their needs, she said.

"Each family pays a portion of the tuition, which allows them some of the responsibility," Sr. Karla said. "Students also occasionally need funding for school uniforms and books, and receive only a portion of the cost."

Schools participating in the Special Needs Program are Kearns-Saint Ann, Our Lady of Lourdes, Judge Memorial Catholic High School, The Madeleine Choir School, Saint Andrew, Saint Francis Xavier, Saint John the Baptist Elementary and Middle schools, Saint Joseph Elementary and High schools and Saint Olaf. Other schools have received assistance in the past, but now have other means of funding.

Throughout the year Sr. Karla and Sr. Stella Marie will visit the schools to meet with students and principals to conduct student assessments.

"There are 390 students participating in the program and the number continues to increase every year," Sr. Karla said, adding that the costs have to be evaluated and determined for distribution. "The funds available this year were less because of the lower economy."

As part of the program, Sr. Karla and Sr. Stella visit each school to assess the students on their academic achievements.

"If the students are having difficulties, they are given suggestions on how to improve," said Sr. Karla. "We review report cards each quarter and if we see failing grades, we meet with the students and the principals and/or the families to get students back on track. The students are asked to sign a contract and if they don’t improve they can be denied funds the following year. The students must apply for funds each year because their financial circumstances could change."

Sr. Karla’s experience as a teacher and principal have been invaluable to her in her new position, she said. She has been in the education field for 46 years, with 12 of those years in teaching and 34 years as a principal.

"I was strongly committed to becoming a teacher before I knew I wanted to become a sister," said Sr. Karla. "For the first six years of my education, my parents were teachers in a three-room school on an Indian reservation in Montana. My mother was my first- and second-grade teacher and my father was my sixth- and seventh-grade teacher, and he was the principal of the school. We moved to the Bay Area in California and I attended a Catholic high school, and was introduced to the Holy Cross sisters. I left home in 1961 right out of high school to enter the order."

Sr. Karla served as principal of Our Lady of Lourdes School in Salt Lake City from 1984 to 1988, then spent 10 years as principal of a Catholic school in Los Angeles. When she returned to Utah in 1998, she was hired as part of a team with Dr. Galey Colosimo and John Colosimo, principal and vice principal, respectively, of Juan Diego Catholic High School, and retired Holy Cross Sister Patricia Riley to help open the Skaggs Catholic Center. Sr. Karla became the principal of Saint John the Baptist Elementary School when it opened in 1999 and was there for eight years.

"I feel that education is the main avenue though which people can break out of poverty to do whatever they want with their lives," said Sr. Karla. "If they are really committed to learning, all avenues of life open up to them."