Susan Scott Awarded Distinguished Principal of the Year

Principal of St. John the Evangelist School in Clinton, Maryland

January 09, 2009

Susan Scott, principal of St. John the Evangelist School in Clinton, Maryland, has been named the Archdiocese of Washington’s Distinguished Principal of the Year for her strong leadership and unwavering commitment to improving classroom instruction.

The annual award is presented to a principal who demonstrates accomplishment in six categories: balancing management and leadership roles, setting high expectations and standards, stressing content and instruction that ensures student achievement, creating a culture of professional development for teachers, using multiple tools to apply and assess instructional improvements and actively engaging the school community.

Scott finds creative ways to engage her faculty and students and has cultivated a vibrant teaching and learning environment. She has developed a comprehensive teacher evaluation program where, together, she and the faculty continuously evaluate one another’s teaching methods, sharing in the classrooms’ progress and collaborating on teaching challenges.

Scott also has developed an innovative student evaluation technique. All students participate in their own evaluation at parent-teacher conferences. The students bring their portfolio of work and participate fully in the conferences, explaining their academic progress and being a part of the planning for improvement.

Scott has served as principal at the school since 2002 when she became the school’s first lay principal.

Earlier this school year, St. John School received the first Cardinal Theodore McCarrick Award for Service and Justice for a year-long educational program, Protecting God’s Planet.

The project was not just about “going green.” It instilled in students the importance of caring for the planet that God created. Each grade sponsored an aspect of the planet to raise awareness and learn how to protect the planet. Themes included the arctic, rainforests, coral reef, animals, the Chesapeake Bay, recycling and more. Each class transformed its room into its chosen eco-system. Students made art projects, read books, conducted research, wrote poetry and drew maps. They also raised money for reef conservation, the National Zoo’s migratory bird program, polar bears and the Chesapeake Bay.

The Archdiocese of Washington serves nearly 30,000 students in 98 schools in the District of Columbia and Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George’s and St. Mary’s counties in Maryland.

Contact:
Kathy Dempsey
Office of Communications
301-853-4519
dempseyk@adw.org

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