June 7, 2008
Educator ends 48-year run in Catholic schools
By Denise MacLachlan
Herald staff
After 48 years as a Catholic educator, Stephanie Jones is retiring. She is shown with graduating eighth graders from Holy Family School in Citrus Heights, from left: Jessica Nguyen, Gustavo Youngs, James French and Tasia Dedenbach. Cathy Joyce/Herald photo
At Holy Family School in Citrus Heights, the assistant principal sometimes goes missing.
Stephanie Jones, who is also an English teacher and historian, occasionally gives guest lessons in the classrooms on various historical events: Neil Armstrong’s 1969 walk on the moon, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, VJ Day in World War II.
Jones teaches the importance of original sources, illustrating her lessons with newspapers, magazines, political buttons, posters and other memorabilia that she’s collected over the years.
“She can hold 39 sixth graders mesmerized,” says former Holy Family teacher Lisa Weaver. “She connects to the kids. She’s a great storyteller.”
Jones loves to teach, says Loretto Sister Arlene Connelly, principal of Holy Family. The teachers love to watch her, so the school is accustomed to hearing the occasional overhead page: “If anyone knows where Mrs. Jones is, please call the office.”
Jones graduated from UC Berkeley in May 1960. She married her fiancé that June, turned 21 in August and, on the Monday after Labor Day, began her first teaching job at St Mary’s High School in Stockton. She taught six periods of English and one period of history every day.
She hasn’t slowed down yet.
After teaching for six years at St. Mary’s, Jones and her husband moved to Sacramento, where she taught for 20 years at St. Charles Borromeo School. She then served as principal of St. John Vianney School in Rancho Cordova for six years and of All Hallows School in Sacramento for nine years.
For the past six years, Jones has been at Holy Family, where she shares the work with Sister Connelly.
When Jones retires this month, she will have taught full time in Catholic schools for 48 years, both as a classroom teacher and as a principal. She sees her role as principal as “teaching the teachers.”
“Stephanie has a wonderful way of bringing out the best teaching you can do.”
Dawn Altobell, fourth grade teacher at Holy Family School
“My greatest joy as an administrator is working with my baby teachers,” declared Jones in a recent interview.
She meets with new teachers every day during the first two weeks of school, then keeps a standing appointment with them each week for the rest of the year. But even experienced teachers find Jones’ mentorship unparalleled.
“She tells her staff, ‘I’m here for you,’ and it’s true,” Weaver said. “Her door is always open. She could have phone calls to make, paperwork to finish, but if you walk into her office, her priority is you. Her generosity is incomparable.”
“She’s the queen of door prizes,” said Dawn Altobell, fourth grade teacher at Holy Family School who also worked as teacher under Jones at All Hallows School. “She gives door prizes at her staff meetings — teaching goodies, holiday decorations, something helpful.”
“I’ve never heard her speak negatively,” Weaver noted. “She always has constructive criticism for a teacher. She’ll give alternatives. She’ll say, ‘Maybe you could try this.’ She helps you find your strengths.”
“Stephanie has a wonderful way of bringing out the best teaching you can do,” agreed Altobell.
She related Jones’ practice of naming a “Teacher of the Month” at All Hallows School. “She’d let you pick your month and she’d write a nice bio of you for the school newsletter, and then she’d give you a day off that month and go teach your class for you. She’d walk in your shoes all that day. She knew exactly what all of us were going through in our classrooms.”
A member of St. Anthony Parish in Sacramento, Jones, 68, said she chose Catholic education for her profession as a result of her student years at Presentation High School in San Francisco.
“When I graduated I made a list of all of the things that I liked about myself, and all of the qualities that I liked came from my experiences at a Catholic high school,” she recalled.
Jones wanted to give others an education infused with Catholic values and ethics, she explained, and to bring them a love of liturgy and tradition. “I couldn’t do that in a public school,” she laughed.
In September 2006, the first class of freshmen that Jones taught met for their collective 60th birthday party. They invited Jones, who attended the event in Stockton.
“I was only seven years older than they,” Jones said, “but the gap between 14 and 21 is a lot bigger than between 60 and 67. They had thought of me as so old. To them, I was a teacher and I was married, for heaven’s sake.”
She remembered all of her first class of students. “Their voices were immediately familiar,” she said. “It was wonderful to see the rest of the story — to see how they had turned out.”
When asked her philosophy of teaching, Jones offered the advice that she gives teachers and parents alike: “Love every one of the children, and love every minute with them.”
Her official retirement looks more like a retirement from school administration than from teaching itself. Jones is already scheduled to teach at the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento as a docent, teach a Friday afternoon elective at Holy Family School, and volunteer at the research desk at the California State Library.
She and her husband Dave have also made extensive traveling plans. They’ll be adding to Jones’ collection of teaching materials from previous overseas excursions to England and Greece.
When she brings the materials into Holy Family classrooms for guest teaching, the school may be hearing a new overhead request: “Mrs. Jones is teaching this afternoon. Please join us.”
