First lay person to take helm at Stone Ridge

Currently, Karrels serves as the president and CEO of DeMarillac Academy in San Francisco. The academy, which Karrels also helped found in 2001, is a tuition-free Catholic school for low-income, at-risk students. Karrels believes her experience at Catholic schools will help at Stone Ridge.

‘‘I was educated at a Catholic school for 16 years and I’ve worked in them for 17 years,” Karrels said. ‘‘I think my experience as a student, teacher and administrator has prepared me well to be the spiritual leader the school wants me to be.”

The declining number of nuns in the United States made it necessary for Stone Ridge to look outside of religious orders for its new leadership.

‘‘Picking a lay person wasn’t difficult,” said Patricia Aiken-O’Neill, chairwoman of the Board of Trustees. ‘‘It was a very sober reality when we first started the search. There just aren’t as many religious people available to be Head as there used to be.”

Stone Ridge credits Educator’s Collaborative, an educational search and consulting firm, for contacting Karrels about the position. About 15 full applications were sent to the school, said Search Committee Chairwoman Jane Trevisan, with five applicants brought to campus to meet with the community.

While the consulting firm reached out to many different kinds of people, the school did have some criteria for its new Head.

‘‘We needed to find a Catholic, and preferably a woman,” Trevisan said.

One characteristic that may have been an issue in the past, according to Trevisan, was the religious nature of the candidates. Since Stone Ridge opened in 1923, the school has always been run by, in Trevisan’s words, ‘‘a religious person,” meaning, for Stone Ridge, a nun.

But Sister Ann Conroy, a nun in the Religious Order of the Sacred Heart, who served as vice chairwoman of the search committee, said that candidates’ values mattered more than their religious credentials.

‘‘We had to have the best for Stone Ridge, and they didn’t have to have ‘RSCJ’ (Religieuses du Sacré C¦ur de Jésus) after their names,” Conroy said. ‘‘As long as they followed our philosophy and values that’s all that mattered.”

The appointment of lay people as heads of school has increased in recent decades, said Archdiocese of Washington Director of Communications Susan Gibbs. While Stone Ridge is not an archdiocesan school, it follows the pattern of many Catholic schools.

Gibbs said that two shifts in the church have led to less religious heads of schools than earlier in the 20th century.

‘‘Since 1970 there has been a decline of women entering the convent, which reduces the amount of nuns available to lead schools,” Gibbs said. ‘‘Vatican II in the mid-1960s also contributed to the decline of religious heads, as it promoted the increased role of lay people in the Catholic Church.”

Of the archdiocese’s 82 schools, 75 are led by lay people.

Stone Ridge, which has more than 700 students in grades K-12, is a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic organization founded nearly 200 years ago by Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat. The society has 21 schools in the United States, and all schools adhere to the goals outlined by the society.

The search committee lauded Karrels’ ‘‘vision and mission,” stating that her drive as an individual is what made her most attractive. The committee also knew that bringing a Stone Ridge alumna – Karrels spent 12 years at the school — back to campus would serve as a great model for the students currently on campus.

‘‘She lived the Sacred Heart mission personally,” Trevisan said. ‘‘We knew that she would be a terrific role model for our girls.”

In terms of Karrels’ educational philosophy, she believes that reaching students on a personal level is integral to a healthy relationship. She strives to discover each student’s gifts, and then teaches them to use their gifts to make a change for the better. Stone Ridge’s community has a similar philosophy, which made a return appealing to her.

‘‘I treasure the family-like atmosphere at Stone Ridge,” Karrels said. ‘‘Everyone is known personally, which is part of my own philosophy as well.”

In addition to reexamining education in general, Karrels hopes to gel her educational views with those of the Stone Ridge community, to create what she calls a ‘‘common vision.” She plans to host multiple strategic planning meetings when she arrives in 2008, bringing all the various stakeholders of the community together.

‘‘I intend on taking inventory of the community, including the strengths and areas of challenge,” Karrels said. ‘‘I want to take the goals of Stone Ridge and propel the school.”

Stone Ridge is currently headed by interim Head Dr. Richard Barbieri, who has been at the school since July 2006. Prior to Barbieri, Stone Ridge was run by Sister Anne Dyer who was headmistress since 1984.