Editorial
Front Page - Friday, April 9, 2010
Notre Dame opens its door to invite community in
Erica Tuggle
Perry Storey, Notre Dame High School principal since 1995, stands in front of the new building that houses art classes, a gymnasium and a state of the art weight room. Storey said the school wants to maintain an open door policy to the community for all walks of life to be a part of Notre Dame.
- Erica Tuggle
Perry Storey, principal of Notre Dame Catholic High School since 1995, says his job takes faith.
“I must have faith in students to do the right thing. If we have to make our students do certain things, then we have lost the game,” Storey says. “We want them to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do.”
Whether it is his faith in students, staff or his own decision-making, Storey says, Notre Dame is a school where no one has to choose between a quality education and forming a “foundation of faith.”
Established in 1886, Notre Dame is the oldest independent school in Chattanooga and the only Catholic school in the region. The school has alumni in every state and nine foreign counties. Even though Notre Dame has been nestled at the base of Missionary Ridge since 1965, many Chattanooga natives have never visited the campus.
“My desire is for more people to know about the positive asset they have with us and have had for 134 years,” Storey says. “I see this process of how we form around families and the community as a good thing, and we are hanging on to that prospect of being an open and inviting campus.”
He says although Notre Dame wants to have strong academic, athletic and fine arts programs, their faith formation and Catholic identity must be as strong as everything else. Every student at Notre Dame is required to take religion classes, perform community service, attend the mass services that are held every day and an all-school mass held once a week.
“We immerse ourselves in the Catholic tradition and live it,” Storey says. “I think the uniqueness of us is that 30 percent of our students are not Catholic, and it has been that way since day one.”
No one is trying to convert students, he said, but rather there is an encouragement of all within Notre Dame to live their faith, whether it is Catholic or not.
Storey has lived in Chattanooga since 1969, when his family moved here and he began to attend UTC. He earned his undergraduate and masters degree while working for the student affairs department and two other part-time jobs.
After graduation, he worked with the Northwest Georgia Planning Commission for six years and then at Cleveland State Community College for eight years before taking over the principal’s position at Notre Dame. Storey says the opportunity to work in his faith is one of the things that drew him to the position.
Although the students are always fun to be around, he says, as an independent school, Notre Dame has to operate just like a business in finding the students, families and essentially clients to support the school.
“We have to have quality education programs that meet those needs, so we have to be very competitive,” Storey says. “We have to be innovative in the way we do things, service oriented, and we have to be creative in how we go about doing our work here.”
This structure allows flexibility with curriculum that promotes tailoring the material to those with different needs, he says.
“Our goal is to blend this community of people that are coming together for faith or educational formation, and help them get to their next steps in life, regardless of where that is. We don’t strive to be elite, we strive to be quality,” Storey says.
As an example of the school’s dedication to diversity, Notre Dame was the first school to integrate in Chattanooga and did so voluntarily, not because they had to, but because it was “the right thing to do,” Storey says.
The most enjoyable part of the job is interaction with the families, he says, and how he is humbled as a witness to the sacrifices they make for their children to attend Notre Dame. The most difficult part of the job also involves the families, Storey says specifically when the school is not able to service the families who want to join the school.
“We financially help many families, but for every family we help, we have another family we can’t,” he says. “If I had a desire, it would be to have more than enough resources to say come into our school. I think what we have is so good that I would like everyone to experience it.”
He says he wants graduates to leave the school with the skills to take them where they want to go.
“The goal for students who graduate from Notre Dame is for them to have the opportunities they want in life educationally, and from a faith perspective, to have the foundation of ethics to help them become a good person in society,” Storey says.
He says some schools focus too hard on the educational part of the equation and forget to educate their students in other areas.
“Being a well educated individual is good, but if you don’t have a good heart, good ethics and a good moral compass, a lot of times it doesn’t take you anywhere in life,” he says.
In his free time, Storey says, he likes to be outdoors as much as possible, and whether it be running or biking, he likes to bring his iPod along. His top played artists are Van Morrison, Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton.
Even though Perry and his wife Cindy have worked together at Notre Dame for 15 years, he says he hardly ever sees her during the busy day. The couple has two children, both graduates of Notre Dame, who regularly attend alumni events.
Storey says he thinks they enjoy the events much more now as alumni instead of going as “the principal’s kids.”
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