April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
ST. MADELEINE SOPHIE SCHOOL
Student, teacher...and now principal
As a child, Mrs. Sloan attended the school from kindergarten until her graduation from eighth grade in 1985. She later sent her own children there and eventually became a third-grade teacher.
This year, she was named principal of her alma mater. She called it "a dream to be at this place where I've been my whole life. I'm so blessed to be here.
"I really am humbled that they did have this faith in me," she told The Evangelist. "I don't have to settle. I get to do exactly what I want to do."
Mrs. Sloan's perspectives as alumnus, parent, volunteer and teacher have informed her leadership style and perhaps even led to her seat at the helm of SMS. When her three daughters were students - she even taught her youngest - their presence helped her understand what happened in other classrooms.
"It was an added sense of responsibility to collaborate," she said. "All of that made me want to learn more. You understand where the parents are coming from.
"When I write a letter to a parent, I can see [any situation] from their point of view," she said. "It gives them a little reassurance that I do wear all these hats."
Mrs. Sloan grew up in Rotterdam and attended St. Joseph's Church in Schenectady. Her parents sent her and her three siblings to Catholic schools and "never told me it was a sacrifice," she said. "It was important to them, but they were humble about it."
Little has changed about the SMS campus since Mrs. Sloan was a student there. She remembers the absence of computers, an "enormous" playground with a grove, playing floor hockey in the gym with Styrofoam sticks and sitting in the hallway doing independent reading in first grade.
Her teacher back then was Ann Pawlik, now campus minister at Catholic Central High School in Troy. "I loved being here," Mrs. Sloan said. "Since I was little, I knew I wanted to be a teacher, and it had a lot to do with the teachers here. They were nurturing. They seemed happy and we in turn were happy."
She looks back fondly on the leadership opportunities she was given as an eighth-grader, like volunteering at harvest festivals, helping with kindergarten classes and selling ice cream.
"It felt like a second family," she said. "I remember the people. A lot of them are still parishioners here."
Mrs. Sloan attended high school at Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons in Schenectady. She earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from The College of Saint Rose in Albany in 1993, then a master's degree in curriculum development and instructional technology from The University at Albany and a certificate in school building leadership from CSR. She's finishing a certificate in school district leadership.
She student-taught at a public school and considered working at one, but ultimately decided it wasn't for her: "I don't know how I could have been myself if I wasn't at a Catholic school," she said. "Everything just ties back to God and my faith."
Mrs. Sloan started her teaching career at the former St. Paul the Apostle School in Schenectady and St. Pius X School in Loudonville before marrying and having children. As a stay-at-home mother, she substitute-taught at SMS and was an active volunteer.
She never thought she'd teach at SMS, saying it was "surreal" at first. Even today, one teacher from Mrs. Sloan's childhood is still there, which is "kind of weird," she said with a laugh.
When she finished her advanced certificate in 2011, she started applying for principal positions. Teresa Kovarovic, who retired after 20 years as SMS' principal last year, allowed Mrs. Sloan to shadow her for a year-long internship.
Mrs. Sloan was offered the position of principal over the summer. She has prioritized technology, early intervention for special-needs students, differentiated instruction and incorporating the preschool program into the rest of the school.
SMS' enrollment stands at 178; this is the first year the school has two four-year-old pre-kindergarten classrooms.
The middle school program was cut about a decade ago. That "was awful," Mrs. Sloan recalled. "People still talk about it. It would be awesome for the kids [to reinstitute the middle-school grades], but financially and realistically, it's hard to do something like that and not know if you could sustain it."
Mrs. Sloan wants to maintain the traditions of St. Madeleine Sophie School, especially when it comes to religion. "My faith is easily accessible here," she said.[[In-content Ad]]
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