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You can hear the enthusiasm in Lynn Fitzgerald’s voice when she talks about Catholic school education.

And you can see it when the St. Mary’s School principal gives a tour of her school in Ballston Spa: how she points out the neat rows of colorful kindergarten backpacks attached to hooks on the first floor, or watches the fourth graders playing field hockey with bright blue sticks and yellow balls in the gym across the hall.

Fitzgerald greets most students, from pre-K to fifth grade, by name as she says hello to music teacher and enrollment director Meghan Barrow, who is instructing the fifth graders, on this cool January day. A quick drop into the library finds Gary Walsh, librarian, preparing for the day, and in an open space on the second floor, Rebecca Cronin, youth minister, is setting up for religion class. There is a tangible warmth that the school gives off and much of that has to do with Fitzgerald.

After all, this is a second home to Fitzgerald, who has worked at “A Small School with a Big Heart” since 2001 teaching about every grade before becoming principal in 2014. 

“It is a true community here. It is a community where people really care about one another,” said Fitzgerald, who took over as principal from her mentor, Sister Ranah Phelan, CSJ. “The teachers take the time to know all the students, whether they have them in class or they just pass them in the hallway. It is a small school — that is our motto, ‘A Small School with a Big Heart’ — but I really think that we live up to that. Just the kindness that you see every day, just the little acts that make a difference. We have a fantastic faculty. Everybody works together to support one another in any way that they can.”

Fitzgerald, who is one of six children and was raised in a strong Catholic household, has the Catholic mission baked into her DNA it seems. She attended St. Agnes in Cohoes before going to Catholic Central High School in Troy, where all her siblings and parents attended. So it should be no surprise that Fitzgerald, who is a parishioner at St. Mary’s along with her husband, Steve, has been named the winner of The Bishop of Albany Distinguished Administrator Award, which recognizes an administrator who promotes Catholic education, seeking to foster a Christian community of love in which God’s truth and life are integrated into the entire curriculum and life of a school community. The administrator has demonstrated skilled leadership in inviting the church community, teachers and parents to share in this mission.

“Giovanni (Virgiglio, superintendent of diocesan schools) called me and it was the end of the day, going on 5 o’clock. And I said, ‘Oh, no, Giovanni is calling me.’ Of all the things he could be calling me about this was not on my radar,” Fitzgerald said of winning the award. “I am grateful to be nominated that way and to be recognized but I feel it is not about me. It is about the people that I spend my days with. It is an honor and a blessing to be with the children and that the families trust us to spend our days with the kiddos and the faculty that I keep bragging about because I couldn’t do my job without everybody here.”

It is not just the Diocese of Albany recognizing the job that Fitzgerald has done with the students, the guidance counselors and teachers from Saratoga Central Catholic to public schools such as Ballston Spa, Saratoga, Shenendehowa and Burnt Hills have told her they “can look and pick out the St. Mary’s students because they want to learn. They have had that instilled in them, the morals and the values. That is what the families are looking for, the traditional values that we are providing to the students.”
Passing on the Catholic faith is a major component of Fitzgerald’s job. It starts with the youngest kids at St. Mary’s who learn about the doctrines of the Church, the saints, the Mass and the sacraments.

“The kids are witnessing the way Jesus wants us to treat one another. They are living that and I hope I am being a good role model that way,” Fitzgerald said. “One of my goals is to help the kids live their faith every single day. … It is woven into our day, we begin and end the day with prayer. We pray before snack, we pray before lunchtime. When the kids hear the fire engines going by or the ambulances, they stop and say a quick prayer for the first-responders and those they are going to help. And the parents come to me and they say, ‘They do that in the car, they do that when we are at home.’ What we are teaching them here is spilling over into their lives.”

And having St. Mary’s Church and Father Francis Vivacqua, pastor, on the other side of the parking lot doesn’t hurt.

“It is vital because the reality is families aren’t practicing as much as we have in the past or as we would have hoped them to but the students get to experience Mass through the school,” she said. “And the kids take turns. Every class has opportunities to lead the Mass, so they are preparing the readings, they are preparing the petitions that we pray for others. They are involved in that, it’s not just here, read this. It has meaning to them.

“We will go over there for prayer services, tours of the church. Father will take the time and bring the kids into the sacristy and tell them what everything is and what his vestments mean. Having a pastor that involved is really important.”
With all of these elements in place, you could understand if the students feel like this is their second home as well. Fitzgerald said sometimes that students slip and call the teachers “Mom” instead of “Ms.” or Mrs.

“If a child is coming and feeling that … I think that speaks volumes of how they feel coming to the class. Parents choose St. Mary’s because they know they are going to be safe, they know they are going to be nurtured and cared for. It is that little extra that happens. I have parents that thank me all the time, just for staying a little extra time with the kid whose bus is late. Or just making sure that they have someone to play with at recess. 
“Families are so supportive of what we do. Our mission for Catholic education is, I feel, one of the most important things that we can be doing for our community and society in general because we are just building children to be responsible adults, responsible citizens. Just the foundation that they are getting here and the disposition toward learning that they are building is so important because that is going to stay with them.”

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