‘BETTER THAN EVER’

BACK TO SCHOOL: Alexandra Morazan, newest principal at St. Mary’s in Waterford, sees bright future at school

Alexandra Morazan has a message for parents and students at St. Mary’s School in Waterford: I am here to stay!

Morazan, the newest principal at St. Mary’s, brings much-needed stability to the school: She and her husband live in Halfmoon, are parishioners at St. Mary’s Church, and her son is an altar server as well as a fourth grader at the school. As one of the last pre-K3-Grade 8 schools in the Diocese of Albany, Morazan is committed to re-energizing the school.

“My son is only entering fourth grade so he has another five years here and my husband and I are both deeply committed to community work,” said Morazan, who was principal at Blessed Sacrament School in Albany the previous two years. “We value this and value this education for our own child and have clearly bought into the system. I understand the sacrifice. That is a line I use with parents all the time: I know the sacrifice it is to pay tuition. I am paying it right along with you.”

The lifelong Catholic, who grew up in Burnt Hills, has degrees in history, teaching and educational leadership and played soccer in college. She began her career teaching at the Lawrence School in Brookline, Mass., before moving to Miami for a job at Mater Lakes Academy, a charter school. From there, she moved back home for a position at Green Tech High School. She has been a teacher, an athletic program administrator, coach and has experience with children with special educational needs. She took the job at Blessed Sacrament because she wanted to be more vocal in her faith, something that will continue at St. Mary’s. Unlike some new principals, Morazan has hit the ground running. Her last day at Blessed Sacrament was June 30, and she was working at St. Mary’s the very next day.

“In my first seven weeks here, we have done some major safety updates,” she said. “We have a brand-new photo system, brand-new camera system. We have a new library.”

She also wants to raise the visibility of the school in the wider community. The school was at the Waterford Police Department’s National Night Out on Aug. 5 as well as the Waterford Tugboat Roundup on Sept. 5-7.

“We are getting great feedback from the community about our increased outreach the last two months,” Morazan said. “We are going to strengthen those relationships that have always been the foundation here.”

She will also continue to strengthen the relationship with the parish.

“This school has a long-standing, very tightly connected relationship with the parish. … We plan on working with the parish itself and we have some different things that we are going to bring to our religion classes,” she said. “We will be part of the Vocations Fair in October that (the Catholic School Office) is putting forth and we are going to work to strengthen that with our kids in addition to an increase in community service. That is a tenant of who we are.”

The school will also offer Spanish to the middle schoolers this year, expand the offerings for the pre-K groups and strengthen the curriculum in literacy. It all makes for an exciting year at St. Mary’s.

“I have teachers that have backgrounds in literacy and master’s in education in teaching and I think that it is telling that I am willing to have my own child in this school and in this system as a whole,” Morazan said. “That in itself speaks to my trust in this school. We have a number of teachers whose own children are in this school and you don’t find that many places anymore.

“I think what we offer rivals any public school and this year we will be better than ever.”