BRONX W www.BXTimes.com EEKLY June 9, 2019 12
Local all-boys high school gets fi rst female principal
BY PATRICK ROCCHIO
All Hallows High
School, just west of the
Grand Concourse on East
164th Street, is getting a
new principal this fall.
Susan Natale succeeds
its long-time principal,
Sean Sullivan, who will
stay on as Principal Emeritus
during the transition
and continue his fi ve-decade
association with the
school.
All Hallows, an all-boys
high school with a 110-year
tradition, has never had a
female principal before,
but Natale, currently the
Iona Preparatory School’s
dean of academics, said
that she believes her experience
as an educator
is more relevant than her
gender and said that the
values of the school will
remain constant during
the transition.
“I know it is a big deal
to have the fi rst woman
principal, but I have the
knowledge and the experience
BY ALEX MITCHELL
The rooftop soundstage
and garden at The Theater
Arts Production Company
School (TAPCo) is offi cially
to lead the school,”
said Natale, who is a
Mathematics teacher. “I
am looking forward to
taking all of the 23 years
of knowledge and experience
and bringing it to All
Hallows.”
Natale said that she
initially became a Math
teacher because she loved
the subject and wanted to
share it with youth, including
those who may
have fallen behind on fundamentals.
Natale, a school administrator
since 2006, got her
start teaching at the Ursuline
School in New Rochelle,
where she taught
for 10 years before moving
onto Iona Prep.
She said that she wants
to boost technology at All
Hallows by expanding the
number of classes that use
Chromebook computers,
as well as making All Hallows
an AdvanceED STEM
certifi ed school, part of
a national accreditation
open for business!
Councilman Ritchie Torres
joined principal Ron
Link in cutting the ceremonial
ribbon on the roof at
program in science, technology,
engineering and
mathematics disciplines.
“We are educating students
of today for jobs that
don’t even exist yet,” said
Natale. “Technology is
changing so fast you cannot
say that by the time
someone who is a freshman
now graduates from
college, the changes they
will see are going to be exponential,”
she said.
Another part of a her
fi ve-year plan is having
every educator in the
school become a Google
Certifi ed Level 1 educator,
since technology is
an increasingly important
part of schools and
our world.
“From a cultural
standpoint I would love
to see more parental involvement,”
said Natale.
“Currently the school
does not have much of a
parents club and I would
like to see that change.”
She said she will continue
2225 Webster Avenue during
its inaugural concert on Friday
morning, May 31.
It was there that students
debuted their outdoor
careers at TAPCo, commissioning
the soundstage with
outstanding performances
of ‘Run Freedom Run,’
‘Lean on Me,’ and ‘When the
Saints Go Marching In’ as
well as many more exciting
hits. More than just being
used for performances, the
rooftop also encompasses
rows of gardening plots for
the school’s gardening club
and could even end up growing
organic vegetables for
the TAPCo cafeteria.
The room connected to
the roof will also be converted
into a television studio
for students to produce
content and record the outdoor
performances with robotic
cameras that are soon
to be installed.
Link also explained that
the rooftop would be open
for community use in the
upcoming months.
Due to safety regulations,
part of the rooftop couldn’t
be utilized as a soundstage
but Link and TAPCo still
plan to spruce up the unused
section, likely with the
assistance of the school’s
gardening club. Torres said
that securing the funding
for TAPCo to build a rooftop
soundstage would be one
of his proudest legacies to
leave when his fi nal term in
the city council concludes.
The project’s origin dates
back to 2015, when Torres
announced the allocation of
$750,000 for the garden and
soundstage.
That number grew to $2.5
million with additional support
coming from the 92nd
Street Y, as well as AT&T.
Since that time, TAPCo
students had created and
submitted designs of the
rooftop to Torres’ offi ce with
help from the 92nd Street Y.
“I was so taken by the
vision and the passion of
the students that I couldn’t
help but say ‘yes’,” said Torres.
The councilman also
mentioned how he strictly
instructs his staff to never
guarantee a fi nancial allocation
during a proposal, but
this was simply too compelling
to turn down.
Torres also commended
Assemblyman Victor Pichardo
for helping steer the
soundstage project in the
right direction.
“We have to think of the
arts not as an afterthought
but as an essential element
of public education,” said
Torres. He also mentioned
how TAPCo, and schools like
it, also deserve equal amenities
to the most privileged
schools throughout the city.
TAPCo rooftop garden, sound
stage opens with student concert
The TAPCo Jazz Band performs during the rooftop opening.
Schneps Media/ Alex Mitchell
TAPCo’s rooftop. Schneps Media/ Alex Mitchell
to produce graduates
in the Christian
Brothers tradition who
are critical thinkers and
ethical leaders.
Her door will always
be open, said Natale, and
she is looking forward to
working with Sullivan.
“I look forward to continuing
to serve the students
of All Hallows, as
I have throughout my
entire career,” said Sullivan,
principal at All
Hallows for the past 23
years.
The appointments
were made by Ronald
Schutté, All Hallows’
president, who said that
Sullivan will also be
teaching Calculus.
“I’m delighted that All
Hallows will still have
the benefi t of Sean’s wisdom
and experience, and
that Susan will have access
to his encyclopedic
knowledge of the school’s
history and traditions,”
said Schutté.
Susan Natale, currently an academic dean at Iona Prep, will become
the new principal of All Hallows High School in the fall.
Photo courtesy of Susan Natale
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