Alisha Jordan has been named as the new principal of Mother Mary Lange Catholic School, the first new Catholic school in Baltimore City in nearly 60 years.
The current principal of St. Mary of the Mills School in Laurel, Jordan will begin her work in August to prepare the school for its opening in September 2021.
The appointment was announced July 6 by James Sellinger, archdiocesan chancellor of education, and Donna Hargens, superintendent of schools. In a video accompanying the announcement, Jordan said it is a privilege and an honor “to be appointed the first principal of a school named after one of the pioneers in education and to continue her legacy by educating the children of Baltimore.”
“I am deeply committed to the mission of Catholic education and to ensuring that Mother Mary Lange Catholic School will be a beacon of hope for every child who walks through its doors,” she said.
She plans to work over the next year to meet with parents and students of Holy Angels School and Ss. James and John School, which will join at the new campus on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and with members of the local community.
“I believe children who feel safe learn best, and I am here for the students and families of Mother Mary Lange School,” Jordan said.
The new principal has three master’s degrees in aspects of education from Notre Dame of Maryland University in Baltimore, and is expected to complete her doctorate in urban educational leadership from Morgan State University later this year.
Standing in a framed-out classroom on the second floor of the construction site for the new school a few days before the announcement of her appointment, Jordan told the Catholic Review she could envision the walls and tables and the smiling faces of the first-graders who will be in the classroom in fall 2021. The school is expected to serve nearly 500 students in pre-K3 through eighth grade.
Diversity in faculty and staff selection will be an important part of her recruitment efforts.
“It’s important that children get to see teachers who look like them and mirror them,” she said. For a school that is expected to have an enrollment that is predominantly African American, seeing an African American woman in leadership will have an impact.
Jordan said Mother Mary Lange’s whole purpose was to educate children of color in Baltimore. The foundress of St. Frances Academy in 1828 and the Oblate Sisters of Providence the following year, whose cause for sainthood is under consideration, was of African descent, born in the late 1700s in Santiago, Cuba.
“I’m a woman of color, so I feel like a mirror of Mother Mary Lange. It is important that when we open up her school, we have a leader who believes and loves and cares for children and wants to educate children. And that’s me,” Jordan said.
Mother Mary Lange School will be the students’ home away from home and a safe place to spend seven to eight hours a day, Jordan said.
“They need to feel comfortable when they are coming here,” she said. “The community needs to understand we are educating their future leaders, their future politicians, their future teachers, the future leaders of Baltimore City.”
She is excited about the facilities the school will offer students and the community, including a media center, a full gym and sports field, a maker space and a chapel. She said she is looking for innovative educators “ready to rock and roll and roll up their sleeves.”
Jordan had previously served as principal of John Paul Regional Catholic School in Woodlawn, which closed in 2017. She was also a teacher and assistant principal at St. Bernardine School, which closed in 2010. She has been a parishioner there since 2002; her husband has been a member of the parish all his life. She has served the parish as a youth minister and worked on women’s retreats.
In announcing the appointment, Archbishop William E. Lori said he looked forward to Jordan’s leadership at the school as a place of faith, learning and development, because she will embody the identity, mission and vision of the school.
He said while the school may have seemed like a distant vision when the decision was first made to pursue it, the cooperation from businesses and the community has made it real.
“This is a commitment we have to make to the city, to our young people, to our families,” he said.
“It’s a witness we have to provide as a church. But we must be not only a beacon of hope, but we must also be concretely assisting and working with children and families to make progress, to improve lives, to improve neighborhoods, to improve our city,” he said.
In announcing Jordan’s appointment, Hargens emphasized that the education the school offers must be Christ-centered. The new principal “gets the charism of Mother Mary Lange and knows that this school is going to have to live and breathe Mother Mary Lange’s charism.”
Hiring Jordan a year before the school will open will allow her time to get to know the families and build the culture. Jordan’s background in urban education will be beneficial there.
Every current teacher at Holy Angels and Ss. James and John is guaranteed an interview for a position at Mother Mary Lange if they want one, Hargens said.
Hargens and Sellinger said Jordan was the unanimous selection of the nine-member search committee, which included a cross-section of people with experience in education and representatives of the community.
Sellinger noted that construction on the school is moving along well; by September, the buildings will be fully enclosed and then fitting out the classrooms and interiors can begin. Building a new school is relatively easy, he said. “It’s just bricks and mortar. But the next major step in the creation of a new school is the identification of its leader,” he said.
The announcement of Jordan as the principal “will now bring life to the school. Mrs. Jordan will be responsible for bringing the atmosphere and character to the school” so that Mother Mary Lange Catholic School can educate children for the 21st century.
Sister Rita Michelle Proctor, major superior for the Oblate Sisters of Providence, said she never thought there would be another school named for Mother Lange.
In 2005, the consolidation of the parish schools at St. Dominic, Shrine of the Little Flower and St. Anthony of Padua, on the campus of the latter, opened as Mother Mary Lange Catholic School. It closed in 2010.
Sister Rita Michelle said the sisters are excited and want to be as supportive of the new school as they can. She and several of the sisters attended the groundbreaking in October. “From the time I picked up that shovel and threw that dirt, Mother Lange’s spirit was here, and it continues to be here.”
Since she doesn’t live far from the site, Sister Rita Michelle drives by often to see the progress. A former school principal herself, she believes families from all over the area will send their children to Mother Mary Lange.
“I pray and hope that it will strengthen them and their desire to get a quality education and to go forward and do good for all people,” she said.
Email Christopher Gunty at editor@catholicreview.org
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