St. Angela Catholic School will have a new leadership team this fall.
Whitney McIntosh will become St. Angela’s new principal, while Christine Molina-Rebecca will serve as executive director at the Austin neighborhood school at 1332 N. Massasoit Ave. They will also oversee St. Sylvester in Palmer Square and St. Agnes of Bohemia in Little Village.
McIntosh most recently served as the founding principal and CEO of Young Women’s Leadership Academy in Las Vegas. She has Chicago ties, having been a Ryan Fellow through the Accelerate Institute, which partners with Northwestern to help develop transformational school leaders.
A Florida native, McIntosh is stoked about returning to the area, where she coached the leadership team at Great Lakes Academy as campus director during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her educational philosophy is nuanced, focusing on “making an investment in the classroom teacher and really developing them and giving them what they need to lead the scholars in the classroom,” she said. “One of my strengths is instructional leadership … how the teacher is instructing, looking at data with them, and then developing strategies.”
According to a press release from Big Shoulders Fund, a nonprofit wholly separate from the Archdiocese of Chicago that operates Big Shoulders Plus, the branch that financially assists 38 Catholic schools in the area that might have closed, McIntosh will serve as the day-to-day leader of K-8 St. Angela, manage building operations and work with Molina-Rebecca to meet the school’s goals.
“We have implemented this model in other Big Shoulders Fund schools, and schools have experienced success with this plan,” the release said.
McIntosh said her personal goals for St. Angela for the 2025-26 school year are several.
“I think with it being Year One, I think it’s learning about the campus and doing a campus assessment,” she said, “so doing a listening tour where I speak with families and current staff, and all stakeholders.
“What’s different about this campus (is) its succession work. It’s learning about the people, what they love about the campus and highlighting whatever is coming.”
Molina-Rebecca said she is one of two executive directors in the archdiocese and her main role is one of coaching. Each day, she will be at one of her three schools, so she is immersed in those schools’ community and needs.
“The wonderful thing about this position is it could be two to three years, so there is a gradual release of responsibility,” she said. “My main goal the first year is to make sure the principal learns the community and helps the school grow.
“I am most successful when they don’t need me anymore.”
Her goals include growing enrollment by at least 25% in the next two to three years. At its peak in the early 2000s, she said, St. Angela had 400 students; enrollment is just under 200 now. Ninety percent of students, the vast majority of which are from the Austin area, receive financial aid.
“Getting to 250 in two to three years would be ideal,” Molina-Rebecca said. “We really do want to bring back family engagement. We want to see an increase in the presence of families, and our third goal is to increase some high school matriculation.
“We want to prepare our students for post-graduation. That’s a huge goal.”
The dual leadership model is relatively new, she added, even through the Big Shoulders Plus network. It works because the executive director aids the principal with all aspects of their new role.
“Any new leader in a school, it’s just a very daunting role, because there are so many holes you have to fill,” Molina-Rebecca said. “When you talk about schools with such potential, it’s overwhelming. It’s a lot and there is only so much one can do.”
Prior to her role as executive director, Molina-Rebecca served as principal of Maternity BVM School. She is also a Big Shoulders Fund Sullivan Fellow and Polk Bros. Leadership Award recipient, honors that are given to top leaders in Big Shoulders Fund Schools.
Previously as an executive director, she oversaw both Maternity BVM and Our Lady of Grace schools, and though she no longer works with either, both saw increased test scores, lowered financial deficits and increased parent engagement.
That’s why the model works, she said.
“I’m a coach and a cheerleader and I take things off your to-do list,” she said.