Sister Mary Ann Tupy, a familiar presence at St. Francis of Assisi School for six years, will say goodbye soon and head to a new position in Hawaii.
The St. Francis principal will return to the classroom again to teach at St. Theresa Church and School, which is in the town of Kekaha on the island of Kauai.
Tupy, who will leave sometime between June 15 and 17, said she looks back on her service at St. Francis with fondness and affection.
“St. Francis School is a beautiful school, working very hard to offer a good education to young children,” she said.
The Rev. Greg Plata, pastor of St. Francis and Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic churches, said Tupy has a positive outlook, and that’s important in education today.
“We’re going to miss Sister Mary Ann,” he said. “She had a lot of enthusiasm and love for the kids.”
The school, founded in the 1950s, was primarily intended to serve African-American children in the Greenwood area. Today, about 75 percent of the students are African-American, 24.5 are Hispanic and the remainder are Asian or white.
It now has 119 students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.
“You can’t help but love them,” Tupy said.
Kathleen Murphy, Elena Gonzales and the rest of the faculty are dedicated to teaching, Tupy said.
“They are going to come here because they want to be here,” se said. “They’re not going to make more money here; they’re going to make less money here. They’re going to do it because they have a feeling that it is a ministry, a service to the church.”
Tupy will follow in the footsteps of St. Francis’ previous principal, Sister Carol Seidl, when she reports for duty at St. Theresa.
Tupy’s and Seidl’s paths have crossed many times in their careers, she said.
“I had been in Green Bay (Wisconsin), and she had been in West Point, Nebraska,” she said. “We switched places. I went to West Point, and she went to Green Bay. From Green Bay, she came here. From West Point, I came here. Now, we’re making that westward journey.”
Tupy’s replacement as principal at St. Francis will be Jackie Lewis, the first lay principal in the school’s history.
Lewis is a member of the parish. She, her mother and her children have all attended St. Francis School, Tupy said.
For the past year, Lewis has taught fifth grade at the school. She served as a school attendance officer for the state Department of Education housed at the Leflore County School District for 11 years. From that position, she became an employee of the district, serving as a vocational counselor at the district’s Vocational Center.
Later, she served as assistant principal at Amanda Elzy High School and then became the school’s principal.
Most recently, she served as principal at East Elementary School and at Leflore County High School.
Tupy joined the sisterhood straight out of high school in 1967 and has been involved in education ever since.
“I started out as a teacher in grades five and six,” she said.
She will return to the Mother House in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where she will participate in a spiritual retreat and then visit with her family in Iowa. She will arrive in Hawaii on July 20.
•Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
