Kim Barraclough
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 16/99) - Kern Von Hagen is the new superintendent for the Catholic school system.

And he's no stranger to the field of education. He has been the principal of St. Patrick's high school for the last seven years and also taught for a year at St. Pat's prior to taking on role as principal.

"I was looking for a change, I wanted to make sure that there is a freshness about St. Patrick high school," said Von Hagen about his decision to take the administrative role.

"The danger of becoming to comfortable is that you become complacent," he said.

Life-long learning is one of the many important factors Von Hagen wants to stress to students and especially educators.

"We are all part of the learning process -- everyone is in a position to learn and that includes staff, especially staff.

We can't just preach about life-long learning, we have to live it."

There are many management styles of his predecessor, Dr. Loretta Foley, that Von Hagen plans to carry on.

"I plan to be of service to others in the district and nurture and foster an environment of trust and of team and of relationship," said Von Hagen.

"I plan to continue to promote leadership at all levels. "There's many ways for people to contribute."