Termination of Holy Child Academy principal sparks uproar
UPPER DARBY » When Holy Child Academy has its final day of school for the year on Wednesday, it will be the last time students will see its much-revered Principal Anne Wood walking the halls.
As part of the school’s administrative restructuring under Head of School Margaret Fox-Tully, Wood was terminated after 35 years as an educator and administrator to make way for three division head roles that rendered the principal position unneeded.
Wood, 62, has been the principal of Holy Child for the past six years, and served in various other capacities ranging from the prekindergarten Montessori teacher up to director of transportation, before she was notified in March that the school would be parting ways with her altogether.
In a May 30 phone call, Wood said the last few months have been very difficult.
“I go in with a smile on my face and I really have to pretend that nothing is happening,” she said. “I want to be the same person for them that I always was. I feel people are being politically polite to me, and it’s not the same feeling in the school.”
Wood was notified in early March of her termination in a closed meeting with Fox-Tully and the school’s Board of Trustees Chairman Michael Bradley.
“That would be very unusual that the chairperson of the board would be present at a meeting, so immediately when I saw him I thought, ‘Hmm, I wonder what this is going to be about,’” she said. “I went in and Margaret said to me that they decided that they were going to have an administrative restructuring … and because of this restructuring my position as principal was going to be eliminated, and therefore my employment would be terminated.”
According to Wood, there was no discussion with Fox-Tully about the restructuring, even though she had worked under that same model in years prior when it was last used. A letter sent out in May by Fox-Tully and Bradley to the Holy Child community says that the decision was strongly supported by the board and that having both a head of school and principal position was “atypical” for independent schools like theirs. The division heads and head of school model is used in the Holy Child Network of Schools, which covers Holy Child Academy.
The letter states that the restructuring reflects the “wisdom and experience of many respected educators and current thinking in education.”
Blind-sided by the decision, Wood started asking questions.
“I asked if this was a financial decision and I was told that it was a business decision, and that her decision stands firm,” said Wood, who added that school by-laws dictate the head of school can make choices on hiring and firing of personnel, and the board is not involved.
“The thing about it is how it happened. There was no empathy, no compassion, or expression of appreciation for what I’ve done for 35 years; it was a done deal,” she said. “I met with her weekly and the topic of restructuring never came up. I was totally shocked and heartbroken because I’ve dedicated my whole life to the school.”
Wood speculated that her age just three years from retirement her experience and her high salary may have been factors into being let go.
“I’ve done the division jobs before and it seemed only reasonable to me to that if they were getting rid of the principal position they would have offered me something,” she said. “All of my appraisals and evaluations have been stellar in any division that I’ve held at that school. I would have done anything because I love the school … but I wasn’t offered anything. It was strange that I wasn’t.”
Wood did concede that FoxTully, who started as head of school in 2016, has the right to restructure the school as she sees fit.
Bradley did not wish to comment on the matter and Fox-Tully could not be reached for comment despite multiple attempts.
Wood’s termination has not gone unnoticed by the Holy Child community.
On May 8 a silent protest was held across the street from the school to rally against Wood being let go. Community members even set up an online petition in support of the principal. Rosemary Pall resigned from the board of trustees over the decision to fire Wood.
In emails provided to the Delco Times, and also confirmed by Wood, Fox-Tully will not have a public meeting with the community on the topic, only one-on-one with inquiring parties.
With a $13,000 annual tuition rate, parent Michelle McHugh said it’s hard for people to openly talk about the situation for fear of monetary retaliation.
“During our rally to support Ms. Wood and to bring attention to our public meeting request, many parents stopped to state their support of our movement,” said McHugh. “Many of those same parents said they just could not stand with us because they were afraid the school would pull their children’s tuition support dollars.”
Fed up with what is happening, McHugh eventually pulled her child out of the school.
Even though she was offered a one-on-one meeting with FoxTully, McHugh declined the invitation, saying that’s how people “control the narrative.”
“I’m not interested in a controlled narrative,” she said. “I want the truth from all sides, and I want the board to see exactly how this behind-the-back type of decision-making goes directly against Holy Child’s core values.
“I am heartbroken that the board and Head of School would so flagrantly show disregard to the core values that Holy Child Academy claims to teach: justice, peace, compassion, and dignity. Not a single one of those attributes was modeled in the way this unfolded or in the way parents were (not) informed.”
Nancy Wojciechowski has stayed involved with Holy Child for fundraising events even though her two daughters graduated from the school in 2000. She said Wood was the “heart and soul of the school” and couldn’t believe that she was being let go.
“When you have a board and a head (of school) without people with elementary education degrees, it seems kind of skewed to me,” she said.
Fox-Tully had no elementarylevel education experience before coming to the pre-kindergarten to eighth-grade Holy Child Academy. Her biography on the school website lists working at Princeton University from 2010 to 2016 and having other leadership positions at higher education institutions. She had two positions in three non-consecutive years at St. Dominic Academy, a private school in Jersey City, N.J., serving girls in grades seven through 12.
“I truly can’t understand for the life of me how Anne Wood couldn’t be involved in restructuring,” Wojciechowski said. “How does one eliminate someone who has the experience when you have a person that was there for not even two years yet?”
Wood said this is the first time in her life she hasn’t felt valued.
“To have a feeling of not being appreciated or valued was a whole different experience of Holy Child to me,” she said. “Everything that I have done in my educational career at Holy Child is being overlooked somehow, someway by the new head of the school, obviously. Aside from my age and experience I’m not sure what it is to be honest with you.”
If it was a business decision as indicated by Fox-Tully, Wood said using a business front to run a Catholic school is not in the values of promoting good relationships in the building.
“When you can make a decision and say it’s all about restructuring, then it’s easy to ‘throw Anne under the bus’ so to speak because it’s a business decision and it’s not relational,” she said. “This doesn’t seem to be the Holy Child way of doing things A Holy Child approach would have been more conversational, collaborative and transparent.
“It certainly breaks my heart because this isn’t the way I wanted my career to end.”