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Two fixtures of Little Rock Catholic education — Mary Lee Kellar, assistant principal of Christ the King School and Sister Lisa Griffith, RSM, assistant principal of Mount St. Mary Academy — moved on with the close of the 2013 school term.
"To work in a Catholic school is truly a ministry to the Church,” said Vernell Bowen, superintendent of Catholic schools. “I am very appreciative to Mary Lee Keller and Sister Lisa for their years of service to students and parents in their schools. They have my special thanks for guiding through example, for inspiring with passion and for touching the human soul."
Kellar is retiring after 39 years in education, 27 of them at Christ the King School. The Conway native said she had been mulling retirement for the past couple of years and the growing desire to spend more time with Dennis, her husband of 45 years; their two daughters, Jennifer Kaushesh and Erin Davison; and four grandchildren finally tipped the scale.
“I love it here a lot, these people are my sisters and my brothers,” she said of the staff and faculty of the school. “It was a great place to be, but I knew when it was time. My oldest grandchild is in fourth-grade and my kids were like, ‘Mom, you have to come visit us more.’ I want to be there to see more of them.”
Kellar was born the eldest of Curtis and the late Marie Breeden’s seven children, joking, “I’ve been a boss all my life.” She graduated from St. Joseph High School and the University of Central Arkansas, both in Conway. After 12 years in the public school system she joined the brand-new Christ the King School, a move she said was love at first sight.
“It has been a joy to come to work every single day,” she said. “I never had a time when I just wanted the workday to be over.”
Her first nine years were spent teaching third-grade; since then she has been in her current role as well as serving as the resources coordinator, where she helped identify students with special learning needs and develop curriculum and materials to assist them.
Kellar’s replacement in the assistant principal’s office is Paige Coppola, who moves from the seventh- and eighth-grade English department. Beth Brewer, a speech therapist and Christ the King parishioner, will assume her duties on the resources staff.
A series of surprise events were held May 17 including a Mass, school-wide tribute and dress-up day and staff party. The theme was “Happy Trails” for the horseback enthusiast Kellar, who received, among other tokens of appreciation, a horseback ride, serenades and a Christ the King diploma.
Sister Lisa came to Mount St. Mary Academy a mere 18 months into her teaching career. That was 20 years ago and the native of Meridian Miss., said leaving the school is like leaving home.
“The Mount is where I grew up,” she said. “I was only 21 years old when I got here. It formed me as an individual, as an educator and as a Sister of Mercy. I give thanks for this school and I know how much I am going to miss this place.”
She leaves June 15 to take a teaching position in the religion department of St. Vincent Academy in Savannah, Ga. St. Vincent, founded in 1845, is the oldest of the secondary schools operated by the Sisters of Mercy. Mount St. Mary is second on that list, founded in 1851.
“I was feeling the need for a change and I have been listening intently to God, trying to be open to where he wanted me to go,” she said. “I wasn’t actively looking for a position, but when I visited Savannah in January it was very clear that it was time.”
Number eight in a family of 10 children born to Tom and Betty Griffith, she earned her undergraduate degree in business education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a master’s degree in counseling from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.
Over her time in Little Rock, she has taught theology and business; been school counselor and dean of academics, now called assistant principal. Her replacement in the administrative role is Angie Collins, a teacher in the school’s science department.
Sister Lisa said the development of facilities and particularly technology during her tenure has been noteworthy, saying, “When I got here, we still used typewriters.” But more than classrooms and keyboards, she said the implementation of service hours for juniors has paid the greatest dividends in advancing the school’s status and mission.
“Junior service hours have had a great impact on our students,” she said. “Getting our girls out into the community serving others is what Jesus was all about and it’s what (Sisters of Mercy founder) Catherine McAuley was all about. It has helped our kids and their parents ‘get it’ about living Mercy values.”
