Giving new meaning to ‘higher education’

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT BEACH -- Sister Joanne Clare Gallegher and Eileen Ryan,

co-principals of Our Lady Queen of Angels School, ruled from on high

Friday when they spent the day on the school’s roof.

It wasn’t necessarily by choice: the women were making good on a promise

they had made to students and parents if the school community could sell

5,000 raffle tickets for the annual auction fund-raiser last fall.

The huge gala event is held each year to raise money for school upkeep,

student enrichment and to help keep the cost of tuition down, said Sister

Joanne, who has been principal at Our Lady Queen of Angels for 15 years.

“They are so supportive,” said Liz Tutton, a parent and co-chair of the

fund-raiser. “They want to be involved every step of the way. They wanted

something students would remember because a black-tie affair is really

for parents.”

So as promised, at 7:50 a.m., the ladies grabbed the cold metal rungs of

a ladder and hoisted themselves up to the gravel roof.

While up there, the administrators held parent and teacher conferences

and conferred about next year’s school calendar.

It was not exactly “roughing it,” however. The principals had a cooler of

water and sodas, a table covered with mounds of goodies, a green and

white striped umbrella to shield them from the sun, and a makeshift

putting green.As the principals sat perched on the rooftop, class after

class would flock out to the playground’s edge with messages for their

principals.

Since the women were not allowed to leave their post, they would send a

bucket down on a string to gather the notes and presents students brought

out to them.

“Dear Sister Joanne and Ms. Ryan,” wrote one first-grader. “Is it fun up

there? Love Ally.”

“Hi Sister Joanne. It is funny that you are on the roof,” wrote another.

Students in Dorothy Vermolen’s sixth-grade class each made a colorful

paper flower pasted onto a piece of construction paper. With the flowers

they included a note that read, “A May bouquet for those of you in higher

places.”

Still, another class sent up a note with a picture of children’s book

character Flat Stanley on it with a note that read, “This is what happens

when you fall off the roof.”

As a special treat for the children, Tutton and her co-chair for the

event, Pam Smith, brought the principals huge bags of candy to toss down

to the children. Sister Joanne flung the goodies with a delicate,

one-piece-at-a-time manner and Ryan showed off her mean pitching arm.