An administrative shift took place in two of Monroe County’s Catholic schools over the summer, making room for one teacher at Immaculate Conception School in Columbia to step into the principal position with nearly two decades of educational experience.

It was announced in June that Michael Crean would be taking over the role of principal as David Gregson left ICS to serve as Gibault Catholic High School’s president.

Originally from Connecticut, Crean said he has moved around quite a bit.

After acquiring his undergraduate degree, Crean attended the University of Notre Dame, where he participated in a program that centered around serving an underprivileged Catholic school while earning his degree.

Under that program, he spent two years teaching in Birmingham, Ala., before returning to Connecticut to teach at a public school.

His teaching career then took him to Europe, where he taught English in Madrid, Spain, for two years, also getting to do some traveling.

On his return to the U.S., Crean taught in the west side of Chicago. He identified this as another experience teaching at a rather impoverished Catholic school.

From there, he went on to teach at another Catholic school in South Bend, Ind., after which he spent some time staying home with his kids.

Crean pointed to his substantial experience teaching at a number of different schools, saying that kind of diverse experience will hopefully serve him well in an administrative role.

“One of the things that I value about my experience in education is the diversity of experiences that I’ve had in the classroom for all the years I taught,” Crean said. “I’ve been at it for a while, and I’ve taught in affluent public schools, I’ve taught in really impoverished schools, I’ve taught in city schools where you have gang violence going on on the street corner right around the corner from us… I’ve taught in affluent Catholic schools as well. I’ve kinda got a very good breadth of teaching experience.”

Prior to his family’s arrival in Columbia, they were living in Missouri and looking to find a place to settle down.

As they broadened their search for a welcoming community to Illinois, they became interested in Columbia’s schools and were especially taken by ICS after enjoying a tour.

Crean and his wife got their daughter enrolled, and as a fourth grade teaching position opened, he signed on, holding that position for two years until Gregson’s recent departure.

Crean said it was his predecessor’s encouragement – along with support from others in the parish – that prompted him to step up for the opening.

“He had kinda suggested that I consider the role, and a number of other people from the school community, parish community reached out to me and were voicing a lot of support for me to think about it,” Crean said. “It sounded like it was gonna be a good opportunity.”

Having been a member of the Immaculate Conception parish and school community for a few years, Crean had excellent things to say about the family in which he’s found himself.

“It’s a family that’s rooted in strong Catholic faith and identity,” Crean said. “We have a strong stewardship model here at ICS which is unique to us. We believe in time, talent, treasure, so our parishioners, families in our school really give back and volunteer and support the whole cause. It’s something I haven’t really experienced at other schools that I’ve worked at.”

Along those same lines, Crean spoke about how important Catholic education is to him. He recalled how, when he was teaching in public schools, he had found himself wishing to be able to include faith in his work, using values from the Gospel and examples set by Jesus as an educational foundation.

Offering more praise for ICS, he also commended the work done by the school’s faculty.

“Our teachers here are really phenomenal,” Crean said. “I knew our teachers were great from working alongside them, but now that I have this new vantage point, being able to go and walk around, step into classrooms and actually observe the teaching that’s happening, I’ve been really impressed with all that I’ve seen from our teachers.”

As he steps into this leadership position, Crean discussed his desire to maintain the school’s reputation for developing students’ character and, of course, their academic abilities.

“ICS is known for high academic rigor and standards, and I want to be able to maintain that, especially in the middle school,” Crean said. “A lot of our students report when they get up to high school that they feel like they’re leaps and bounds above their classmates, so I definitely want to continue to make sure that we hold that high bar.”

Crean further expressed his desire to encourage a welcoming environment at ICS for students and faculty alike.

“I really want to make sure that ICS is a family that has a lot of joy for our teachers,” Crean said. “Our teachers love working here. They feel like this is a place where they have support, not just from me but from the families as well. And I want the kids to enjoy coming to school. That should be the name of the game. Learning should be fun. And I want to make sure that our teachers have all the resources and tools that they need to make sure that their students are enjoying the learning that’s taking place and look forward to coming to school.”