Retiring Good Shepherd Principal Known For Encouraging Spirit

Judy VanHoosier describes herself as a “worker bee.” That’s part of who she is, but there is so much more. She’s also an encourager.

She’s the principal at Good Shepherd School, and this is her last year at the Evansville school.

She’s from Dubois County, and she became a member of the eighth-grade class at Good Shepherd the year it opened its doors.

She married her husband, Gary Wayne, in the parish church; and her first child, Matthew, was baptized there. He was two weeks old when her husband shipped out to Vietnam. A short time later, she spotted an item in the parish bulletin that said the school needed a second-grade teacher. Her dad said, “You do that. Your mom can take care of the baby.”

She taught for a while, then took time off to care for her growing family.

“Father [August] Busch asked me to come back in 1975, and I’ve been here ever since.”

When Principal Benedictine Sister Mary Celestin Maurer invited her to work in the school library, she said yes. At the time there was an ongoing search for a new principal. “We had someone set to take over, but they changed their mind. I was asked to do it for a year. That was 18 years ago.”

Sister Celestin served as her mentor, she recalls, with help from seasoned school secretary Jeanette Heidorn.

It was a time of growth for the school as the parish leadership decided to double the classrooms. “They built twice on to the school because of the growth on the northeast side of Evansville.”

And then there was the fire.

As the children left their classrooms on the afternoon of Dec. 5, 2006, they left shoes for St. Nick to fill with candy. That evening there was bingo in the social hall, and at some point — when everyone was gone — one small spark from one small cigarette changed everything. What didn’t burn was damaged beyond saving from smoke. “It was devastation,” she remembers. “I still cry about it.”

Phyllis Bussing and Donna Halverson from the diocesan Catholic Schools Office quickly met with the staff to tell them that the Catholic school community had connected, and that there was a plan.

Three schools had cleared space for the Good Shepherd students. The kindergarteners, first- and second-graders were heading to St. John the Baptist School in Newburgh. The third-, fourth- and fifth-graders would be at Holy Redeemer School in Evansville, and St. Benedict Cathedral School had cleared its top floor for the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.

The students only missed five days of school before heading out to new locations. Good Shepherd remained the home base, but VanHoosier began her days in Newburgh with the youngest students. Some days she visited all three campuses. “We made it work,” she said. “I look back now and think ‘how?’”

She became the chief encourager, reminding staff and parents that “we can do this,” and “letting them know they had my support.”

The teachers had lost everything, and that was really hard. The students had to go into places they had never been before, and the parents had to figure out ways to get their children to three different locations. “It was a team effort. There was no doubt about it. It was a hardship on everyone. I look back now and wonder how did we make it all work — but we surely did.”

Under her leadership, the school rose from the ashes like a phoenix, and flourished.

The Little Rams Preschool, “a hope and dream” of hers, was established. “What a wonderful blessing these three and four years old are to our school.”

Now it’s time for her to say good-bye.

“I just turned 70, and it seems to be the time.”

She has four grandchildren who live in Lafayette, Ind., and she is looking forward to spending time with them ... and not getting up at 4:15 a.m. on school days.

It’s bittersweet. As she looks ahead to retirement, she says, “It truly is the children that I think I will miss the most.”