New principal for St. Andrew School

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Erin Carrabba

RIVERTON — St. Andrew School welcomes a new face among its faculty, Erin Carrabba, who will be the school’s new principal. Carrabba lived in New Jersey before coming to Utah in January and has already fallen in love with the state and her new position, she said.

Carrabba has experience from her work as principal of the Daytop Academy in New Jersey, a special education school that specializes in teaching students with co-occurring disorders, which is when a person has both a substance use disorder as well as a mental health disorder. Working with these students gave her the chance to “really hone my skills,” Carrabba said.

Helping students who were often in trouble with the law or simply had trouble with their homework gave her a “tremendous amount of satisfaction,” she said, adding that it was wonderful to see these kids gaining the skills they needed to get jobs and go to college.

After only a week and a half at St. Andrew School, she is already enjoying her time as principal, Carrabba said. “It’s a really great community. … Students come every day with a smile on their face, ready to learn.”

The atmosphere of St. Andrew School is different from her previous job, where there was a strict separation of church and state.  Although she was born and raised Catholic, at Daytop Academy there was no room to implement her faith in her work, Carrabba said. But in a parochial school, “the ability to combine faith and education is very exciting to me,” she said.

Carrabba is looking forward to strengthening the bonds between the school and St. Andrew Parish by exchanging help with fundraisers and projects, she said. She is also looking forward to build further upon the school’s art programs, as “art and creativity are very important to education,” she said.

The students at St. Andrew School “are such a breath of fresh air,” Carrabba said, adding that she is looking forward to being able to concentrate less on behavior problems and more on education.

Mark Longe, superintendent of Catholic schools, recommended that Carrabba be hired because “she’s a very friendly, self-confidant individual,” he said. “If we have a person of character who is a good model, … they tend to be great leaders for our schools.”

Carrabba will be well suited to look after the needs of St. Andrew School, to celebrate its strengths and look carefully at areas that can be improved, Longe said.