Sam Skaggs laid to rest

Intermountain Catholic

+ Enlarge

Holy Cross Sister Karla McKinnie prepares to cut the cake at a celebration of her service to St. John the Baptist Elementary School in Draper. Anticipating Sr. Karla's future travels and adventures, faculty and staff presented her with a digital camera. The celebration was held at the Market Street Grill. photo by Bob Mutz

by Bob Mutz

DRAPER — After 12 years of teaching and 28 years as principal, Holy Cross Sister Karla McKinnie is not ready to retire but ready for her next challenge as a woman religious.

"My next stop has not yet been determined but will definitely involve helping people in need," said Sr. Karla in a recent interview.

Sister Karla plans to finish this school year at St. John the Baptist Catholic Elementary School, help the new principal prepare for the upcoming school year, and wrap things up around the last week of July.

With approval from the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross to continue her education in Spanish and pursue a position helping people in need Sr. Karla’s education will begin this summer in San Antonio, Texas, where she will attend a program called Ministry to Ministers from late summer through mid-December. She’ll then have a six-week break back in the Salt Lake City area. Toward the end of January 2007, she will be back in San Antonio for a six-week intensive Spanish lesson at the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC). She will then travel south to Guadalupe, Mexico where she’ll spend three weeks at her Congregation’s house for some "real world" experience.

By April 2007, she will be well prepared for a new career utilizing her new skills in Spanish, in conjunction with her 40 years experience in education and leadership.

"Working at a women and children’s shelter or at a Catholic parish helping the needy are areas that interest me," Sr. Karla said, "but I’m not ruling out other possibilities."

Karla Karena McKinnie was born in Whitefish, Mont., on Feb. 4, 1943. Her family lived in Redwood City, Calif., and her mother (Margaret Mary) was traveling back to Havre, Mont., to visit her mother when Karla arrived early. She is the oldest of four children, two brothers (Gil and Benny Joe) and one sister (Paula). Her youngest brother Benny Joe died right after birth.

In 1949 after a term working for the military during World War II, Karla’s father (Ben) moved the family to Chinook, Mont., and eventually moved to an Indian reservation where both her mother and father taught elementary school for six years. Each summer her parents traveled to Havre, Mont., to continue college and earn their degrees.

Karla and her siblings enjoyed the laid back simple life on the reservation. Around 1955, the family moved to Great Falls, Mont., where they lived in a "teacherage." Their father and mother taught school while Karla cared for her brother and sister in their living quarters.

When Karla was in eighth grade, her family moved back to Redwood City, Calif., and she attended Holy Cross High School where she became acquainted with the Sisters of Holy Cross. After graduating from high school, she entered the Congregation, spending five years in formation and obtained a Bachelor’s Degree at St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind.

Her first assignment as Holy Cross Sister Karla McKinnie, was teaching first grade in Los Angeles, Calif. Her teaching assignments from then on included first and second grade in Fresno, Calif., kindergarten and first grade in Oakland, Calif., and first grade in Seattle, Wash.

In Seattle, she became principal of St. Paul’s Elementary School. While working as principal, she attended summer school at the University of San Francisco to get her administrator’s certificate. In 1984, Sister Karla moved to Salt Lake City and became the principal of Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary School. After four years, she moved back to Los Angeles to take another principal’s position for 10 years.

In 1998 she was asked to move back to Utah to help organize the opening of St. John the Baptist Elementary School at the Skaggs Catholic Center in Draper.

The school, teachers, students, faculty and staff express their gratitude for Sister Karla’s eight years of leadership here at St. John the Baptist Catholic School. Her influence here has been immense. Her dedication to her role as principal is admirable to say the least. In 40 years of service, Sister Karla has seldom missed a day of work due to illness and is almost always the first to arrive in the morning and last to leave in the evening. We will miss her gentle guidance and kind approach in directing the faculty and students

Mutz is the advancement director for St. John the Baptist Elementary and Middle Schools, Draper.