St. Aug selects female as its president and CEO

18th June 2012   ·   0 Comments

By Nikki G. Bannister
Contributing Writer

St. Augustine, the Catholic, all-male high school known for its rich history of academics, sports and music, has skipped a beat in its tradition and selected a layperson and female as its new president and chief executive officer.

June 11 was Karen Smith Collins’ first day on the job as the fourth administrator in the 61-year history of the high school. She said she said when the position was advertised, she saw it as the perfect opportunity to do “something different.”

“When you come to a new place, it’s important that you bring an element of change and I felt that I could bring something to the table at St. Aug,” Collins said. “I was just thrilled they selected me.”

Collins said she does not plan to interrupt the great strides St. Aug has made throughout the years in academic performance, competition and other arenas. She just wants alumni, stakeholders and other supporters to know she is there to help increase those strides locally, throughout the state, nationally and yes, globally.

“We need to reach out to alumni in key positions throughout the world in a major way,” Collins said. “It’s not always about money either. The incentive is the ability to achieve what these men were able to achieve after they received their diploma.”

When St. Aug.’s Board of Director’s announced Collins, a graduate of St. Aug’s sister-school St. Mary’s Academy, as its new president, social media networks went awry with alumni voicing their opinions.

“All of these young men have mothers and many of them will have wives or have sisters,” Collins said. “So when they look at me they will see a strong female who has achieved her goals and knows ‘no’ is not an option or in her vocabulary. She is basically supporting her male counterpart.”

Jovaughn Recasner, a 1995 Purple Knight graduate, said he saw some of the things alumni were saying and he personally didn’t have anything against Collins’ hiring. However, he was concerned about the message it would send. He also voiced concern whether there were any male candidates who may have been eligible for the position.

“I understand the president’s role is fundraising, but when people look at St. Augustine, they think of strong, Black men,” Recasner said. “I’m just not that crazy about her being in that position because St. Aug has been based on the perception that it’s men raising men. Now what’s going to separate St. Aug from any other school?

“Nonetheless, I do respect the board and any decision they make on behalf of my school. But in the past, there have been other positions where there have been qualified alumni that have been passed for positions.”

Collins was selected by the board from a field of candidates that consisted of men and women. She is a native of New Orleans who was a principal at Francis Gaudet Elementary School for 12 years before Hurricane Katrina. She then went to work at Sarah T. Reed High School for two years. She then became an educational consultant in Jackson, Miss., until she joined her husband, Kelvin Adams, in St. Louis, where he is the educational superintendent. Collins joined a school system in Missouri, and later a university system.

Collins’ background has prepared her for the road St. Aug has ahead of it in order to right some of its difficult periods the school has had in recent times, says Derrick Melder, a 2000 graduate.

“When I first heard the news I can admit I was taken aback and thought to myself, ‘This is going to be different,’” Melder said. “Then I remembered that I was always taught, if you have a problem with change, you change the way you look at it.

“St. Augustine was founded because we were discriminated against, so how could I sit here and discriminate against the new president simply because she is a woman? After researching her credentials, I discovered that she was a very qualified woman — obviously qualified enough to be chosen to take the responsibility of president — over 61 years of excellence. I believe with the help of the alumni, faculty and supporters of St. Augustine High School, we can collectively continue to persevere in the face of adversity.”

This article was originally published in the June 18, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper