Long-time Rushville resident and educator Stephanie Hasecuster recently was selected as the new principal at St. Mary School, located at 226 East Fifth Street, Rushville.

Hasecuster will also continue teaching first grade at the school during the coming school year.

Many of her teenage years were spent in the Chicago area prior to her family relocating to nearby Greenfield during her senior year of high school.

Following high school, Hasecuster considered becoming a nun and attended St. Mary of the Woods College. Four years later she came away with a degree in elementary education.

Following graduation from college in 1977 the educator began her teaching career at St. Mary School later that same year.

That was followed by an employment opportunity at Ball State University assisting in counseling and therapy, which temporarily had her leave teaching elementary school students.

During the mid ‘80s she returned to teaching when she took a teaching position in Greenfield at St. Michael’s before returning to Rushville and resuming her teaching duties locally in 1995, teaching kindergarten and first grade.

“Seems like I only began yesterday, although the Arch Diocese in Indianapolis said that this is my 31st year of teaching. Honestly, it doesn’t seem like that long, it doesn’t seem possible,” Hasecuster said with a laugh.

St. Mary School has roughly 125 students registered in grades pre-kindergarten through sixth grade and although the enrollment is down from the school’s heyday when class size rivaled that of a number of public schools locally, Hasecuster and others feel there is a nitch that the school and others like it can and do fill in the educational system.

“I think last year our smallest class was eight and our largest was 16 or 17. We were able to effect each child’s life each day. There was not a day that went by that each child did not have their own time,” Hasecuster said.

When asked for her thoughts on entering her 32nd year of school instruction she said that she enjoys each day at school.

“I’m now entering the second generation with some of the students, having taught many of their parents, so I am looking forward to seeing how that works. Our support here at St. Mary’s is wonderful. We rarely go a day without having several families volunteering in the building to help out.”

When asked why it took so long to make the leap from teacher to administrator she said, “I never wanted to be out of the classroom. I did not want to leave teaching so I never wanted considered the leadership qualities. The Arch Diocese has said that they will support me in combining these two positions of teaching and that of administrator. We both agree that the enrollment needs to be boosted and right now the economy is not good. It is our hope that both will turn around.”

It is anticipated that Hasecuster’s previous studies will make the transition this year easier.

“There are some classes that I have to take to receive my principal’s license, but as a result of my two Master Degrees I feel there is a lot of overlap already so I’m not so far from that end. Here at St. Mary’s we are going to continue to be accredited and will not lose any of our recognition with the state,” she continued.