Sarah Lanham, sitting at her desk at Gibault Catholic High School in Waterloo, has 19 years of experience as a teacher and administrator in the Diocese of Belleville. She will begin her new role as Associate Director of Education on July 1 (David Wilhelm photo).
The new educational leadership team in the Diocese of Belleville is in place with the recent hiring of Sarah Lanham.
Lanham, 42, who has been the principal of Gibault Catholic High School in Waterloo for the last year, has been named the Associate Director of Education and will work under Fr. Michael Caruso, SJ.
Lanham and Fr. Caruso begin their new positions July 1.
“I’m excited about (working with) Fr. Caruso and the opportunity to learn from him. He brings so much knowledge and experience,” said Lanham, who has worked in the diocese as a teacher and administrator for 19 years.
“I pursued this (job) because I believe in Catholic education,” she said. “We can do better with sharing our resources, people, time and energy. We need to promote Catholic education as a whole — (grades) pre-K through 12. Our principals and teachers can use the support. … The best footprint I can leave is by helping others.”
Lanham takes over a position that has been vacant since June 2023, when David Timmerman retired from his part-time role.
Fr. Caruso replaced Jonathan “Skip” Birdsong, who has accepted the position of principal at Althoff Catholic High School in Belleville. That job became available when Dr. Sarah Gass resigned to become the superintendent of Freeburg Community High School District 77.
Gibault will now begin to sift through a list of potential successors to Lanham. Her replacement will work with new President Katie Robben. It’s the first time Gibault will employ the president/principal model of leadership.
“This new position was already in the works before (Robben) was appointed,” Lanham said. “I anticipated that I wasn’t going to be a part of the plan (at Gibault) the whole time. Luckily, I’ll be able to support (Robben) in my new role, because that’s what I’ll be doing — supporting our schools.”
Lanham began her career as a teacher at St. Mary Catholic School in Belleville. She has also been a teacher and principal at both St. Agatha Catholic School in New Athens (now closed) and St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Smithton.
Lanham attended grade school at St. Agatha and graduated from New Athens High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and a master’s degree in education leadership at American College of Education in Indiana.
“Her experience in Catholic education will help our principals and school leaders to plant seeds of faith, learning and charity in the hearts of the children we serve,” Diocese of Belleville Bishop McGovern said. “I believe that Sarah, along with our new director, Fr. Michael Caruso, SJ, will strengthen our schools for the future.”
Lanham, like others in the diocese, expressed disappointment that Notre Dame Academy (formerly Cathedral) in Belleville and St. Ann Grade School in Nashville closed at the end of the recently completed academic year.
Lanham was still a teacher at St. Mary when St. Mary merged with St. Augustine in 2008.
“On the last day … it was sad,” Lanham said. “Everybody was crying. It’s the end of an era. Nobody wants to see their school close. That’s tradition. We are a diocese, but every
school is unique with what it does and what it brings. That unity and uniqueness has to stay true to that school. Nobody wants to let that go.
“We don’t want the two closings to be a precedent. The number of closings (nationally) was 55 this year, and I think there have been 32 new schools (opened). We’ve lost more than we gained.”
Lanham and her husband, Bob, live between Red Bud and Waterloo. They have three children: Josh, 16, Lauren, 15, and Chase, 7. Josh and Lauren attend Gibault.
Being a principal at the high-school level, Lanham said, was “totally different than what I’ve done.” After-school responsibilities absorbed more of her time and took her away from her family.
“I’ve enjoyed high school,” Lanham said. “But it was a difficult transition for my family. My son is a sophomore and my daughter is a freshman. Coming in new, making changes and then the time commitment is so much more in high school than grade school. If you’re going to do it right, you’re going to be here a lot. Lots of meetings, lots of events.
“I didn’t want to not be here, but I need to be home with my family as well. And when you’re new, you have to meet everybody. People have to believe in you and see and trust you. It’s been a difficult year. I did it with a smile and chugged through, but it’s been hard.”
