Dear CTK Community,

Our principal search is completed. The search committee narrowed the pool of candidates to five strong finalists for interviews and unanimously recommended one of them to me for the position. We are glad that we got her. I am delighted to announce that Ms. Sarah Brentano is our new principal for Christ the King School beginning July 1, 2019.

She brings with her some impressive credentials and experience. Ms. Brentano did her undergraduate work at Oregon State University, earned her Masters at George Fox University and her Administrator License from the University of Portland. She has spent her teaching career in primary education for many years at St. Mary Catholic School in Stayton, served as the Advancement Director of Regis-St. Mary Catholic School and, for the past year, as Vice Principal of the St. Mary Campus (PreK-8) in Stayton. In this role, she effectively runs the day-to-day operation of the preK-8^thgrade.

I am excited to work with Ms. Brentano in the coming years at Christ the King, as we continue to develop our parish school as a premier place of Catholic formation and education.

With this announcement of our new principal, I wanted the whole community to know that, for entirely personal reasons, Mr. Day had decided a while ago to withdraw his application for the role of CTK principal. He would like the following to be communicated to the CTK community:

“While I have truly enjoyed working with each of you, with this community, and with Monsignor, my decision is simply based on a prayerful discernment as to what I can offer CTK over the long-term. I fundamentally believe that CTK will benefit from a principal willing to serve here for an extended period of years, and I do not see myself able to fulfill that role for this community. You all deserve someone who is absolutely driven to be here and willing to serve as a result of their love for this community. I am confident that the search process led by Monsignor and the search team has found you that new leader.

To be clear, I will fulfill my contract in this interim role through the end of June and will do so with the same dedication that I have brought to this work in these first four months. Even in the short-term, I believe that I have much to offer and will do so with a keen eye on the needs of the school, the students, and staff members. While I do not have specific plans for what exactly I will be doing in the coming school year, this experience with all of you has reminded me how much I love working with teachers, staff, and students. Thank you for that.”

I want to publically thank Mr. Day for his outstanding leadership of our school this year. His talent, experience and dedication are impressive, and I look forward to working with him through the rest of this year. We wish him well in his career path and will miss him.

I also want to publically thank the members of our search committee, all of whom brought particular expertise and perspectives to the process: Gary Beckley (Associate Superintendent of Catholic Schools), Andy Nichols (Principal of St. Anthony School, Tigard), Mike Pettinger (Chair of the SAC), Michelle Doran (our 4^th grade teacher) and Julie Onderko (Coordinator of Evangelization).

Let us pray for Ms. Brentano, Mr. Day and our parish school!

In Christ the King,

Msgr. John Cihak