September 9, 2004

Yvonne Gomez retires

St. Francis Cabrini gets new principal

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer

Yvonne Gomez spent a total of 21 years at St. Francis Cabrini School working as a teacher, vice principal and principal. She retired at the end of this school year, and Gail Cirone, who has been at the school since 1997, is taking over as principal.

Gomez and her husband, who four years ago retired from his 38-year teaching career, have moved to the Villas of Almaden. Cirone, and her husband, Dr. Joe Cirone who practices in Cambrian Park, also live in Almaden.

Both Gomez and Cirone have a love for St. Francis Cabrini and it shows in their eyes when they talk about the school. Both too are a bit sad that Gomez is retiring, although she plans to help out whenever she is needed.
Opened in 1961

Father Robert Esre established St. Francis Cabrini School in 1961. The priest was a chaplain and a hero during World War II. He was a phenomenal man, according to Gomez and Cirone, and established the school with a goal to make it accessible and affordable to anyone who wanted to attend. Even though it’s a private Catholic school, it’s not an elite school, both women said.

Gomez started teaching at the school in its middle school program. She taught seventh and eighth grade religion, social studies and some English. In her eighth year at St. Francis, Gomez became vice principal and continued to teach the same grades. In her ninth year, she became a co-principal. When she left, she went to St. Patrick’s as a principal and stayed for six years. Finally, 10 years ago, she came back to St. Francis as principal.

She didn’t start out to be a teacher. In fact, she was a vocal/music major in college. One of her teachers suggested she get credentialed just in case something happened to her career. She married and her husband was a teacher who began his career at Leigh High School teaching music, and she found that working in education was “very satisfying and wonderful. It offered a different kind of richness, a richness of spirit.”

Her first seven years of teaching were in the Franklyn McKinley District where she substituted every grade. She taught music.

“I have found that the children haven’t changed that much at all. Working in a religious school helps. In a Catholic school, the children share the same values,” she noted.

Hard to see kids leave
As principal, the most difficult thing for Gomez has been the tuition. It’s tough, she said, watching people leave because of the tuition. “Many times we were able to make it work out, but not always. It’s also hard to turn away children because we don’t meet their needs.

I don’t know of any Catholic schools that have special programs for children with needs except for St. Lawrence,” she said.

The school also must continue to raise its tuition. “We have to pay PG&E, pay for garbage and for textbooks and we have to pay teachers a decent wage. Prices just keep going up,” she added. “But I was very fortunate. We’ve had a constant staff of dedicated people [working] at St. Francis.”

In fact, three or four of her former students either have taught or are teaching now. It’s really quite a compliment, Gomez said. In addition, lots of parents of current St. Francis students were Gomez’s students in the past.

The best thing about her years at St. Francis are the children, she said. “The kids are wonderful. They keep you young. You don’t become stagnant teaching school. They also are the hardest thing about leaving, they’ve been such a big part of my life. I’ve also had such a wonderful and supportive staff. I’ve been blessed,” she added.

Changes
A lot of things have changed since Gomez began teaching at St. Francis. The school has added an administration building, fences, classrooms and full time aids in pre-kindergarten through fifth and a single aid for each of the upper grades. She also started the pre-kindergarten class and added a full time counselor and resource teacher.

In addition, she brought in Spanish, art and music teachers and put in an age appropriate day care for the upper grades.

“We also added science, and lots of specialized programs. And, we have a library with a librarian,” Gomez said.

In addition, the school has quite a service program, where students contribute 100 hours before graduation. The older kids work at places such as Loaves and Fishes and Sacred Heart. “It’s a family-oriented school. Parents have to do 40 service hours, serving as an aid, chaperones, baking for the day care and so forth. Sometimes they help out with yard work and our sports program.”

The school has a regular physical education program, but after school offers a number of sports activities such as flag football, volleyball, basketball and track.

“I’ve spent 42 years of my life in schools and loved every minute of it. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s nice to know we’ve had some impact on kids lives.”

Now, though, it’s time to think of herself, and Gomez expects to spend a lot of her time as a volunteer. She plans to help out at Sacred Heart Nativity School, where she is needed because she is bilingual (Spanish). She’s also thinking about helping out at hospitals as a volunteer to hold babies too sick to go home.

But she and her husband plan to keep busy too. “He bought bicycles,” she said laughing. Gomez has a daughter and granddaughter.

Seventh year
Cirone started teaching at St. Francis seven years ago. She began with social studies. “Change is hard, she said, most people worry when there are changes. But sometimes good things happen with change, it opens the door to new ideas.”

Although she has a teaching certificate, a law degree—she’s also passed the bar and 30 units toward a master’s degree in administration—she started out as a stay-at-home mom. She worked as a substitute teacher and volunteered her time. She and her pediatrician husband have four children, three sons and a daughter ranging in age from 26 to 20.

St. Francis is a strong school, Cirone said, with a wonderful staff. It has a diverse enrollment and lots of parents have been out of work due to the recession. Since the dot-com bust, enrollment has dropped. In the past, enrollment has been as high as 680 students, this year it was 610.

Improve aid
“There’s a greater need for aid. In normal years, $20,000 in financial aid is OK, last year we needed $80,000. I have a goal to work on expanding and developing increased endowments to keep tuition affordable and give assistance where it’s needed,” she said. “People make lots of sacrifices to keep their kids here. We work hard to ensure these children get a quality education that’s also affordable.”

Cirone has some plans other than improving financial problems. She hopes to make additional, but gradual improvements to the science lab and restart monthly coffee chats with parents. She also hopes to plan activities to make new parents feel welcome and to help those planning to leave for high school. In addition, she wants to bring back cookie chats with the kids.

“I love to bake, and I’d love to make homemade cookies and restart the cookie chats.”

Cirone also hopes to increase enrollments, build up the school’s development program and build up endowments at the same time she helps the school build good relationships with the community. At the same time, she hopes to work with the parish to make improvements in the gym.

Most of all, Cirone wants to do a good job, to provide quality education for the children, just like her predecessor.