After 46 years in education, St. Hubert High School principal Joanne Walls is retiring.
Joanne Walls enjoyed being principal at St. Hubert High School, but she was feeling a tug toward retirement.
James Walls, her husband, is a property manager for three shopping centers, but has been working three days a week as he eases into retirement.
“You can’t be a principal three days a week,” Joanne Walls said.
Friday will be her last day as principal. In a 46-year career in education, she had two stints each as principal and president at St. Hubert.
“It was a good ride,” she said. “I had a lot of opportunities in 46 years. It’s been wonderful. I’ve been fortunate.”
Walls will be replaced by Gerry Laskowski, who started Monday. He is the former grants compliance officer for the School District of Philadelphia.
The outgoing principal has mixed emotions as she exits the school at Torresdale and Cottman avenues for good.
“I won’t be in the building with students,” she said. “The kids give you the energy. That’s the piece that will be hard to adjust to.”
Walls, 66, attended St. George Elementary School in Port Richmond, then the former all-girls St. Francis Academy in Pittsburgh. She spent 15 years teaching at Little Flower, including five as dean of students. She was also activities director at Ryan, including the period in early 1988 when the boys and girls schools began plans for a merger.
Next, she spent eight years at St. Hubert, serving as principal from 1988–94 and as the school’s first president from 1994–96.
Walls, though, enjoyed being a principal and served in that role for three years at Cardinal Dougherty — her first time working at a co-ed school — before joining the Ocean City (New Jersey) School District, where she was principal of the high school and primary school. She helped implement the educational and architectural plans for a new Ocean City High School building. She retired in 2013.
While Walls was at Ocean City, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced in 2012 that St. Hubert would close due to declining enrollment. During that time, she spent weekends helping St. Hubert with its appeal.
In the end, St. Hubert stayed open. Walls unretired and returned as principal in 2013. She stayed four years, and even had a second stint as president, performing double duty during the 2015–16 school year.
At the graduation ceremony in June, she awarded honorary diplomas to three retiring staff members: world languages department chairwoman Marianne Burpulis, theology teacher Sister Mary Ann Gaughens and secretary Marge Garvin.
A week after the last day for underclassmen, Walls announced her retirement, giving the archdiocese 60 days to find her replacement.
Walls, who lives in Riverton, New Jersey, will miss St. Hubert. She was at the school for its 50th and 75th anniversaries. She invited the “Golden Girls” — women celebrating 50 years of graduating from the school — to walk at graduation. And she welcomed moms and grandmoms who graduated from the school to escort their daughters and granddaughters into the baccalaureate Mass.
“It’s a real family,” she said. “The kids, they’re great. The school is so central to this area. The community identifies with St. Hubert.”
Walls won’t be fully retired, as she’ll teach a course in educational finance at St. Joseph’s University. She also hopes to do some consulting.
In October, she expects to attend the 25th anniversary celebration of Little Flower avoiding closure.
Some of her fondest memories are from the 1970s, when she worked at LF and had some duties related to the International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia in 1976, the same year as the bicentennial celebration.
“I got to meet Mother Teresa and Grace Kelly,” she said. “That summer of ’76 was an exciting time.”
In 1979, she was at Philadelphia International Airport for the arrival and departure of Pope John Paul II. Little Flower students held 50 City of Philadelphia flags along the pope’s motorcade route on Broad Street, and all 2,000 LF students sung two songs in Polish for him as he departed the airport.
“It was beautiful,” she recalled.
Looking to the future, she and her husband will spend some time at their home in Cape May and more time with their two children and eight grandchildren.
They’ll vacation in Aruba in November. Their travel plans also include a tour of the United States. They hope to visit all 50 states and the national parks.
Walls would like to see the championship St. Hubert cheerleading team, led by coach Lisa McNesby, compete in Florida. She is looking forward to attending events such as Coach Bingo, Breakfast with Santa Claus, Bambies on the River and the Bob Pantano Dance Party that are organized by the St. Hubert Alumni Association.
“The Alumnae Association really works hard. They’re a very strong organization,” she said.
Walls always believed that, if students liked their school, they would do well academically. She sensed pride among students at all of her local stops — Little Flower, Ryan, St. Hubert and Dougherty.
Walls respects everyone who works in Catholic education, and put out a call to keep it an option for parents.
“We need everybody to support Catholic education for it to continue,” she said. ••
