Sister Joan of Arc Souza with Saint Francis School students in 2016. (Photo courtesy of Saint Francis School)
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Sister Joan of Arc Souza, a Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, was abruptly let go from her role as head of school at Saint Francis School in Manoa on June 13.
Sister Joan of Arc had led Saint Francis since 1991, seeing it through a transformation from an all-girls high school to a pre-kindergarten through 12th grade co-ed campus.
Sister Barbara Jean Donovan, general minister for the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, based in Syracuse, told the Hawaii Catholic Herald by phone June 14 that she flew to Oahu not to fire Sister Joan of Arc but to ask her to start transitioning out of her role as head of school and into retirement.
“She has done an excellent job,” Sister Barbara Jean said. “She’s a really good person with lots of skills and she has served that school very, very well.
“After 28 years, considering retirement is a good thing,” she said. “She did not want to retire, so I removed her from the school.”
“She is in her 70s and there are changes and updating that need to be done that become very difficult when you’ve been there so long.”
Sister Barbara Jean said the school operations, particularly finances and “how scholarships are given,” need a look over and updating to “increase the financial sustainability” of Saint Francis.
But she emphasized that Sister Joan of Arc “didn’t do anything bad” and that the school would not close or merge.
“And that is why we are doing this, to guarantee a firm future,” Sister Barbara Jean said.
Erin Marshall, Saint Francis’ assistant principal for the last four years, was named the interim head of school while its board of directors starts a search for a permanent replacement.
A “foundation in Franciscan values” and strong administrative and financial skills will be key strengths looked for in the new leader, Sister Barbara Jean said.
Interim head of school Marshall taught English at Saint Francis before becoming an administrator. She also attended the school in ninth and tenth grade and had Sister Joan of Arc as a teacher.
Marshall said Sister Joan of Arc is a straight shooter and that she hopes to “continue her legacy and hard work she has left at St. Francis.”
“It’s not like I’m stepping into her shoes,” she said. “It’s like I’m taking her shoes with me.”
“I see good things coming.”
Surprise at news
A group of about 10 Saint Francis alumni gathered on campus to pray together on June 14, the day after the announcement of Sister Joan of Arc’s being let go.
“We thought prayer would be the best thing,” said Saint Francis alumni president Rita Chun, saying the alumni she’s spoken with expressed surprise and disbelief over the news.
Sister Joan of Arc was not reachable for comment at the time this story went to print and is currently visiting relatives on the Mainland.
But former Saint Francis alumni board member Phyllis Stephenson said she spoke with Sister Joan of Arc briefly after a June 16 evening Mass at St. Francis Convent.
“You could see the hurt on her face,” she said. “I was very sad to see that.”
Stephenson also said Sister Joan of Arc was glad to see the small group of Saint Francis alumni that had a short prayer gathering before Mass that evening.
“Sister is compassionate. She’s very spiritual and she’s worked hard. Her years of working with the Franciscans prove it,” Stephenson said.
Stephenson said she was shocked by Sister Joan of Arc’s dismissal, citing how she successfully turned Saint Francis into a co-ed campus and how her efforts in 2015, alongside other Saint Francis alumni and supporters, helped keep retired Franciscan sisters at the convent on school property when Syracuse leadership wanted to move them to another location.
“She wants the school to be a place of joy and a place of learning and spirituality,” Stephenson said.
Saint Francis ties
Born in Pauoa, Rochelle Souza graduated from Saint Francis in 1961 and entered the Franciscan Sisters that same year, taking the religious name Sister Joan of Arc.
She served at parishes in New York and New Jersey before becoming Saint Francis’ religion department chair from 1973-1984. She served as a director of religious education in Syracuse, New York, from 1984-1991 and then returned as Saint Francis’ principal.
Founded by the Franciscan Sisters as an all-girls school in 1924, Saint Francis officially started accepting boys in 2006 in order to make the school more competitive among Oahu’s private schools. (One boy graduated in 2002 after transferring from the closing, co-ed satellite Saint Francis campus on Kauai.) It graduated its first co-ed high school class in 2013.
Sister Joan of Arc was key to the co-ed transition, which was a tough one for her to make, she told the Herald in 2012. “But anything alive has to change. It has to move, or it’ll die.”
Saint Francis started its own Interscholastic League of Honolulu varsity football team in 2012. Its IHL Division II boys basketball team has won three state IHL Division II titles including one this year. The boys’ volleyball team and the softball team won state titles this past year.
In the 50th anniversary jubilarian biography Sister Joan of Arc submitted to the Hawaii Catholic Herald in 2012, she wrote, “Having taught every grade level, the most exciting thing about being in education is to see the delight on students’ faces when they have that ‘Aha’ moment understanding a new concept. As an administrator, I have the authority to say to a mother who has just lost her husband, ‘Your child will graduate from Saint Francis School; do not worry about the tuition.’”
“On behalf of the entire school community, the Sisters of St. Francis and the board of directors, we express our sincere gratitude for her service,” said Randall Yee, Saint Francis School board chairman, in a June 13 press release.
