Houston Schmutz is one of 142 seniors ready to graduate tonight from Archbishop Murphy High School. He is the only one whose father has been the school’s principal the past four years.
“My dad and I are really close. It’s more like having my best friend at school,” the Edmonds teen said Thursday.
Unlike his son, who plans to play baseball for Spokane Falls Community College, Principal Steve Schmutz will still be at Archbishop Murphy next year. His role, though, is about to change.
Matthew Schambari, for four years Archbishop Murphy High School’s president, is moving to Topeka, Kansas. He has been selected as president of Hayden Catholic High School in Topeka. Both are Roman Catholic schools that coincidentally have the same mascots — Wildcats.
With the end of this academic year, Schmutz becomes Murphy’s new president. Alex Crane, a former math teacher and a vice principal at Murphy, will be principal of the south Everett area school.
Asked about the difference between Catholic school’s principal and president, Schmutz gave an uncomplicated answer.
“The president is the outward face of the school,” he said. “The principal is the inward face.”
A visit to his office Wednesday offered a glimpse of how focused Schmutz has been on students during his time as principal. It’s a welcoming place, with quotes from Pope John Paul II and school namesake Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy painted on a red wall.
As principal, Schmutz insisted that his office would be in Grace Hall, which houses the school cafeteria, library, classrooms and a computer lab. He had the same office, with a big window looking out on the cafeteria, when he was Murphy’s dean of students. “It gives me automatic connectivity to students,” he said.
Schmutz, 44, also taught social studies at Murphy, and for a year was principal of Eastside Catholic High School.
A native of Spokane, Schmutz has been in Catholic education for much of his life. He attended high school at Gonzaga Preparatory School, earned his bachelor’s degree at Santa Clara University, a master’s degree at Gonzaga University and principal certification at Seattle University.
His wife, Stephanie Schmutz, teaches at Saint Alphonsus Parish School in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, where Houston and his younger sister, Sydney, went to elementary school. This year, the family had two children at Murphy. Sydney will be a sophomore in the fall.
Schmutz’s new position will bring more involvement with the community, but he said he’ll stay connected to students. “Matt Schambari has been a good model for me,” he said, adding that his predecessor brought to Murphy the Kairos retreat program that has taken juniors and seniors to Camp Brotherhood and the Warm Beach Camp.
As president, Schmutz will have new responsibilities in marketing, admissions and ties to the business community. This year, there were 520 students at Murphy, but Schmutz said the campus can well serve at least 600. The student body is 70 percent Roman Catholic, Schmutz said, and about 60 percent receive tuition assistance. Annual tuition at the school is $15,000, he said.
A reader board visible to visitors entering the parking lot touts the $12 million in scholarship offers received by the school’s class of 2016.
The next president is excited about the future of Archbishop Murphy. It was Holy Cross High School when it opened in 1988 in Everett’s former Our Lady of Perpetual Help grade school.
A new 260-seat St. Thomas Chapel is under construction at Murphy, a project due to be finished later this year. The chapel is the cornerstone of the school’s $6 million Faith and Future capital campaign.
In the 2017-2018 academic year, Murphy plans to launch a health studies program, Schmutz said.
Future projects, perhaps a decade off, include a performing arts center and a second gym, said Christine Wollin, Murphy’s director of development. Wollin graduated from Murphy a decade ago, in 2006.
“It’s an exciting time to be here,” Wollin said. “We’re just now seeing legacy students. Our first students’ kids are old enough to come here.”
As Houston Schmutz steps into his new life, he feels blessed to have had his father as his principal.
“I know my dad will miss that, but he’ll make sure he’s visible on campus,” he said. “Kids will see him.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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