Mill Creek Catholic school principal takes on a larger mission

Published 10:59 pm Saturday, September 12, 2009

MILL CREEK — A coffee mug on Kris Brynildsen-Smith’s desk states firmly: “Be fearless.”

Yet she’s the first to say it took a lot more than a steely resolve to control the reins of Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy High School, formerly Holy Cross High School, for 17 years.

“This has been the most faith-filled experience I have ever had,” she said.

Brynildsen-Smith will leave the school she helped build at the end of the month. At the invitation of Archbishop Alexander Brunett, the principal has accepted a new job as special assistant for schools for the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle. She will help struggling Catholic schools in Western Washington get back on their feet.

During her tenure, Archbishop Murphy has grown from 110 students to nearly 600 and from 15 faculty and staff to 65. The annual budget has increased from $600,000 to $6 million. After years of fundraising, the campus moved in 1999 from a run-down elementary school with sporadic heat in north Everett to a new school with modern science labs near Mill Creek.

These days, Brynildsen-Smith can smile and even laugh about her early days with the school.

During her first week on the job at Holy Cross, the IRS called to tell her the school owed $68,000 in back taxes and threatened to close it down. She and her newly hired business manager discovered boxes of unopened invoices. Textbook companies didn’t want to do business with the school because of non-payment.

Brynildsen-Smith, a former public school teacher whose career in education spans 37 years, would routinely wait several days to cash her own paycheck until she was sure enough past-due tuition bills had been paid to cover the expense.

There were tough decisions to make on the front lines as well. The first year, she had to expel at least a half-dozen students whose behavior she felt detracted from the learning of others. For a school barely making it, it pained her to watch the tuition walk out the door, but she said she knew it was the right thing to do.

Jim Leonard, in his 21st year with the school as an English and history teacher, had been thrust into the role of interim principal at Holy Cross when Brynildsen-Smith arrived. He was just thankful to get back to the classroom and leave the administrative headaches behind.

“She has been a really good principal,” Leonard said. “Probably more than anyone else, she built the school to what it is today.”

Brynildsen-Smith, who converted to Catholicism, said the school set goals of a high-quality college prep education, a strong athletic program to help students feel a part of their school and an emphasis on the arts.

All of last year’s 140-member graduating class planned to attend college this fall. Eighty-five percent were headed to four-year schools. The class is attending 80 colleges in the United States and Canada. It also put in 16,000 hours of community service.

The key, Brynildsen-Smith and Leonard agree, is the staff she has assembled over the years.

“Thank God for the quality core faculty,” Brynildsen-Smith said. “They are what was the heart of the school and continues to be. I have been surrounded by totally dedicated hard-working people.”

She also said parents, parishes and the board of trustees have rallied behind the school, allowing it to grow and thrive.

In a letter sent earlier this week to families and friends of the school, Archbishop Murphy President Robert Graby wrote of Brynildsen-Smith: “She has touched the lives of thousands of people in an extraordinary way and has lived the mission of Archbishop Murphy High School consistently every day. This school has been blessed by her presence.”

In a letter of her own, Brynildsen-Smith signed off: “No matter what, I will always be a Wildcat.”

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com