Local principal receives award

Principal Christopher Signor was recently awarded the Distinguished Leader Award at the 24th annual New York State Conference for Administrators of Independent and Religious Schools.

"It was a great honor to be recognized by my peers," he said. "It's something I never really expected to experience."

Signor, along with two others, received the award in front of 700 other private school administrators from across the state on Nov. 17 at the Marriott Hotel in Albany. While he said he felt honored and humbled by the award, he couldn't quite see how he was chosen in such a huge pool of talent at first.

"With humility, I tried to find my connection to the award," Signor said. "I was thinking, 'why me?'"

According to Sister Jane Herb, Superintendent of the Catholic Schools Roman Catholic Diocese, Signor was chosen by not only his excellent ability to lead a school of 209 students, but the community outreach he has implemented throughout the school. He has started fundraising efforts for St. Jude's Children's Hospital and area soup kitchens.

"One of the main goals of the Catholic Church is social justice," he said. "It is our job to implement the Gospel to serve, not to be served."

Along with the outreach efforts he has made with the school, Signor has proven to be a successful leader by operating the school smoothly since 2004. Being the principal of a non-public school, he also functions as superintendent, making decisions and seeing the impact immediately, he said.

"To run a successful educational institution, we must not only be good managers, but we look for strong management skills in our staff," he said. "Non-public schools have to be efficient and frugal with budgets. That takes quite a bit of creativity."

Signor got his start teaching in 1988 after he graduated from Cornell University. He began teaching social studies and economics at Queensbury High School then moved on to become assistant principal at Hudson Falls Middle School and principal of special programs at BOCES before taking the position of principal at Saratoga Central Catholic High School, the same high school he attended, in 2004 when former principal Ed Hammond retired.

"I saw an opportunity to come back to my alma mater and build on the success of the school," he said. "I came back in a critical time for private schools. Nationally, many schools were closing."

Signor doesn't see Spa Catholic going anywhere soon, as it has been a strong school since 1862, he said. The school has continued to expand their academic and extracurricular programs since, and this past year was one of the most successful years for the school.

"We collected more tuition this year than over the past four years. I have a feeling that, despite the economy, we will see a large number of reenrollments," he added.

Signor also has big goals for his students. This past year, 73 percent of graduating seniors received an Advanced Regent's diploma. By 2010, Signor said each graduating senior will receive the advanced diploma. He also plans to add more Advanced Placement courses each year to better prepare his students for college.

"We are a college preparatory institution that sends our students to the best colleges in the nation. Adding more AP classes helps prepare the students for what they will be doing in the coming years," he said.

Most importantly though, Signor said he believes that his job is to pass down the values of the Gospel and high standards for education to the next generations.

"We serve the children and ultimately we serve the world," he said. "The people who send their children here aren't necessarily the richest families, but they share the values that we have at Saratoga Central Catholic."