Principal Melissa Winter believes her principal role is to help parents get their children to heaven. Winter transitioned from a teacher to a principal within St. Joseph Catholic School in Conway Springs, where she began as a fifth-grade teacher in 2005.

“I just fell in love with Catholic schools and their mission,” she said. “And when I decided to become an administrator, I knew the diocese was where I was going to land. I never in a million years thought it would be at St. Joseph.”

Winter noted that the transition was smooth due to the supportive staff. “They welcomed me and showed me grace and helped me along the way.”

Winter emphasized that while public and Catholic school curricula are similar, what sets Catholic schools apart is their mission: “That mission is to get kids to heaven. And so, along with parents – parents being the number one educator of their children – we can help you with your job as a parent, and that’s to get your child to heaven. Everyone becomes better Catholics in that way.”

She tells parents that their children's faith will strengthen theirs and vice versa. “We take that mission very seriously.”

The traditions associated with Catholic schools leave lasting impressions on students, according to Winter.

“Our alumni will come back and talk about how they remember putting on a Christmas play or how they remember dressing up as saints on All Saints Day. And we can say that we still do those,” she said.

“We still teach the core of our faith through those traditions and we can relate to our community and our parish in that way. They become involved in our school and they want to make sure that we stay here.”

Winter plans to continue nurturing these traditions into the future. “That support, our parish support, our community support, our parental support is phenomenal. I am excited because I’m starting to see the next generation come in. I can’t think of St. Joseph Catholic Church without St. Joseph Catholic School and I don’t think that will change for many generations.”

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