Principal Dan Dester is one of the newest members at Bishop Carroll Catholic High School in Wichita. Bringing a fresh perspective, Dester aims to introduce new ideas and build on existing traditions.

“I’m sure that Joe Godina, who followed me at Trinity, is going to walk in there and say ‘Why don’t they have this? They should have this.’ I think a fresh set of eyes does that,” he said. “I think with Keaton McCracken being new, there’s going to be a lot of opportunity for new ideas.”

McCracken serves as the assistant principal of Academics at BCCHS.

Dester succeeds Vanessa Harshberger, who held the principal position for 17 years. Prior to his current role, Dester was principal at Trinity for four years and has extensive experience in education. He began teaching at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School in Wichita before moving to Magdalen Catholic School. He then served as principal of St. Jude Catholic School for five years and Blessed Sacrament Catholic School for nine years.

Reflecting on his time at Trinity, Dester noted the positive environment but felt drawn to BCCHS when the position became available.

“So I prayed about it. I talked to my wife about it. There are only four high schools (in the diocese) and two in Wichita so they’re not going to open up very often. When it did, I felt I had to consider it. It just kept feeling right so I applied and it went from there.”

Since joining BCCHS, Dester has been working closely with students and teachers, focusing on community building and strengthening the school’s Catholic identity.

“It’s already great here – I don’t want to come off saying I’m going to come in and fix this place – but the area I see where we can really grow is in community and our Catholic identity.”

A significant challenge for Dester is managing an enrollment five times larger than Trinity’s.

“It’s much larger, but there are a lot more pieces to that: there are two assistant principals, four counselors, and a president,” he said. “So my job kind of gets smaller but I’m doing more of a smaller job – if that makes sense. With the community system that we have in place, it makes schools within a school – eight little schools to get to know.”

The additional administrative support requires Dester to adapt his management style by delegating responsibilities more effectively.

“I’m used to being the person that does a lot of things that here I’m not going be able to do, so I have to delegate and really let loose of that delegation.”

Looking ahead, Dester hopes to enhance the school’s traditions, educational standards, and formation programs.

“I’d like to see the enrollment go up. I’d like to see our scores go up. I’d like to see more vocations come out of here and there’s already a great tradition of vocations coming out of here.”