Archbishop Carroll’s new president brings change and plans more

Archbishop Carroll’s new president, Dr. Patricia Scott, already has made changes on campus since her July debut and has more plans for the school, including improving the campus.

Dr. Scott prioritized safety and security when it came to the new things implemented on the school’s campus, which led to improvements in lighting and video camera surveillance as well as in landscaping. During the summer, Dr. Scott cut down a lot of the shrubs, bushes, and large plants surrounding the school doors and the perimeter of the campus to ensure the safety of those who are at Carroll at night. 

“I didn’t like that there were students and staff leaving at night and not being able to have a clear vision to their car,” Scott said.

Aside from safety concerns, Scott said she wanted to enhance student spaces. For example, Dr. Scott upgraded the library with new seats, couches, and tables. 

“I reimagined the library, and I’m still working on it,” Scott said, “I still have to get the band out of there, which is going to happen by the end of this month.”

Dr. Scott said the band will move into Room 200, which will be soundproof.

Furthermore, Scott revamped the courtyard, which is the outdoor space in between the library and the auditorium.  

Future property improvement plans include remodeling the auditorium by removing and replacing the seats and adding a new ventilation system. Dr. Scott said she also wants to renovate the fields. She offered no timeline on when that work would happen. It all depends on raising money.

“For us, the money that we want to raise is focused on student support, then we’ll go to capital campaigns, which is redoing big projects like the auditorium,” Scott said.

Student support includes helping more kids come to Carroll on scholarships. 

“I think families are in need,” Scott said. “That need is going to continue to get greater through all this pandemic and post-pandemic. I don’t think that need is going to disappear.”

Dr. Scott mentioned that there has to be a better job at raising funds to provide enough scholarship money. Reaching out to the alumni is one of the ways Dr. Scott plans to raise funds. Updating the alumni database and giving alumni more of a reason to donate money is essential, she said. 

“My goal is to raise money to support students who cannot afford this education but deserve it as much as anyone else,” Scott said. “That’s really important to me and it’s important to the mission of this school. That’s why Catholic schools were formed.”

One of the ways Carroll raises money is by renting space to The Grayson School. The Grayson School arrived on campus in the fall of 2019. It rented the first floor on the east side, the Room 201 lecture hall, and two classrooms on the second floor on the east side. Now the school utilizes all of the classrooms on the first floor and second floor on the east side, including Room 201, as well as two of the offices that used to be part of Carroll’s main office suite. 

“Grayson provides income for the school, ” Dr. Scott said. “That being said, there will be no more space allocated towards Grayson. The goal is for Carroll to ultimately not need an additional income.”

Many wonder why the school needs that extra influx of money and where the tuition money is going. Scott explained that tuition money is how the school runs, or in other words: operations.

“That’s how we turn on our lights every morning; it pays the electrical bill, it helps pay salaries for employees, it pays for the computers in the technologies that we all have, including students,” Scott said. “It pays for everything we need to keep this building running,” 

Although her job focuses on the business side of Carroll, Dr. Scott said that she wants to makes sure that she is present at school events to become more involved with the student body. 

“It’s hard when you’re president because my role is to really be outside, to be the face of Carroll for the outside world, and to run the business side of Carroll,” Scott said. “Now, I can’t help it, I’m an educator and I’ve been a principal for a very long time. I’m very interested in every student’s academic experience, too.”

Before Archbishop Carroll, Dr. Scott was a principal at St. Edmond’s in Wilmington, Delaware, for 13 years. Scott then resigned, saying she needed an educational break, and worked for a nonprofit called The Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children. 

“In my second year, I already knew I wanted to go back into education,” Scott said. 

Even during the interviewing process, Dr. Scott knew she would love to work at Archbishop Carroll.

“Once I started interviewing, I just really liked everybody,” Scott said. “Everything clicked.”