New Principal of SJ23

St. John XXIII Catholic Parish is pleased to announce the hiring of Mrs. Marie Lippe to serve as the next Principal of St. John XXIII Catholic School. Effective July 1, 2024, Mrs. Lippe will be succeeding Mrs. Kristine Klein who has accepted an offer to become the Middle School Principal of the Notre Dame School of Milwaukee.

While the principal role will be new to Mrs. Lippe, she is very familiar with St. John XXIII Catholic School having served as a teacher there from August 2015 through June 2023. This past year she has been a Professor of Education at Concordia University Wisconsin, but with Mrs. Klein’s resignation, she felt called to return to St. John XXIII to take on an even greater leadership role.

Mrs. Lippe brings a wealth of early childhood, elementary, and middle level educational experience to the table, having served as a pre-school, kindergarten, 1st grade, and 4th grade teacher, along with teaching 5th through 8th grade English language arts. Moreover, she served as St. John XXIII Catholic School’s Dean of Students from 2017 through 2023. In addition, she has extensive experience as a literacy coach and new teacher mentor.

An accomplished teacher in her own right, Mrs. Lippe earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Education through Concordia University Wisconsin in 1998, and then her Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction in 2012, also at Concordia. Since then she has furthered her professional development through conferences at the local, state, regional, and national levels, with a particular focus on reading and writing instruction, literacy coaching, and professional learning communities.

As the new St. John XXIII Catholic School Principal, Mrs. Lippe is sure to benefit from the strong foundation built by Mrs. Klein who, through her nine-year principal tenure, has returned St. John XXIII Catholic School to fully accredited status, united formerly separate elementary and middle school programs onto one campus, enabled the St. John XXIII Catholic School community to successfully meet the extraordinary challenges brought on by the pandemic, and stemmed a longstanding decline in enrollment that is now on the verge of reaching 200.

In reflecting on this significant change in school leadership, Fr. Patrick Wendt, long-time Pastor of St. John XXIII Catholic Parish, is grateful for Mrs. Klein’s service and wishes her well in her new principal role, and looks forward to having Mrs. Lippe further advance the learning interests of the St. John XXIII Catholic School community for many years to come.