Longtime leader of St. Francis School ousted

Sister Joan of Arc Souza, who led St. Francis School in Manoa for 27 of its 94 years as its head of school and principal, was no longer employed at the school as of Monday.

Sister Barbara Jean Donovan, who is responsible for 364 Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities from Honolulu to Syracuse, N.Y., arrived in town with Susan Crossett, executive director of the Partners in Franciscan Ministries, to talk to Souza about retiring in a meeting Monday morning, Donovan said.

“No, actually I did not come into town to fire her,” Donovan told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Wednesday. “I came to talk to her about retirement. …Well, she chose not to retire.”

Asked about Souza’s employment status, Donovan said, “she is no longer the head of St. Francis School in Manoa” and is no longer a school employee.

Souza, 74, could not be reached for comment. With her departure, St. Francis no longer has a nun on campus for the first time in its 94-year history.

Hawaii’s second Catholic saint, Saint Marianne Cope, was a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities when she arrived from Syracuse to tend to Hansen’s disease patients on Molokai.

Souza’s interim replacement is her assistant principal, Erin Marshall.

“You can’t fire a nun,” said Phyllis Leimomi Stephenson, a Saint Francis alumna from the class of 1955 and a former board president of the St. Francis Alumni Association. “Nuns don’t get fired. What is that all about? I have no understanding what is going down the pipe with this.”

Stephenson was among those who successfully pushed officials in Syracuse in 2015 to rescind a plan to close the sisters’ Manoa convent and relocate them to The Plaza at Pearl City assisted living facility.

This week, Stephenson joined 14 other alumni who visited the school following Souza’s exit and were greeted with all kinds of rumors that Stephenson could not verify.

Among them was talk about the school’s financial future.

Donovan said school officials have been trying to quell the rumors in an email to students’ families and during a meeting with school faculty.

Some 418 students already are enrolled for preschool to 12th grade in the fall and more are expected as the school year draws closer, Donovan said.

“There have been some rumors and some misinformation so we have addressed those,” Donovan said. “The school is not going to close. The school is not going to merge. The school is going to make changes to be stronger in the future and guarantee those things do not happen. Operations will stay the same. The people will stay the same. The only big change is that Erin Marshall has been appointed as interim head of school. The board of directors is putting together a search committee and recruiting a new head of school.”

Pressed why Donovan and Crossett came to speak to Souza about retiring, Donovan said, “A 28-year stint in the same position in the same school sometimes becomes routine. … As we move the school forward, we needed some new blood with new ideas to handle the changes that are taking place and try to guarantee the future of the school.”

Asked if St. Francis is in danger of closing because of financial problems, Donovan said, “No it’s not. But we’re looking cautiously at finances for the future.”