New principal brings fresh approach to CBA tradition SOMDATTA SENGUPTA, Editor, The Courier, July 17 Posted:07/19/08
Click on picture to Zoom
Brother James Butler, the new principal, is proud to have the opportunity to work on perfection. He is motivated to make Christian Brothers Academy, Lincroft, even better than what it is today. “I have learned over the years that I like a challenge that I can meet with a community of people. I like a situation where I know there is a good reason to get up in the morning, and I am making a difference throughout the day,” he said.
Butler joined CBA on June 1. He said his driving force is the example that is in front of him. “The brothers who have been here before me have made this institution the finest it can be,” he said.
That makes his job even more appealing to him. “At the present moment, I see this as a school that is running extremely well. I see this as a school that has academics that is second to none, that we take pride in,” Butler said. “A school that has a robust service program, a highly competitive athletic program, and a structure of faith formation for the young man that really permeates the institution. My goal is to enhance each of these areas, to create new opportunities for service.”
Butler is a Long Island native who grew up in Florida, according to a CBA Today article introducing him to the community. He attended Bishop Moore Catholic High School in Orlando; earned his bachelor’s degree from LaSalle University in Philadelphia in 1982; graduated in English literature from the University of Pennsylvania in the 1990s; and taught at the University of Tasmania, Australia, as part of his graduate work between 1994 and 1996.
Butler also taught at Bethlehem University in the West Bank during fall of 2002. It was a very unique experience he said.
“The university is located 10 miles out of Jerusalem,” Butler said. “My teaching experience there helped me realize the advantages that we have in a place like this where we are able to pursue education in a very comfortable, very ordered environment, as opposed to the difficulty that came with the Intifada there.”
He said the university was basically under a state of occupation while he was teaching there.
“I taught English literature and English as a second language,” he said. “I was also teaching the literature of the Irish revolution that was written in Ireland around 1970. The students would read it and come to the insight that [the Irish] people were struggling against the British Empire exactly like their own people. It was fascinating to see the connection that they were making with their experience by the reading that they were doing in class.”
Butler said he also had the opportunity to teach in Africa and in high schools around the country. “I was assigned over the years to high schools in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Jersey City,” he said.
This is his seventh high school appointment and in the brief one and a half months that he has been here, he is excited with the potential that the school has, its reputation and its students.
“I want to be a representative of the values of this institution so that I can motivate the young people here to manifest the academy’s core principles as well,” the principal said.
Having been in the habit since 1981 when he joined the Brothers of the Christian Schools, Butler said he brings a wide range of skills to his current appointment.
“I have seen various ways to solve a problem. I have a big skills set that I can bring to addressing any problem,” he said.
His whole career has been inspired by the brothers he had met at LaSalle University in Philadelphia, Butler said.
“I joined the brothers because I was very impressed with the spirit of the order and the quality of the men at LaSalle University when I was a student there,” the principal said. “We had 40 brothers on campus involved in teaching and administration. I had the opportunity to have a lot of daily contact with them.”
The interaction that he had at LaSalle University made Butler choose a teaching career that imparts not just education but also spiritual growth.
Being with the religious order, Butler said he was able to travel to different countries and learn from his exposure.
Administratively, the new principal believes that a variety of experience like his is very helpful in routine problem solving. “My experience has taught me that what works in one situation does not necessarily work in another. I have learned that you have to tailor your response to fit the context of the problem,” Butler said.
In the context of CBA, Butler said he wants to develop marquee academic programs that would attract the best and the brightest. “I think more niche programs, such as the ones that public schools have in the magnet programs, would attract more talented individuals,” Butler said.
The CBA advantage, according to the new principal, is that the school offers academic excellence without having to sacrifice the dimension for faith formation and character education that is unique to a Catholic and LaSallian school.
That added dimension of character formation is key to the institution and the individuals in it, Butler said. “You want people with character so that you don’t have instances of corporate corruption and greed that we see in the world around us today,” he said.
Getting it right is just as important as starting it right, Butler said.
“I believe I will spend most of the first year learning about the needs of the school that will attract the most support as a project,” he said.
Butler said he has already met quite a few parents and hopes to meet many more in the coming months.
“My priority is to get to know the young men and their families because it is part of our tradition to motivate people from the inside out,” Butler said. “That’s how we make a young man the best that he could be.”
Back
To read more stories in this week's issue, pick up a copy of The Courier at your local newstand.
