When Mary of Nazareth School in Darnestown, Maryland, opened in a converted barn in August 1994, Sister Frances Stavalo, the petite founding principal, pulled a rope to ring the large school bell erected at its entranceway, and she also personally greeted most of the 79 students arriving for the first day of school and even opened some of their car doors.

“This is limo service!” she joked. But later she marveled that those first students from seven upper Montgomery County parishes attending kindergarten through third grade in converted classrooms on the barn’s ground floor and loft had become friends by the end of that first day. “They came together beautifully,” she said.

Sister Frances -- a member of the Religious Teachers Filippini who guided the school for its first eight years as it expanded into a permanent school building nearby serving pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade and grew to an enrollment of 411 students – died on Jan.12 at the age of 84.

A native of Jersey City, New Jersey, Sister Frances Stavalo was a Religious Teacher Filippini for 70 years, entering the order in 1951 and making her religious profession in 1955. In her early years of ministry, Sister Frances taught in parish elementary schools in New Jersey, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

An obituary from her religious order noted that Sister Frances once said, “Children have always been my great love.”

After leading Mary of Nazareth School from its founding in 1994, she left in 2002 after being elected the provincial superior of her religious community’s province in Bristol, Connecticut.

“It (Mary of Nazareth School) would not have been the success it was without a woman of her ability, commitment and faith,” said Father Raymond Fecteau, the founding pastor of neighboring Our Lady of Visitation Parish in Darnestown who let the school use the barn on the parish’s property as it started, before it moved to a nearby building that had been a boarding school, and expanded the facility to accommodate its growing program and student body. 

The priest, noting that the property had once been a working farm, said, “Instead of watching crops grow, I watched the school grow.”

Cardinal James Hickey, then the archbishop of Washington, had the vision of establishing a new regional Catholic school cosponsored by seven upper Montgomery County parishes: Our Lady of the Visitation; St. Mary’s Parish and Shrine in Barnesville; St. Paul’s in Damascus; St. Rose of Lima in Gaithersburg; Mother Seton in Germantown; St. John Neumann in Gaithersburg; and Our Lady of the Presentation in Poolesville.

The cardinal invited two religious orders to staff the school – the Religious Teachers Filippini and the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George – and the five sisters were joined by four lay women staffing Mary of Nazareth School when it opened in 1994 as the first new parish elementary school in the Archdiocese of Washington in 30 years.

Also greeting students on that first day was Msgr. Thomas Kane, the coordinator of the new school’s building program who was then the pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish in Norbeck. Ten years later, he opened a new school at St. Patrick’s. Msgr. Kane died Aug. 21, 2020 at the age of 93.

Cardinal Hickey – who served as the archbishop of Washington from 1980 until his retirement in 2000 and who died in 2004 – also opened a regional Catholic elementary school in Calvert County in 1997 that was named in his honor, the Cardinal Hickey Academy in Owings, Maryland.

The school in Darnestown was named Mary of Nazareth to symbolize a link between the Holy Family and the school’s role in promoting family life. At the school’s dedication, Cardinal Hickey said that school “will always have a special place in my heart.” Inside Mary of Nazareth School on a hallway wall near the main office, Cardinal Hickey is pictured in a mural, surrounded by children from the school.

At the dedication, Cardinal Hickey said the goal of Catholic education is helping students know God, so they can reflect God’s love in the world.

That point was emphasized by Sister Frances, who said on the school’s first day that the main lesson that students would be taught there would be how to make “Christ the center of their lives.”

On that day, she praised the support that parents had offered their new school. At a family day celebration before the school opened, parents helped clean up the grounds, unpack books and assemble desks. Parents had advocated for a Catholic school in that region, and they served with local priests and archdiocesan officials on a board and advisory committee that planned the school.

Sister Frances Stavalo, the founding principal of Mary of Nazareth School in Darnestown, Maryland, rings the bell on the first day of school there in August 1994. The school first opened in a converted barn and served 79 students in kindergarten through the third grade. Now housed in a nearby building with a middle school wing, it has nearly 450 students in pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade. (CS photo/Mark Zimmermann)

Dr. Dennis Stiles – who has a dental practice in Gaithersburg with his wife, Dr. Marie Stiles – chaired the first board for Mary of Nazareth School, and their son Andrew was a kindergarten student when the school opened in the barn, later followed by their daughter Elizabeth and son John Patrick. 

“She (Sister Frances) had the right heart for that moment in time to prosper the development of that school model envisioned by Cardinal Hickey,” Dennis Stiles said, adding that she instilled discipline at the school “with a kind heart, a heart for the kids.”

In a post on Mary of Nazareth’s Facebook page, he noted, “She (Sister Frances) has a passion and a love for Catholic education that inspired many in our community. She made sure every child under her watch felt worthy of God’s love, and she truly cared. It was an honor and a privilege to work side-by-side with her as the Mary of Nazareth community began its journey to be the beacon of Catholic education in upper Montgomery County.”

Dan Curtin, who served as the Archdiocese of Washington’s Secretary for Catholic Education from 1985-99, said Cardinal Hickey “really believed she set a strong foundation for the future success of that school.”

“She had the ability of bringing together a very strong faculty to meet the academic needs of the students there,” Curtin said, adding, “She made sure all the students at Mary of Nazareth were well prepared to move onto the next level of Catholic education.”

When Cardinal Hickey and others broke ground for the permanent building for Mary of Nazareth School in 1995, Sister Frances said it was exciting to watch the school grow and described it as “a dream come true.”

An article about Sister Frances leaving in 2002 to become her order’s provincial superior noted that in addition to serving as Mary of Nazareth School’s founding principal, she also helped raise funds for the school over the years, calling bingo in the auditorium, serving ice cream to patrons at a neighborhood McDonald’s on the school’s spirit days, and auctioning off the chance for students to play laser tag with her.

Sister Frances said she would always remember the school she helped create. “My heart is always here,” she said.

In an undated photo, Sister Frances Stavalo, then the principal of Mary of Nazareth School in Darnestown, gives an ice cream cone to a student in the school’s cafeteria. (Catholic Standard file photo)

Lisa Russ, then the president of the Home School Association there, said, “She leaves behind such a great legacy. I don’t know what I love about her more, her sense of humor or her ability to take control of any situation with a loving hand.”

Sister Frances said the students there had always been her main priority, and Lisa Calla-Russ – who now serves in the Human Resources department for the archdiocese – noted then, “She knows all of their names, and she cares about the students receiving an excellent education in a Catholic environment.”

Deirdre Schmutz, who now serves as the executive assistant to Cardinal Wilton Gregory, had two sons attend Mary of Nazareth School and served as Sister Frances’ assistant from 1999 to 2002. Schmutz noted, “Sister Frances Stavalo was dedicated to her vocation, her faith, her family, her students and especially her Yankees!”

Sister Frances provided students “with a foundation for success in life,” she said, adding, “ the legacy of Sister Francis remains a part of the school today… as the school continues to educate future leaders.”

Sister Elaine Bebyn, one of the three Religious Teachers Filippini who originally staffed the school, taught third, fourth, sixth and eighth grades there and was the middle school math and algebra teacher before succeeding Sister Frances as principal for the 2002-03 school year. Sister Viola Alu, a Religious Teacher Filippini who was a first grade aide for the first five years of Mary of Nazareth School, died on Jan. 20 at the age of 99.

Michael Friel was hired as the first lay principal for Mary of Nazareth School for the 2003-04 school year, and he continues to lead the school. 

Dr. Stiles, praising the leadership of Mary of Nazareth School that has spanned from Sister Frances to Friel, said, “Her legacy still lives on.”

During Friel’s leadership, Mary of Nazareth School was named as a National Blue Ribbon School in 2011 by the U.S. Department of Education, recognizing it as one of the nation’s outstanding schools. Friel was named as the Archdiocese of Washington’s 2019 Principal of the Year. Other highlights for the school in recent years include the addition of a new middle school wing in 2004, the dedication of the Susan McAndrews Falcone Computer Center there in 2006, and the launching of the school’s STREAM (Science Technology Religion Engineering Art and Mathematics) lab in 2018.

At her farewell gathering at Mary of Nazareth School in August 2002 before Sister Frances Stavalo left to become provincial superior for the Religious Teachers Filippini, she is hugged by Joseph Villarrubia, then a second grader at the school. (CS file photo/Michael Hoyt)

Another person remembering Sister Frances’ legacy at Mary of Nazareth School was Jackie Scaletti, who taught third grade from the time its new building opened in 1996 until her retirement in 2020.

“She (Sister Frances) was a great mentor to the students, the parents and the faculty. She was always there for each of them,” said Scaletti, who had been trained as a high school teacher and said Sister Frances helped her adjust to teaching third graders, and she grew to love teaching that grade.

She also noted that Sister Frances “truly gave our kids faith,” emphasizing traditional Catholic practices like May crownings, and also having children dress up as saints for All Saints Day processions.

Scaletti said that Sister Frances “planned wonderful assemblies,” and remembered one notably assembly where students were able to witness wildlife in person. “She was a little lady, and she wasn’t afraid to have that boa constrictor wrapped around her!” she said.

On Mary of Nazareth School’s Facebook page, parents and graduates offered many warm tributes to Sister Frances after her death. One father wrote, “Thanks so much for all you did to get MON off to a wonderful start,” and signed his and his wife’s name, along with the first names and years of graduation of their four children who attended the school. 

A mom remembered how Sister Frances, a diehard Yankees fan, jokingly needled her family about being Red Sox fans, but also spent hours in the hospital visiting their daughter, a first grader, when she was ill that year. 

Another mom wrote, “What a privilege it was to have our children pray, work and learn with her.”

And Sarah Thebes wrote, “This strict lil’ Italian principal knew how to run a school.”