Meet Principal Aimee Stano!

Principal Aimee's Stano’s day begins at 7 a.m. as she answers emails and prepares the morning announcements. At 7:40, she heads outside to personally greet students as they enter the building. She calls every student by name as they pass by because, as she says, "that's what Jesus did!"

After announcements and a bit of time spent on paperwork every morning, Aimee wanders the classrooms. “I like to ask my teachers what they need and how I can support them each day, and I love to see them interacting with the kids," she says. Her own time to interact with the kids is during lunch, where she spends the entire hour in the cafeteria so that she can mingle with the pre-K Little Branches through 8th graders. "It's so good to see them in the wild," she laughs, "and I don't want to lose the relationships I've built with them –  half of them are my former students!"

Afternoons are spent like the mornings, popping into classrooms and spreading a "little Jesus" where she can. Oftentimes she slips back into her teacher role, and teachers get a bit of time to themselves during their busy days or get to see her in action with a lesson. "It's funny," she says, "but I always knew I'd be in education. I declared an elementary education major my very first day at UW Oshkosh and, honestly, I never looked back."

She may technically be a first-year principal, but Aimee’s entire career as a Catholic school educator prepared her well for this responsibility. "In my case, all roads did lead to Rome," she laughs.

In 2023, Aimee officially left the St. Ann's classroom where she had been teaching 4-6th grade students for 17 years. Her role as instructional coach for the faculty and staff was new for St. Ann's, and teachers were excited to learn from her years of experience. At the end of the first trimester, when long-time principal Kara Roisum decided to step down and move to a broader educational scope with the Diocese of Madison, Aimee heard a whisper from the Holy Spirit. 

She spoke with Kara and then approached Father Tom and Father Randy about interviewing for the newly vacant principal position. In January 2024, Aimee was hired as St. Ann’s Principal for the following school year, allowing her to shadow and train with Kara for six months before making the position her own.

"I'm in the right place," she says. "God truly led me here and I’m so blessed to be supported by an amazing staff and our wonderful families. The experience has been humbling."