New Leadership Team Values Continuity at St. Paul Catholic High School

Story by Shelley Wolf

There is a new leadership team at St. Paul Catholic High School in Bristol, but the faces are very familiar.

“There are a lot of things that make St. Paul special. So my goal is to keep the tradition that we’ve started here for the past 16 years moving forward,” says James Cooper, the new school president.

Cooper served as the former dean of academic life for 12 years before he was appointed by Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne to be the new school president, effective July 1.

Cooper worked side-by-side for more than a decade with Cary Dupont, the former school president, who stepped down after 16 years to spend more time with his family. As part of a planned leadership transition, Dupont is serving as president emeritus for the 2024-2025 school year, helping out with donor relations, finance and facilities.

“He still wanted to be involved, mostly for advancement and relationships,” Cooper explains.

Other appointments include Marc DiDominzio, replacing Cooper as the new dean of academic life, and Susan Vassiliou as the new dean of student life. Both have been with the school for years.

“As you can imagine, the students call them ‘Mr. D.’ and ‘Mrs. V,’” Cooper jests. “They’re both great. And we have a very strong, stable, consistent leadership team.”

Cooper himself is a product of Catholic education. He attended a Catholic high school in Florida, and later earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Stonehill College in North Easton, Mass., and a master’s degree in education administration from the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Ind.

He taught social studies at East Catholic High School in Manchester and at Xavier High School in Middletown before joining St. Paul Catholic High School in 2012.

During his time at St. Paul, Cooper says he witnessed Dupont build up the school, crediting him for reviving it after it nearly closed in the 1990s. “Cary Dupont really transformed the school. He is a transformative leader,” Cooper insists.

“Anybody that’s part of the school community – whether it’s the students, the teachers, the staff, the families – feels like we have a really good thing going on here. And that’s 100% attributable to Cary’s leadership. So the goal in the transition was to make sure that we kept that momentum going forward.”

Today, St. Paul has 375 enrolled students, pulling from a wide geographic area that ranges from Torrington to Hartford to Waterbury.

“It gives us a nice diversity,” Cooper says. The school also has a committed faculty, many of whom have stayed on for decades.

St. Paul is currently in the process of completing its 10-year reaccreditation with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Academically, the school offers 18 college-level courses (17 Advanced Placement and one University of Connecticut Early College Experience course in physics).

And there are plenty of activities. “More than 80% of kids play a sport,” Cooper says, noting the girls’ basketball team won the state championship last March, while the boys’ baseball team won the state championship in 2023.

The school has also produced award-winning musical theater performances.

As part of its strong Catholic identity, St. Paul has a very active Respect Life Club that travels to Washington, D.C. for the National March for Life and to Hartford for the Connecticut March for Life. “Several students received the St. Gianna Beretta Molla medal for pro-life activities from the Archdiocese of Harford,” Cooper adds.

Some alumni from the school have even become priests, such as Father Matthew Collins, parochial vicar for St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish in Manchester, who currently sits on the school board.