MERRILLVILLE – A new addition and the remodeling of Aquinas Catholic Community School created an impressive learning environment for its 200-plus students and staff last fall, and this year a new principal is enjoying the modern digs.
“All of the information technology and the safety and security features are impressive, but what really surprised me was that each classroom has its own bathroom,” said Maegan Veleeparambil. “I know it may not seem important, but it is because teachers don’t have to line up the entire class for a bathroom break, cause a disruption in the hallway and lose a half hour of instructional time. It is so convenient.”
Veleeparambil grew up on the south side of Chicago, attending St. Nicholas School and Maria High School, then under the tutelage of the Sisters of St. Casimir. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education at Northeastern Illinois University in 2005, and later added a master’s in Curriculum and Instruction from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill. and a master’s in School Leadership from Concordia University in River Forest, Ill.
“I taught first through eighth grade at St. Symphorosa in the Archdiocese of Chicago, and lived in India in 2012-13, where I got married,” Veleeparambil said. Returning to Chicago in 2013 with her new husband Surej, a physician/businessman, Veleeparambil taught intermediate and middle school in the Chicago Public Schools. She welcomed their son Eddie, a current preschooler at St. John the Evangelist, in 2019.
In 2022, Veleeparambil took an administrative position in Curriculum and Instruction in the Matteson, Ill. school district, but after the family moved to St. John in 2023, she yearned to return to school.
“In my time at CPS I was at small schools where I took on an assistant principal role, but when I went to the district level, I missed school, the students, teachers and parents, and wanted to come back to my roots,” she explained.
At Aquinas, Veleeparambil is “excited about everything, meeting all the students and parents and working with the teachers. I’ve done a lot of curriculum adoption and I look forward to bringing the latest curriculum and technology to our instruction.”
The new principal is already working to establish a strong student council at Aquinas. “Students are campaigning now and will elect a cabinet of eighth graders – president, VP, secretary, treasurer and social events director – who will be inducted by the end of September, and then elect classroom representatives from grades 4 to 8,” Veleeparambil said.
“At the end of the day, I want my students to know that Jesus forgives them, loves them and is always with them forever,” she said of her educational philosophy.
“Academically, in order to play hard, you have to work hard, so set a goal, accomplish that goal and then celebrate that goal.”
Veleeparambil said her approach to teaching is not influenced by the fact that non-Catholic students outnumber Catholics. “That doesn’t affect me at all,” she stated. “All classes are driven by a Catholic foundation and values and all students learn Catholicism in religion classes. Because a student is not Catholic does not mean they don’t know who Jesus is; their parents may be raising them Baptist or in another religion, but Jesus loves, forgives and is with all of them.”
The school community that Veleeparambil has joined has already impacted her. “Every class, in and out of the school, and all of my students, are focused and eager to learn,” she said. “The parents are true team members and will try to help whenever they can.”
Caption: New principal Maegan Veleeparambil (center) and second graders at Aquinas Catholic Community School in Merrillville show by their thumbs up sign that they are ready for a successful 2024-25 school year. (Provided photo)