Welcoming Our New School President: Andrew McDonald

After a grueling interviewing process, Billings Catholic Schools has a newly elected president to guide the school system towards a promising future. Andrew McDonald recently moved from Colorado in order to continue his career in Catholic education. Working as the school’s president, his job entails policy implementation, strategic planning, administrative oversight, and so much more. As for this year, he doesn’t plan to make massive changes, just to use this year to learn the ropes of the new system. “I’m excited to represent an incredible system with amazing support. I came into something that was great, now it’s my job to tweak and make it better,” McDonald stated. Looking into the future, many are excited at what the school system can accomplish under this new leadership.

McDonald received his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Colorado Denver, and has worked in Catholic education for years. He moved from Colorado with his wife and two kids after accepting the job in Billings. In his previous position, McDonald worked as the principal of Our Lady of Loretto Catholic School in Foxfield, Colorado. He was very successful in leading the education system, working to expand enrollment, open a new preschool program, and improve the financial well-being of the school.

In his downtime, McDonald loves to be outdoors, whether skiing, hiking, or volunteering to maintain trails around Billings. After living in Billings for the past few months, he has loved the lack of traffic that Montana has to offer. “It would sometimes take my wife upwards of an hour to get to work when we lived in Colorado,” McDonald said. With a commute only taking 15 minutes into work, it’s hard not to appreciate Billings.

McDonald has big plans in the future for the school system, but in the meantime, he stated, “This year is a learning year for me… It’s all about tinkering and listening to students and parents on how to improve this wonderful system.”

He wanted to give the students at Central one piece of advice for this school year: “90% of the struggle is showing up in life. Just being there, you have surpassed most other people. Continue putting in effort and showing up, and good things will come”