SAN DIEGO – The long-time director of the San Diego Diocese’s schools, John Galvan, will be leaving his post in June to join the National Catholic Educational Association.
There, he will be the director of Catechetic Assessments, which assists in evaluating religious education programs in Catholic schools and parishes across the country.
Galvan has directed the diocese’ 44 elementary and secondary schools for eight years. In the last two years, he’s led the schools’ efforts to continue to offer a quality Catholic education in the midst of the pandemic.
“It has been an honor and a blessing to serve as director of schools,” Galvan wrote in a letter announcing his departure on Jan. 23. “In this time I am most proud of the collaborative culture we have created together—all for the good of advancing our shared Catholic education mission into new and innovative areas.”
He’s leaving at a time when enrollment at the diocese’s schools has increased by nearly 15 percent in the elementary schools and more than 4 percent at the secondary schools, the highest rate in a decade.
“For the past eight years, John has been an essential leader in placing mission at the center of all our efforts, supporting the principals and teachers of our school communities and dealing with the enormous challenges of Covid,” Bishop Robert McElroy wrote in a letter to the diocese’s pastors that accompanied Galvan’s letter.
“As a result, we have experienced a remarkable increase in enrollment during the past year, focused with new vigor on what Catholicity means in a school today and helped develop wonderful new principals for our parish, religious and diocesan schools.
“John will be profoundly missed, but his legacy is substantial and will be long-lasting in our diocese,” the Bishop wrote.
Galvan, who plans to continue to live in San Diego County, plans to finish his diocesan tenure at the end of the current academic year. San Diego Auxiliary Bishop John Dolan will lead a national search to fill his post.
