New President for Martin Saints
Mr. Alexander Haynie, President, Martin Saints Classical High School
Dear Martin Saints community,
I am writing today with exciting news about our growing school. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am delighted to announce that Mr. Alexander Haynie will be my successor as our new school president.
I am not going anywhere. I am remaining as chairman of the board and school chaplain. I will continue to be on campus daily, remaining involved with policy, culture, hiring, and spiritual life.
But we need to grow, and to that end, we are delighted and extremely fortunate to be adding Alex to our administrative team. He has known our school well for many years, and has social and family connections with several of our Regina sister schools. He is a talented Catholic leader in high demand for directing various Catholic projects around the archdiocese. By adding Alex, our goal is to protect the Martin Saints mission by adding more capacity to do the things that grow enrollment and fundraising.
Ten years ago, when Mr. Dickerson and I first sat around a kitchen table, looking to open a school and sharing chores with each other, I ended up with three job titles: chairman of the board, president, and chaplain. Whenever an entrepreneur is starting a business…whenever a Chesterton academy is getting off the ground…it is typical for founders to wear many hats. Things need to get done, and there are not always enough people around to do everything.
However, as a school or any organization grows and matures, for the sake of accountability and organizational health - as well as human sanity, and distributing the work load reasonably - the board chair and the president should not be the same person. Our board has been intending to streamline our organization and job titles for a while.
Meanwhile, we have also been talking deeply and intimately with Alex for a long time. Since at least 2023, when he launched Blue Bell Parish Neighbors magazine, we have been conferring regularly about the Martin Saints mission. Alex has always felt like a kindred spirit. We have long dreamed of bringing him aboard Martin Saints in some capacity, and, in the last few weeks, the timing has finally worked out on both sides. Watching Alex lately, I felt like Eagles general manager Howie Roseman at the NFL draft - sometimes, when you see exceptional talent available on the board, you have to act fast to get the best player.
Alex taught theology for over ten years at Bishop McDevitt and Malvern Prep high schools (where he also coached soccer and lacrosse). More recently, Alex has led retreats and worked with campus ministries at dozens of schools across Pennsylvania through Live Vertical. While at Live Vertical, he has also established himself as an accomplished fundraiser. He is a graduate of Princeton and Notre Dame. He is local - Alex, his wife Ana, and their five young children are parishioners at St. Helena’s in Blue Bell, the sister parish to our own St. Titus. The Haynies are homeschoolers, and indeed have crossed paths with my wife and daughters in various homeschooling circles. You can read his complete professional biography at our MSC website.
In short, Alex has lived and served in multiple Catholic settings, and knows firsthand how important it is to revive fidelity in Catholic education, and hence why the Martin Saints mission is so essential. He is faithful, articulate, charismatic, wise, learned, and a lot of fun. We are lucky to have him.
Mr. Haynie’s priorities will be to grow fundraising as well as strategic relationships with feeder schools, but he will also be involved in school life and culture generally. For example, he will teach senior theology at Martin Saints in the upcoming school year.
Anyone can make an individual appointment to meet Alex (or visit any of us at MSC) anytime this summer, but you will also have the opportunity to meet him at upcoming occasions such as our annual family picnic on September 1, back-to-school night on September 24, our annual Vision Dinner on October 3, or our first open house on October 8.
His first day as president will be today, Monday, June 22, when he will join me and several other faculty and staff at the annual national Chesterton schools conference, which this year will be on the campus of Ave Maria University in Florida. We will spend these coming days, as well as the coming weeks and months, transitioning Alex into his new role. Stability and continuity - coupled with growth and Alex’s own distinctive contributions - will be the name of the game.
The Martin Saints mission is to give our students an experience of Catholic culture that is faithful, wise, and beautiful. We want to immerse our students in a Catholic culture that is credible and compelling. None of that changes. Guarding and growing this mission is the reason we are all here, the lifework for me, Mr. Dickerson, and now Mr. Haynie. To do this, among many other challenges, the financial challenges are particularly immense. Our tuition only covers half the cost of educating a Martin Saints student. This work is all-hands-on-deck. Now, under Mr. Haynie’s leadership, we are entering a new and exciting chapter. We are grateful to our students, parents, teachers, alumni, board, donors, clergy, prayer partners, and friends across the archdiocese. Most of all, we are grateful to God for his providential protection, and for bringing this community together and sustaining us.
Mr. Dickerson, the board, and I hope that you will join us in welcoming Mr. Haynie as our new president.
Very, very gratefully, your brother in Christ,
Deacon Christopher C. Roberts
Chairman of the Board and Chaplain
