Photo by Howard Owens
When it came to her own education, Lindsay Warner had no qualms about where she was going.
She would follow the same path as her father, siblings, cousins and Uncle Mike. That path led her to Batavia’s Notre Dame High School, as it does now.
“For me, there was no other way. My family was a Catholic family; that’s how we grew up. I had friends who went to public school; the thought just never crossed my mind that I would go. My father and his siblings all went to Catholic school, and it’s just what all my cousins did. When I was in high school, when I was a senior, I had two cousins, Mikey and Joey Rapone, who were juniors and then Francesca and Sierra were sophomores, and my sister Jessica was a freshman. I think my own family has inspired me to pursue this job that I’m in right now.”
Warner, a native of Le Roy who lives locally with her husband Jeremy and their four children, began her role as the new principal at Notre Dame in July. She will be working alongside longtime Athletic Director and former interim Principal Michael Rapone, aka Uncle Mike.
“He’s one of my biggest role models. And I mean, really, he's the role model for a lot of people who went here,” she said. “He's a model of dedication and faith and everything it means to stand up for something. So it's a privilege to have gotten to work with him, and it's an even bigger honor to say ‘that's my uncle.’”
Warner obtained her first teaching job at Notre Dame after 11 years of coaching while raising her family. She became the assistant principal in 2023 and earned her certificate of advanced study in school leadership from Stonybrook State College this past May.
Her transition from teacher to administrator didn’t come without some trepidation, she said.
“My biggest fear was that I wouldn’t have that connection with students because that’s what I loved so much about my job, was getting to know the kids and helping them through. As a business teacher, I was a work-based learning coordinator, so I was helping them come up with career plans and college plans, and setting them up for job shadows, and helping them prepare for whatever it is that they wanted to do next. I got to really know the kids, and I was really worried about, ‘Am I going to be at my desk all day?’ And it’s going to be an administrator job, and I’m not going to get to work with the kids?” she said. “I was very happy to see that wasn’t the case at all. It’s equally, if not more, rewarding. I really do like this role, and I also like that you’re not only getting to know students and support students but are also supporting teachers.”
Nothing has compared to the academic environment, she said, such as other impromptu jobs at a bank and insurance agency. In between she worked through BOCES at the Western New York Tech Academy for seven years before the assistant principal position became available, and liked the opportunity to work directly with students as they began to make future plans.
Still, it was Notre Dame that kept calling her heart: “I loved coming to Notre Dame. I loved working with the kids. It wasn’t until a couple of my cheerleaders said to me, you’d be a really cool teacher, that I thought, you know, maybe that’s where I should be. I did a lot of thinking about it and praying about it and realized that’s where I should be.”
Tucked into beginning her family and coaching, Warner went back to school for her master’s in education at Nazareth College to enable her to get that first teaching job.
Now to be taking another rung up the ladder has put her in charge but not very far from her crew, she said.
“It’s very exciting to have the opportunity to be kind of steering the ship,” she said. “I don’t look at it as being on top; I’m just leading the team. Everything that we do, that the school is known for, the excellence that we've really built our reputation on, that comes from the teachers and the coaches and the families. So I'm blessed to have had the background and in my own history and my own personal love of the school that I can use to kind of guide decisions that we make. But all the glory goes to our staff. I mean, they really are amazing people to work with. And so dedicated to the school success and to the student success, and I see that even more so now in this role.”
Contrary to how you might think her former teachers would react to their student now being their administrator, there was no awkwardness at all, Warner said. In fact, it was “a homecoming” for everyone.
“All the staff is amazing,” she said. “My leadership style is a servant leader. I’m here to support, I’m here to help, I want to do whatever I can do to help.”
One of her primary goals this coming school year is to have a better promotional strategy for what’s happening at Notre Dame, and to get the word out about events that are open to the public, such as a dinner theater coming up in December.
“Last year was our most successful year since COVID, we’re happy about that and are setting the goal higher this year,” she said. “It’s all about involvement; how many alumni can we get to participate? It’s the generosity of others that’s kept Notre Dame going.”
The school, which housed 201 students in grades seven through 12 last year, and is finalizing numbers for the 2024-25 season, brings back fond memories of her own cheerleading days, Warner said. A 2001 graduate, she was there when the basketball team made states.
“We got to cheer on the team when they won on St. Patrick’s Day,” she said. “When I look back as an adult, I realize it was about more than cheerleading, and when I went to college, it was how prepared I was and how confident I was. It affects you in a lot of ways.”
Why do students and families choose a private, tuition- and faith-based education? Students come for various reasons, Warner said, ranging from the smaller school atmosphere and Catholic foundation to how people have described the feeling that “we’re a family.”
Counselors, parents and teachers all interact on behalf of the student, and Notre Dame does “a great job at pushing them to reach their fullest potential,” Warner said. All of this makes for an environment she wants to be part of at the Union Street school.
“I’m very excited to be in this role and looking forward to a great year,” she said.
