Peoria Notre Dame High School implemented the president / principal model as the administrative structure of the school beginning on July 1, 2007. This model was adopted by a decision of the Peoria Notre Dame Pastors’ Board during the spring of 2006 to be implemented with the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year.

The president of the school serves as its chief executive officer and is responsible primarily for development, finances, governance, and long range planning. The principal serves as the chief operational officer of the school, and is responsible for all the academic, co-curricular, and extra-curricular programs as well as the day to day operation of the school. Both the president and the principal share the roles of spiritual leadership, promoting the mission of the school as a Catholic educational community, and maintaining and strengthening the school’s Catholic identity.

As a result of the decision to implement this model, the school engaged in a search process for a president and for a principal. After consulting with the Peoria Notre Dame Pastors Board, the Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C., Bishop of Peoria, has appointed as president, Msgr. William Watson. Msgr. Watson is currently the pastor of St. Thomas Parish in Peoria Heights. While serving as the president at Notre Dame, he also remains the pastor of St. Thomas. Bishop Jenky is pleased that he has been able to appoint a priest of the Diocese of Peoria to serve as the first president of the school, and very happy that a priest with the qualifications and experience of Msgr. Watson is willing to serve.

In addition, Msgr. Watson has appointed as the principal of Notre Dame Mr. Charlie Roy, the former principal of St. Mark’s School in Peoria and a former administrator and faculty member at Notre Dame.

Msgr. Watson has served as a priest of the Diocese of Peoria for 45 years. He holds a BA, an MA, and an STL from St. Mary of the Lake University in Mundelein, Illinois. He has served as the pastor of St. Thomas in Peoria Heights since 1981. He has been involved in both elementary and secondary education as a pastor of parishes with large elementary schools and has most recently served as the president of the Peoria Notre Dame Pastors’ Board.

Mr. Charlie Roy holds a BA from Wabash College in Indiana, and a Masters in School Administration from Bradley University, Peoria. He served as a theology teacher, a coach and Dean of Students at Peoria Notre Dame, and for the last two years he served as the principal of St. Mark Catholic School in Peoria.

In addition, Peoria Notre Dame has had a new governance structure since July 1st, 2007. Now, the current pastors’ board will exercise only a few reserved powers and delegate all other governance responsibilities to a new board of trustees.