I had a two-hour face-to-face meeting with Principal Chris Signor, heading up the new Catholic High School in Latham. New York, where most, if not all, of the Bishop Maginn refugee students will be going in September.

The big news is this: Signor, long a fierce advocate for refugee students, said without hesitation that no refugee student would be turned away from the new school.

He and the Catholic Diocese are funding several different scholarship programs. “Nobody will be turned away who wants to go,” he said, “we will make it work.”

The new school is finishing the first stages of renovation and new construction.

It will be expanding over the next few years to be a school for all grades. Signor wants the refugee children and the wealthier and more privileged kids enrolling in the school to learn together.

He shared my particular admiration for the refugee children’s grace handles their hardships.

“I’ve never met a refugee child on anti-anxiety medication, even after seeing their parents slaughtered and their homes burned,” Chris said. These children can all learn from each other.”

And he takes seriously his role as an educator charged with helping children lead good and better lives.

He will have the chance. In addition to the new Afghan refugee students expected to enroll in the new school, an unknown number of Ukrainian children are expected to arrive shortly and over the next few months.

Our work has never been more urgent or essential.

On a personal note, I want to say that Signor is a kind, gentle, open, and honest man. I was thoroughly impressed with him.

The fates work in odd ways.

The refugee children will now have access to a more acceptable, better funded, and more thorough academic education – a new school with the best facilities, a more extensive faculty, playing fields, gardens, and modern gym, along with guidance counselors, crisis managers, and many more class offerings.

I love Bishop Maginn, and the very special atmosphere there,  but the school was so pressed for money that this crippled its ability to offer the education it badly wanted to provide. Signor worked at Bishop Maginn and helped the school start its refugee program. He knows these children well.

He is thinking of ways to ease the student’s transition; he’s arranged for busses to come to Albany every morning to pick up these children and bring them home every afternoon.

The new high school is just over the Albany border in Latham, N.Y.

I was thrilled to meet Chris, hear his plans, and I was glad to listen to his promise to accept any refugee student who wants to come and give them whatever scholarship is needed to keep them there.

He is experienced, has a great reputation, loves children, and has advocated for refugee kids for years.

He understands their needs and intends to give them the best possible education and support.

Chris is as nice as his portrait suggests, and he has a wicked and easy sense of humor.

I am grateful he took the trouble to come to BMHS and meet with me for more than two hours. He answered every question I had, and I was pleased by every answer he gave.

Working with him and Susan to help these families will be a joy, as it has been with Mike Tolan.

I was touched by Chris’s honesty and commitment to his students and the refugee children, who have had such powerful advocates in Sue Silverstein and Mike.

We talked about the $45,000 an Army of Good member is offering the school to help with tuition. Nobody who wants to go to school and work hard will be denied entry because of money. The donor will work with Sue.

Principal Signor and BMSH Principal Tolan and Sue Silverstein are all friends and have known one another for years,  and are eager to work together.

Mike will be the Development Director of the school, and Sue will teach theology and several art classes. She will also finally have a garden the size of a tennis court.

She is excited.

I will be doing exactly what I am doing now. The Army of Good is welcome and necessary. This is not the end of anything but the beginning of another beautiful new chapter.

Chris says the  Catholic Diocese is committed to funding the new school, building it slowly. Because it is in the suburbs, it will also draw students and families who can afford the school’s $8,000 tuition, which changes according to grade.

It was painful to hear of Bishop Maginn High School closing, but this is shaping up as a sad story with a very happy ending.

Chris loves the work of the Army Of Good; he wants me to continue precisely as I have been doing – photos, interviews, wish lists, help for the needy and vulnerable among the refugee children and their families.

Please stay tuned and stay with us. Our important work is just beginning, and more necessary than ever.