October 27, 2025 • 10 mins
Dr. Daniel McCue has been teaching and coaching at St. Xavier High School for 22 years, and now has been elevated to school principal.
Listen to his chat with Terry Meiners about the state of education at St. Xavier, A.I.'s role, student advancement, and much more.
Listen to his chat with Terry Meiners about the state of education at St. Xavier, A.I.'s role, student advancement, and much more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Want to welcome in now the principle of Saint Xavier
High School. That's my alma mater. Daniel McHugh is in
his first year as principal. But this is like twenty
two years for you at Saint x Correct.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yes, twenty second year in the building, twenty eighth year
in education. I've had a chance to do a lot
of fun stuff at Saint x teaching math, teaching science,
got to coach football and baseball for a little bit.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
So it's been a lot.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Of fun being there, and I'm just thrilled to be
able to serve the school in a brand new capacity.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Well, you know, we loved having Amy there the year
she was there, and then they announced last year that
she had decided she was going to end at the
last school year, and everybody's wondering, who's going to be
the next Princeville, and they're like, we got a guy.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
We got a guy. I was really happy with the
way that that unfolded.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The fact that we were able to make the announcement
last December kind of give everybody a sense of what
the transition was going to look like, that we had
a plan and that we were going to put the
plan into action, and it just gave everybody a nice sense.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Of it's gonna be a smooth transition.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
And that was the goal, is for it to be
as seamless as possible, and that's really what we've done.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
How's the census, how's the count? And Catholic schools? I know,
you know this is a separate sort of era as
we go through these different times, but we have some
really healthy Catholic high schools. I was at presentation a
little while ago. Is Saint X healthy now in terms
of the number of students.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Oh definitely.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
We're right at about eleven hundred right now, just a
few ticks over that, and it's a great size. It
lets us do all the programming and offer all the
courses that we want to to the students. It's probably
we're going to hang at that for several years. We
got another, hopefully another class of three hundred coming in
this year, so we're right about where we want to be.
(01:39):
And by all accounts, people are pretty happy with Catholic
schools right now, and in particular, people are happy with
Saint X.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
You Bettion, I was over there not long ago. We
had our reunion. The building is gorgeous, and they keep
adding on and I mean, it's astounding how big it
is compared to when I was a student there, and
the immersive ways students are able to go in and
pursue their own educational track is astounding.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
We're very blessed with the alumni support that we have
because it allows us to do the renovations, to do
the programming, to fund all of these initiatives. And it's
great when alumps come back and we can take them
on a tour and sort of like you're saying, there's
always something new, there's always something great that's new that
we can show them when we have class re unions
(02:26):
on campus. It's just so much fun walking them around
the building and seeing their eyes light up. First they're
telling stories about when they are students there, right, but
then they're talking about, you know, here's you know, I
remember this teacher, this brother had me in this classroom.
And then just watching that energy that they have, it
makes us feel great about not just the experience that
those guys had when they were students, but about continuing
(02:48):
to offer that same kind of experience to our kids.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Well, I was in an area not far from a
classroom that I used to use because it was three
teachers who rotated in there on a social studies deal,
Joe Crow, Frank Cooper, and Joe Heintzman.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, I heard this. I heard by this one the
other day.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Do a lot of guys bring that up. That was
awesome they.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Do, And just because I was told they capped, they
replicated a program from Notre Dame, and just the dynamic
that they were able to have in the classroom, the
back and forth between the teachers, it was sort of
infectious and the students gravitated toward it, and every student
who went through that experience, I've heard nothing but good
things about.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
That because you heard perspectives from three different people and
it was really mind expanding because the teacher obviously is
the you know, is the the sole voice usually in
a classroom. And this was just an interesting multi personality instruction.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
And we're really trying to kind of capture some of
that energy with our uh curricular cross curriculum collaboration among teachers. Actually,
just this past Friday, we had a professional development day
and we allowed them to get into groups between departments
and have conversations about assessment and curriculum with people that
(04:02):
they didn't normally have a chance to talk to. And
we're really trying to encourage teachers to capture that same
energy that you're talking about working with teachers from other departments,
maybe having an assignment or a project or an activity
that spans multiple classes so that students get to work
on the same thing, but have input from multiple teachers
and multiple content areas into that particular project.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
AI is something that's talked about all the time. Do
you foresee, mister Principal's an opportunity where will AI become
an instruction device for schools as well? In terms of
a sole leader position.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I can't see it ever replacing the human element of teachers.
I mean, I hope in my lifetime it never replaces
that human element. But we are challenging our teachers to
find the best ways to use it to enhance learning.
Right now, It's funny you bring that up, because my
comments to the students this morning had to do with AI.
My Principles newsletter that went out at three o'clock today
(05:01):
had to do with AI. Where it's in our faces
and we have to deal with it. And I want
us at Saint X to be leaders in this regard
I want us to be on the forefront of teachers
figuring out the best ways that they can leverage it
because it's very powerful, but leverage it to improve that
student learning experience and help the students realize we're not
(05:22):
interested in you replacing your learning with AI.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
We wanted to support your learning. So students who are using.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It to write papers, they're losing out on a chance
to learn how to write. So we have English teachers
right now who are helping students write something, write a
paragraph and then let AI give them immediate feedback on
the quality of the paragraph. So twenty students are getting
feedback right there in thirty seconds instead of the teacher
going home in grade in the essays that night, and
(05:50):
the teacher can talk to them about what kind of
feedback did AI give them?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Was it good? Was it bad?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
There's some really interesting things that our teachers are doing
with it.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
We have so much mess going on in the world
now about how AI is going to take all of
our jobs. But a teacher is more than a teacher.
They're a sounding board someone to just privately bounce ideas
off of, and they can tell you, well, you know what,
you know what We're better enhance it. I can't imagine
that AI could read the emotional infrastructure of someone who's
(06:19):
questioning it it.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
It can't.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And that's where when a teacher who is a veteran
teacher looks at something written by AI, it doesn't have
any soul. There's no way for AI to put in
that human element. And in the same manner, I don't
know that AI could replace that human element that a
teacher brings to the classroom.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
It's just it's a robot.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's a machine, and all it's doing is really kind
of spitting back what it learns from the Internet and
what it's learned from people giving it stuff to talk about. So, yeah,
we're very fortunate our teachers. I'd say thirty eight percent
of our faculty has been at sane extra twenty plus years.
There's a lot of stability there. And when you have
that much experience, you're not going to repl overnight with
(07:01):
a computer. They're able to bring that experience to bear
in the classroom every single day.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And you have a manageable ratio teacher to students.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
We really do, and we tailored by academic level. You
were talking about the different academic experiences that students can have.
We try our best to make sure that those class
sizes are manageable at our different academic levels. So some
of our Honors and AP classes, we might be able
to squeeze a couple more kids in there because it's
more of a college level class, and you may have
one of our lower level classes. We try to keep
(07:32):
those smaller to give those kids a little bit more attention.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Makes sense, all right? So saying X, I know the
Catholic Education Foundation has been great also in supplementing tuition,
and there are other programs available for that sort of
help too. People always wonder, well can I afford Saint
X or whatever or any of the other Catholic high schools,
But there is methodology in place to help.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Oh, most definitely.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And this is actually something our leadership team was just
talking about the other day. Is there's a large again
goes back to our alums and our ability to fundraise.
And you know, Mike's sitting right here, He's spearheading all
the fundraising being able to help offset a lot of
those costs and offer some substantial financial aid to students.
(08:17):
We want any student who considers that they might even
might want to go to Saint X to go through
the financial aid process and to see what that might be,
because some people, unfortunately, might remove themselves from the conversation
before they even go through that, before they even take
that step, because they think they can't afford it. Well,
they may not be paying full price, they might be
(08:39):
paying seventy five percent, they might be paying fifty percent,
but they won't know until they fill out that financial
aid application and figure out what that aid award might be.
So we really encourage people to take that step because
Saint X we want it to be for as many
young men as possible. We think it's a great school.
We want to offer that opportunity to as many men
as who want.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
To last thing for you. There's an old who's song.
The kids are all right. We've heard that after COVID.
The kids are different, and they're rewired and they're restructured,
and teachers can't reach them because of the isolation. You've
been in the teaching business for over two decades. The
kids are all right, aren't they?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
The kids are right.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Kids are extremely resilient, and in fact, I think the
kids might have bounced back more quickly from COVID in
a lot of cases than the adults did they you know,
they're still growing, they're still developing, they can get caught up,
and we saw a little dip, just like everybody did nationwide.
But you know, we just won a Blue Ribbon award
(09:38):
a couple of years ago, and in large part it's
because of how quickly we're able to get back to normal.
We were able to get our kids back on track
and get them caught up even much more quickly than
some other schools nationally. So that played a big part
in us getting that award. But at this point, you know,
that's in the rear view. Things are good in the building,
(09:58):
The kids are good, morales high, the kids come to
school ready to work. That that's our message to them.
The theme for the year is embrace the journey with
zeal and that's what we want them to do. Come
in there in a good mood, ready to work, and
we're going to support them. We're going to push them,
but we're gonna have fun doing it. And we want
them to see smiling teachers in the hall. But also
understand that you know, those teachers are going to challenge them,
(10:21):
but they're going to support them every step of the way.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Principal Daniel McHugh Saint Xavier High School Saint excellence in
my mind, great talking to you, Thank you. And also
did you coach football with my my little brother Mike.
I certainly did, but I would not call him little.
Great point, good point, great to talk to you. The
website for Saint x High School is.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
At www dot sat x dot com. You spell out
the words say spell out the word saint.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, it's all good, Saint x dot com. I'm glad
you grabbed that before Cincinnati did. That's how that goes
back in a minute on news radio eight forty w
h A s.
Want to welcome in now the principle of Saint Xavier
High School. That's my alma mater. Daniel McHugh is in
his first year as principal. But this is like twenty
two years for you at Saint x Correct.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yes, twenty second year in the building, twenty eighth year
in education. I've had a chance to do a lot
of fun stuff at Saint x teaching math, teaching science,
got to coach football and baseball for a little bit.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
So it's been a lot.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Of fun being there, and I'm just thrilled to be
able to serve the school in a brand new capacity.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Well, you know, we loved having Amy there the year
she was there, and then they announced last year that
she had decided she was going to end at the
last school year, and everybody's wondering, who's going to be
the next Princeville, and they're like, we got a guy.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
We got a guy. I was really happy with the
way that that unfolded.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The fact that we were able to make the announcement
last December kind of give everybody a sense of what
the transition was going to look like, that we had
a plan and that we were going to put the
plan into action, and it just gave everybody a nice sense.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Of it's gonna be a smooth transition.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
And that was the goal, is for it to be
as seamless as possible, and that's really what we've done.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
How's the census, how's the count? And Catholic schools? I know,
you know this is a separate sort of era as
we go through these different times, but we have some
really healthy Catholic high schools. I was at presentation a
little while ago. Is Saint X healthy now in terms
of the number of students.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Oh definitely.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
We're right at about eleven hundred right now, just a
few ticks over that, and it's a great size. It
lets us do all the programming and offer all the
courses that we want to to the students. It's probably
we're going to hang at that for several years. We
got another, hopefully another class of three hundred coming in
this year, so we're right about where we want to be.
(01:39):
And by all accounts, people are pretty happy with Catholic
schools right now, and in particular, people are happy with
Saint X.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
You Bettion, I was over there not long ago. We
had our reunion. The building is gorgeous, and they keep
adding on and I mean, it's astounding how big it
is compared to when I was a student there, and
the immersive ways students are able to go in and
pursue their own educational track is astounding.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
We're very blessed with the alumni support that we have
because it allows us to do the renovations, to do
the programming, to fund all of these initiatives. And it's
great when alumps come back and we can take them
on a tour and sort of like you're saying, there's
always something new, there's always something great that's new that
we can show them when we have class re unions
(02:26):
on campus. It's just so much fun walking them around
the building and seeing their eyes light up. First they're
telling stories about when they are students there, right, but
then they're talking about, you know, here's you know, I
remember this teacher, this brother had me in this classroom.
And then just watching that energy that they have, it
makes us feel great about not just the experience that
those guys had when they were students, but about continuing
(02:48):
to offer that same kind of experience to our kids.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Well, I was in an area not far from a
classroom that I used to use because it was three
teachers who rotated in there on a social studies deal,
Joe Crow, Frank Cooper, and Joe Heintzman.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, I heard this. I heard by this one the
other day.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Do a lot of guys bring that up. That was
awesome they.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Do, And just because I was told they capped, they
replicated a program from Notre Dame, and just the dynamic
that they were able to have in the classroom, the
back and forth between the teachers, it was sort of
infectious and the students gravitated toward it, and every student
who went through that experience, I've heard nothing but good
things about.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
That because you heard perspectives from three different people and
it was really mind expanding because the teacher obviously is
the you know, is the the sole voice usually in
a classroom. And this was just an interesting multi personality instruction.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
And we're really trying to kind of capture some of
that energy with our uh curricular cross curriculum collaboration among teachers. Actually,
just this past Friday, we had a professional development day
and we allowed them to get into groups between departments
and have conversations about assessment and curriculum with people that
(04:02):
they didn't normally have a chance to talk to. And
we're really trying to encourage teachers to capture that same
energy that you're talking about working with teachers from other departments,
maybe having an assignment or a project or an activity
that spans multiple classes so that students get to work
on the same thing, but have input from multiple teachers
and multiple content areas into that particular project.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
AI is something that's talked about all the time. Do
you foresee, mister Principal's an opportunity where will AI become
an instruction device for schools as well? In terms of
a sole leader position.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I can't see it ever replacing the human element of teachers.
I mean, I hope in my lifetime it never replaces
that human element. But we are challenging our teachers to
find the best ways to use it to enhance learning.
Right now, It's funny you bring that up, because my
comments to the students this morning had to do with AI.
My Principles newsletter that went out at three o'clock today
(05:01):
had to do with AI. Where it's in our faces
and we have to deal with it. And I want
us at Saint X to be leaders in this regard
I want us to be on the forefront of teachers
figuring out the best ways that they can leverage it
because it's very powerful, but leverage it to improve that
student learning experience and help the students realize we're not
(05:22):
interested in you replacing your learning with AI.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
We wanted to support your learning. So students who are using.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It to write papers, they're losing out on a chance
to learn how to write. So we have English teachers
right now who are helping students write something, write a
paragraph and then let AI give them immediate feedback on
the quality of the paragraph. So twenty students are getting
feedback right there in thirty seconds instead of the teacher
going home in grade in the essays that night, and
(05:50):
the teacher can talk to them about what kind of
feedback did AI give them?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Was it good? Was it bad?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
There's some really interesting things that our teachers are doing
with it.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
We have so much mess going on in the world
now about how AI is going to take all of
our jobs. But a teacher is more than a teacher.
They're a sounding board someone to just privately bounce ideas
off of, and they can tell you, well, you know what,
you know what We're better enhance it. I can't imagine
that AI could read the emotional infrastructure of someone who's
(06:19):
questioning it it.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
It can't.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And that's where when a teacher who is a veteran
teacher looks at something written by AI, it doesn't have
any soul. There's no way for AI to put in
that human element. And in the same manner, I don't
know that AI could replace that human element that a
teacher brings to the classroom.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
It's just it's a robot.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's a machine, and all it's doing is really kind
of spitting back what it learns from the Internet and
what it's learned from people giving it stuff to talk about. So, yeah,
we're very fortunate our teachers. I'd say thirty eight percent
of our faculty has been at sane extra twenty plus years.
There's a lot of stability there. And when you have
that much experience, you're not going to repl overnight with
(07:01):
a computer. They're able to bring that experience to bear
in the classroom every single day.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And you have a manageable ratio teacher to students.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
We really do, and we tailored by academic level. You
were talking about the different academic experiences that students can have.
We try our best to make sure that those class
sizes are manageable at our different academic levels. So some
of our Honors and AP classes, we might be able
to squeeze a couple more kids in there because it's
more of a college level class, and you may have
one of our lower level classes. We try to keep
(07:32):
those smaller to give those kids a little bit more attention.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Makes sense, all right? So saying X, I know the
Catholic Education Foundation has been great also in supplementing tuition,
and there are other programs available for that sort of
help too. People always wonder, well can I afford Saint
X or whatever or any of the other Catholic high schools,
But there is methodology in place to help.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Oh, most definitely.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And this is actually something our leadership team was just
talking about the other day. Is there's a large again
goes back to our alums and our ability to fundraise.
And you know, Mike's sitting right here, He's spearheading all
the fundraising being able to help offset a lot of
those costs and offer some substantial financial aid to students.
(08:17):
We want any student who considers that they might even
might want to go to Saint X to go through
the financial aid process and to see what that might be,
because some people, unfortunately, might remove themselves from the conversation
before they even go through that, before they even take
that step, because they think they can't afford it. Well,
they may not be paying full price, they might be
(08:39):
paying seventy five percent, they might be paying fifty percent,
but they won't know until they fill out that financial
aid application and figure out what that aid award might be.
So we really encourage people to take that step because
Saint X we want it to be for as many
young men as possible. We think it's a great school.
We want to offer that opportunity to as many men
as who want.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
To last thing for you. There's an old who's song.
The kids are all right. We've heard that after COVID.
The kids are different, and they're rewired and they're restructured,
and teachers can't reach them because of the isolation. You've
been in the teaching business for over two decades. The
kids are all right, aren't they?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
The kids are right.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Kids are extremely resilient, and in fact, I think the
kids might have bounced back more quickly from COVID in
a lot of cases than the adults did they you know,
they're still growing, they're still developing, they can get caught up,
and we saw a little dip, just like everybody did nationwide.
But you know, we just won a Blue Ribbon award
(09:38):
a couple of years ago, and in large part it's
because of how quickly we're able to get back to normal.
We were able to get our kids back on track
and get them caught up even much more quickly than
some other schools nationally. So that played a big part
in us getting that award. But at this point, you know,
that's in the rear view. Things are good in the building,
(09:58):
The kids are good, morales high, the kids come to
school ready to work. That that's our message to them.
The theme for the year is embrace the journey with
zeal and that's what we want them to do. Come
in there in a good mood, ready to work, and
we're going to support them. We're going to push them,
but we're gonna have fun doing it. And we want
them to see smiling teachers in the hall. But also
understand that you know, those teachers are going to challenge them,
(10:21):
but they're going to support them every step of the way.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Principal Daniel McHugh Saint Xavier High School Saint excellence in
my mind, great talking to you, Thank you. And also
did you coach football with my my little brother Mike.
I certainly did, but I would not call him little.
Great point, good point, great to talk to you. The
website for Saint x High School is.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
At www dot sat x dot com. You spell out
the words say spell out the word saint.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, it's all good, Saint x dot com. I'm glad
you grabbed that before Cincinnati did. That's how that goes
back in a minute on news radio eight forty w
h A s.
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