Longtime Catholic educator Philip Wilson will greet new and returning students of Toronto's St. Michael’s College School for the new academic year as the reknowned institution’s 32nd principal.

Wilson arrives at the all-boys private school with more than 25 years of experience in education, most recently as a superintendent with the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board. 

Wilson described the appointment as both a tremendous honour and a profound responsibility, noting that the role, larger than any one person, carries a legacy built by generations of Basilian Fathers, educators, students, alumni and families. 

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Wilson succeeds Pat Daly in furthering that legacy, an opportunity he first identified as his dream job four years earlier, when the position was last vacant.

“ I have a lot of respect for (Daly’s) leadership, and so to follow him is not simply to take on a new position that I had wanted for some time, but more so to receive a legacy, one that I know I need to care for faithfully. That’s a responsibility that I come to with humility, gratitude and a lot of joy,” he said.

Wilson began his career in education in 1999 as an elementary school teacher with the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, where he taught at schools such as Bishop Scalabrini, Our Lady of Peace and St. Luke Catholic Elementary. He would eventually move to the Peel District School Board in 2007, where he served as vice principal and principal at a number of schools. In 2018, he would return to the Dufferin-Peel Catholic board as principal of St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Elementary School.

Even with extensive experience in Catholic education, Wilson’s personal connection to Basilian education runs deeper than a core value of his current appointment. He said his new role at St. Michael’s is something of a full-circle moment, going back decades, to before his career began. 

He had spent summers in his teen years at Orillia’s Columbus Boys Camp, a summer camp run by the Congregation of St. Basil. Progressing from camper to counsellor and even as far as one of the directors, Wilson found himself working alongside Basilian Fathers who formed young people through presence and community life, an experience he recalls as kick-starting an early, formative love for the order. 

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“ In my 10 years at the camp, we worked with inner-city children and underprivileged kids who didn't have vacation time. It was there I learned that formation happened through the ordinary, through prayer and shared responsibilities. Those Basilian Fathers at that camp, they did not lead from a distance, they were present and they modelled the values that they wanted taught,” he recalled. 

Wilson said that approach, one unique to the Basilians and notoriously encouraged at his new school, fostered his own spiritual journey. 

“Those early lessons were what really formed me as a teacher, superintendent, principal and even as a father, husband and coach,” he said. 

Understanding that the Basilian mission and sense of community are elements he believes in, having experienced them firsthand, Wilson will join St. Michael’s as a school uniquely combining several parts of his vocation, namely through its charism, dedication to the formation of young men and continued excellence across areas of academics, faith, arts, service and athletics. 

St. Michael’s newest principal spoke to his own leadership style that was shaped through such experiences, explaining that the high expectations he holds for himself are the same for others on his team and in his classrooms. 

“ I don't believe a principal can understand a school or a culture from an office, so students can expect to see me in classrooms, the hallways, coaching in the gym and all of our community events. I feel that presence is everything and so I want my students to know that they are seen, that I believe in them and that they are capable. For staff, to know that their expertise is valued and for families to know that we are partners in the academic and spiritual formation of their boys,” he said. 

As St. Michael’s College School’s halls once again fill with boys for its 174th year this fall, Wilson is eager to meet each student where they are. Wilson promises that, whether a nervous Grade 7 or a veteran senior, he will be visible in helping them rise to the school’s expectations of achieving their God-given potential in as many forms as possible. 

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“ While I may be a little more excited than those returning students, I hope they come back to an atmosphere of energy, welcome and purpose. We hope the transition doesn’t feel unsettling, but rather the next chapter in a story that they already belong to,” he said. 

“That this is their school, but that comes with a privilege, and that privilege comes with responsibility. The Basilian charism around goodness, discipline and knowledge is not only words in our motto at the school, but a daily invitation to become young men of faith, character and service.”