Starting out the school year in 2017, St. Joseph Regional Academy in Jim Thorpe has a new principal.

Brian Cristopher Cooper is the new elementary principal of St. Joseph.Cooper, a retired superintendent from the public school system, has been working in education for 27 years.After retirement, he decided that he wanted to give back to the church and the community, so he looked at Catholic positions available, and after applied to St. Joseph's.He and his wife, Kelly, live in Elysburg and have four children, a daughter who is a freshman at University of Pittsburgh Johnstown, and three sons, one a 2017 graduate of Lehigh University, another attending Bloomsburg University, and a son in the eighth grade at Southern Columbia Middle School.About St. Joseph, Cooper said, "I love the school and the people involved with it."The parents are great to work with and they have a strong parent group here that's very involved with the school and the community to help raise funds to keep the SJRA going."What he likes most about the school is "the spiritual safety that it provides the students."Cooper added that "one of the great advantages of the school is that we are small and therefore we have small class sizes which allows for one-on-one instruction in a more seasoned manner."Cooper said, "There are a lot more benefits that SJRA offers and the school has open enrollment so you can come and apply at anytime."If anyone has any questions about St. Joseph Regional Academy, they can call him at the school's phone number 570-325-3186.