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May
7, 2007
VOL.
45, NO. 9Oakland,
CA
Richard
Kruska named superintendent
of Catholic schools in Oakland Diocese
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Richard E. Kruska |
Richard E.
Kruska, principal of St. Bernard High School in Playa Del Rey, has been
named superintendent of Catholic schools for the Oakland Diocese.
He will replace Mark DeMarco who is moving to De La Salle High School
in Concord as president / CEO.
Both men begin their new positions on July 1.
Kruska holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State
University, Northridge, a MBA from Southern Methodist University and is
completing his doctoral work in education at Loyola Marymount University
in Los Angeles.
His dissertation focuses on financial models of Catholic education.
He has taught at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California,
and at St. Monica School in Dallas, Texas. He was principal of St. Mark
Elementary School in Venice, California, before becoming principal at
St. Bernard High.
In additional to his experience in education, Kruska brings to his new
post more than a decade of leadership in business, most recently as a
senior executive for Nokia where he managed an international staff of
40.
He has been president of X-Cel, a company focused on educational programs
using athletics to enhance the development of young people, and vice president
of several communications and marketing companies.
He left the corporate world to return to education in 2001. His wife of
31 years and their son and daughter-in-law are Catholic school teachers.
Kruska said one of his goals as superintendent is to “create a financial
model or models that will allow all children who wish to attend a Catholic
school to afford one.”
While at St. Mark School, he applied his business acumen to issues of
finance and enrollment, resulting in a 20 percent increase in students
within one year.
There are 47 elementary schools and nine high schools in the Oakland Diocese.
