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August
6, 2007
VOL.
45, NO. 14Oakland,
CA
New superintendent wants schools affordable for all
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| Richard Kruska |
There is a
key line in Richard Kruska’s resume that jumps off the page: “My
passion is Catholic education and my goal is to have an impact on as many
young people as possible.”
One of his first steps toward that goal as the new superintendent of schools
in the Oakland Diocese is to bring more students into classrooms, especially
in urban schools that have experienced significant enrollment drops over
the past decade because of high tuition costs.
That trend, he insists, can be reversed, particularly if tuition can be
reduced so that Catholic education is “affordable, accessible and
available” to every family that desires it.
“If we increased our parish giving by just one percent, then Catholic
schools could be almost free,” he said, citing a recent study by
CARA, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which keeps track
of demographic trends in Catholic education, religious congregations,
and parishes.
The study reveals that Catholics give less than one percent to their parish
while the average donation in Protestant denominations is 3.6 percent
of annual income.
Kruska also believes it’s time to think differently about what attracts
parents to Catholic schools.
“Parents are better educated today and they are more demanding in
what they want for their children, appropriately so,” he said. Schools
can no longer assume that tacking “Catholic” to their names
will bring in the students, he added.
“We need to do things differently and begin telling our stories
more.”
One solution is to improve “brand identity,” that is, to change
the perceptions that many people still hold about Catholic schools –
moving from stories of knuckle rapping nuns to accounts of academic excellence.
Today’s Catholic educators in the Los Angeles area, for example,
have more masters’ and Ph.D. credentials than public school teachers
and administrators there, Kruska said. Catholic school graduates tend
to run for political office more than their public school counterparts
and they tend to vote more, as well.
And, a recent CARA study pointed out that 95 percent of Catholic high
school graduates go on to college. Kruska said he was delighted to learn
that a recent Bishop O’Dowd High School graduate scored 2400 –
a perfect score -- on her SAT tests. “She can go to any university
in the world,” he said.
The new school superintendent has so many statistics in his head for good
reason. He’s earning his doctoral degree at Loyola Marymount College
in Los Angeles with a focus on financial models of Catholic education.
A graduate of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Elementary School in Newhall,
Kruska attended Bishop Alemany High School for a time, but had to transfer
to public school when his parents could no longer afford to pay the tuition.
They had eight kids.
He graduated from California State University in Northridge with a degree
in psychology and later earned an MBA from Southern Methodist University.
He worked as a recreation leader with the Los Angeles County Dept. of
Parks and Recreation, taught science and coached sports in the William
S. Hart High School District in Santa Clarita, and served as president
of X-Cel, Athletic Education and Counseling in Canyon Country.
He left education for nearly a decade, serving various corporations in
top level management. As a director of customer development for E-business
at Nokia Inc., the $27 billion mobile phone manufacturer headquartered
near Dallas, Kruska flew all over the world. He was living the good corporate
life.
Then, in 2001, says Kruska, God stepped in.
His parish in Dallas was sponsoring an event called “Christ Renews
His Parish,” a weekend retreat of faith-witnessing talks, meditation,
Mass, personal sharing, and the Rosary. Something profoundly revealing
and life-changing happened to Kruska that weekend.
“God told me ‘you need to leave Nokia and start working with
young people again.’”
The message felt completely right. When Kruska went home and told his
wife Cathy what had just happened, she gave him her wholehearted support.
The couple began focusing on their budget and paying off debts.
One Monday morning, six months later, Kruska walked into the seventh grade
classroom at St. Monica School in Dallas as the new science teacher. “It
was so comforting and healing,” he said softly. His new salary?
$30,000.
But that was completely okay with him. He had returned to what he loved
best: education, especially Catholic education. He credits his own early
experience in parochial schools “as a high quality learning environment
promoting my spiritual connection with my Catholic faith.”
Kruska returned to California in 2003 as a physical science and ecology
teacher and head sophomore football coach at St. John Bosco High School
in Bellflower. The next year, he became principal at St. Mark School in
Venice, and in 2006, principal at St. Bernard High School in Playa del
Rey.
As he settles into his position in Oakland, does he have any particular
message he wants to communicate to Catholic Voice readers? He does --
an invitation to “all Catholic adults to take responsibility for
Catholic education” by increasing their stewardship and offering
their gifts and talents to parish schools. “There are enough bright
people out there with good ideas to share,” he said.
When he meets with diocesan principals on Aug. 6 (today), he will give
each of them a copy of “Our Iceberg Is Melting,” by John Cotter.
It’s a book about a group of penguins who discover how to work together
as a team and make positive changes in their lifestyles and ways of being
when they discover that global warming is dissolving the only home they’ve
ever known.
Kruska believes the state of Catholic schools is like “a sinking
iceberg” and that new ways of responding are called for.
“We have to grow our schools,” he said, “beyond keeping
the doors open.” he said. He advocates a wholesale “breaking
out of the mold.” In other words, stop doing the same things, when
they no longer work.
He and the diocesan School Board will be examining many options, he said,
and
will make an announcement about plans later this fall.
On a personal note, Kruska and his wife have settled in Pleasanton. Cathy
is teaching Christology at Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward.
