Greensburg diocese's Catholic schools start year with building upgrades, new programs
With air conditioning units installed, security upgrades completed and a plan in place to deepen students’ faith education, Greensburg Central Catholic High School is ready to welcome students back to its halls Wednesday.
For Superintendent Nancy Rottler, there is no time like the present to be a student at Greensburg Central Catholic.
“It’s an exciting time to look ahead with a path and the vision that can help us to thrive,” she said.
Over the summer, air conditioning was installed in Greensburg Central Catholic’s cafeteria and gyms, said Principal Theresa Szmed. An air conditioning window unit was also added to each classroom.
“That wasn’t something that had existed before,” Szmed said.
Security and safety upgrades also were made to the school’s door access systems, she said.
The security and air conditioning projects were supported by more than $300,000 in private donations and Emergency Assistance for Non-Public Schools funding, according to Rottler.
The security upgrades accompany the Greensburg diocese’s police force, which was formed last year. It is the first diocesan police force in the state, Rottler said.
“We are full capacity with a full-time officer in every school,” she said.
The officers also are staffing after-school events on diocese property, including sporting events and parish festivals, Rottler said.
The initiative has been well- received by parents and families, Szmed said.
“It’s all been positive. (Parents) feel that their child is in a safer environment, and our students in our building really get along with the officer. And he becomes part of their day-to-day activities and also interacting with them in places like the cafeteria and in the hallways.”
The diocese will continue making safety upgrades based on a security evaluation it contracted a company to complete a few years ago. Szmed declined to share specifics.
“We’re not just adding things just because we want to add them,” she said. “There’s a specific plan.”
But one of the diocese’s biggest goals for the school year is bolstering its opportunities for students to grow their faith.
This falls in line with Bishop Larry Kulick’s three-year plan released in the spring. The plan, a road map for the four-county diocese, includes a focus on support for children and young families.
To help fulfill the plan, the diocese aims to hire 27 regional directors of faith and discipleship dedicated to each parish’s programs for youths and young families.
Vincent Reilly, the diocese’s managing director of faith, family and discipleship, has worked with Kulick for more than a year to improve the quality of these programs — which are focused on deepening parishioners’ faith education.
Rottler is collaborating with Reilly to align the Catholic schools’ programs with those offered at the diocese’s 78 parishes.
For Szmed, it is a blessing to offer more than just academic support to students.
“It is a different way to educate children that you don’t see or get within the public school sector,” Szmed said. “Our teachers and administration are able to build a relationship based on our belief in the Catholic church.
“(They) foster those values in students … and help them to build their character to be global leaders and to use their morals and values as adults.”
This alignment between faith and education is particularly important to high school Assistant Principal Stefanie DeMarco, whose daughter will start pre-K at Mother of Sorrows School in Murrysville on Wednesday.
“Just knowing that my values and kind of how I would teach her is going to be kind of the same values that her teachers are going to have and the same kind of direction I would want her to have,” she said.
DeMarco started as assistant principal in May. Mother of Sorrows Spanish teacher Mary Osche took over as acting assistant principal last school year after Nicole Marchese departed from the position to pursue another opportunity in June.
This was three months before then-principal Kevin Frye resigned in early September, just two weeks into the academic year. The position was filled in November by Theresa Szmed, who previously worked at Mother of Sorrows.
All of the diocese’s teaching positions have been filled this year, Rottler said — in contrast to the more than 2,000 vacant teaching positions reported across Pennsylvania’s schools in October.
The 12-school system enrolled more than 2,780 students last school year, including 360 at Greensburg Central Catholic High School. This is a 25% enrollment increase since 2019.
Updated enrollment data will be calculated in October, Rottler said.
Diocese of Pittsburgh high school offers opportunities for music, ministry
Students at St. Joseph High School in Harrison will start the academic year Thursday with new opportunities to participate in music and ministry.
The high school, one of 35 schools in the Diocese of Pittsburgh Catholic school system, enrolled 130 of the diocese’s more than 9,000 students last academic year.
After noting an increased interest in music among students, the high school began building out chorus and band programs over the summer months.
Band and music director positions were created, said school spokesperson Shane Palumbo. They will be filled by Martha Capone and Kathleen Grabigel, respectively.
“That was enormous,” Palumbo said. “We’ve been wanting to do that for a while.”
Band and chorus students will start the school year preparing to perform at the high school’s 110th anniversary celebration Nov. 17, school President Jennifer MacNeal said.
“We want to provide more opportunities for students to express themselves with voice and instruments,” she said.
The school also hired Dominic Oto as director of campus ministry, MacNeal said. He will lead student retreats, co-teach a theology course and facilitate opportunities for students to grow in their faith.
“We want students to always be thinking of one another,” Palumbo said. “All students are required to take a religion class, but we always want students to have opportunities outside of the classroom to give back to the school, give back to the community.”
The school will offer free breakfast to all students for the first time through state and federal school nutrition programs.
These programs will also fund free and reduced lunch for low-income students. The school has offered the lunch program in previous years through internal funding, Palumbo said.
Students also can take advantage of more than $1 million in tuition assistance scholarships.
The scholarships are open to students at St. Joseph High School and the Holy Sepulcher, Butler Catholic and St. Wendelin elementary schools. They are funded by an anonymous donor who also created the Tuition Opportunity Partnership in the Diocese of Greensburg Catholic schools.
Quincey Reese is a TribLive reporter covering the Greensburg and Hempfield areas. She also does reporting for the Penn-Trafford Star. A Penn Township native, she joined the Trib in 2023 after working as a Jim Borden Scholarship intern at the company for two summers. She can be reached at qreese@triblive.com.
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