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His classroom may have changed slightly, but Michael Pizzingrillo, the new superintendent of Catholic schools for the Albany Diocese, will always be a teacher.

When he landed his first job in the late 1990s, he taught math and science to middle school students. When, at age 25, he became principal of a Catholic school in Brooklyn, he taught teachers. And when he became associate and then deputy superintendent for the Diocese of Brooklyn, he taught principals.

Today, Mr. Pizzingrillo is wrapping up a doctorate in education leadership and policy with a focus on Church leadership as he prepares to take the helm in Albany in July. He says education professionals should be leaders and lovers of learning.

Mr. Pizzingrillo's appointment as the new diocesan superintendent of schools was announced May 7. He replaces Sister Mary Jane Herb, IHM, who will leave her post at the end of the school year to become president of her religious order of Immaculate Heart of Mary sisters.

Her successor has already formulated a plan to visit each of the 23 diocesan schools within his first six months. He looks forward to bringing diocesan schools more fully into the 21st century and helping educators bring out the potential in every child.

"It's a very exciting time for me," he said.

Mr. Pizzingrillo comes to the Diocese in the midst of a diocesan effort to sustain Catholic education during a time of low enrollment in Catholic schools nationwide. In the past 15 years, officials in the Albany Diocese have had to close 19 schools.

But the new superintendent said that Catholic schools stand out, because "they teach you how to be a good Catholic citizen" and "focus on educating the whole child" - a rare feat in a "teach-to-the-test" era.

Along with religious instruction in parishes, he said, Catholic schools are evangelization tools, "our primary means of sustaining our Church and getting these students to understand God and understand their faith.

"We have no choice but to make sure [Catholic education] works. I believe it will survive, but it takes all of us."

The reality that Catholic schools are no longer filled with women religious, priests and brothers should energize laypeople, according to Mr. Pizzingrillo: "I think everyone has a vocation in the Church," he said. "It's that lens by which we bring about the new evangelization. I think the laity has a vital role."

As superintendent, he's thinking of surveying current Catholic school parents about their satisfaction with the product and enhancing schools' technology with iPads, webinars and distance learning.

"We need to provide an education for the world they will be living in," he said of students.

What secular schools lack is a focus on God, Mr. Pizzingrillo said. Keeping faith foremost can benefit even non-Catholic students: "It's my belief that we don't have Catholic schools because [the students are] Catholic, but because we're Catholic. If we can better the relationship between a soul and God, then we're doing our job.

"Because I have a very strong faith and a very personal relationship with [God], I want everyone to have that opportunity."[[In-content Ad]]

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