X MARKS THE SPOT!

St. Pius X's latest award - voted best Private School by Times Union readers - is a testament to the hard word and dedication of the school community

St. Pius X School students carry the Blue Ribbon School banner, an honor the school was awarded last October. And just this month, St. Pius was named the top private school by Times Union readers. (Photo provided).

The awards just keep coming for St. Pius X School in Loudon­ville.

St. Pius X, which was named a Blue Ribbon School by the Council for American Private Education (CAPE) last October, was voted as the Best Private School in the Capital Region by the readers of the Times Union in their Best of the Capital Region honors.

In winning the award, the Times Union wrote, “While ­Albany Academy dominated the nomination period for this category, it was St. Pius X that ran away with the all-important voting phase. Taking that top spot shouldn’t be much of a surprise, though, as St. Pius X put together a pretty phenomenal year in 2025, when it was named a 2025 Cape Blue Ribbon School — one of the top honors for private schools. Between that honor and, well … this one … everything’s coming up St. Pius these days.”

Albany Academy finished in second place in the Best Private School category — which made its debut in the Times Union awards just this year — followed by La Salle Institute in third place and Doane Stuart School and Academy of Holy Names as runners-up. St. Pius X also won the award for Best Preschool/ Day Care for the fourth straight year.

“St. Pius X School’s recognition by the Times Union as the area’s Best Private School and Best Preschool is a tremendous affirmation of the outstanding work taking place each day within the school community. Earlier this year, St. Pius X was also recognized nationally as a CAPE and NCEA Blue Ribbon School, further demonstrating its commitment to academic excellence, faith formation and the development of the whole child,” said Dr. Christopher Bott, Superintendent of Schools, Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.

“These honors reflect the dedi­cation of the faculty, staff, administration, parents and students who together create a vibrant Catholic school community rooted in faith, service and educational excellence. On behalf of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, Bishop Mark O’Connell, and the Albany Diocesan School Board, I congratulate Father Jim Walsh, Principal Matthew Rucinski, the faculty and staff, and the entire St. Pius X School community on these well-deserved recognitions.”

It should be no coincidence that St. Pius X is winning these honors under the leadership of Rucinski, who is in his fourth year as principal, attended St. Pius as a student and remains a parishioner of the parish that he grew up in.

“With the Blue Ribbon award and with this local award, it’s very gratifying. Our staff works extremely hard every single day and we certainly don’t do it for the accolades. We do it because we love what we do and we love our students,” he said. “But to be able to see that people notice what we’re doing here and notice what we’re building, for me, it gives the approval that we’re moving in the right direction and we’re providing a great product for our students and for our families. It emboldens me to work harder and come up with even more crazy ideas to make our school even better.”

And it is a staff that has dedicated a big part of their lives to the school.

“The faculty is phenomenal,” he said. “We have faculty members who are so tenured, they have been here 20, 30 years. My pre-K director is retiring this year after 40 years at St. Pius. I have teachers that I had when I was a student at St. Pius and now I’m their principal. It just goes to show how dedicated the team is here. It shows 70 years of excellence, not just the past four years.”

In the past four years, Rucinski has certainly put his own stamp on St. Pius. After all, enrollment when he started as principal was around 500 students and next year is projected to be at 650. 

“Being a parishioner and alumni, one of my goals was to really connect the school and the parish, and I think we really help one another out,” he said. “As the parish grows, I see people at 10 o’clock Mass and then they are doing tours at the school the next day and vice versa. I see families at school starting to show up at Mass on the weekends. The growth of both the parish and the school, we really help each other out.”

Rucinski, who was a middle-school teacher before becoming principal, points to an emphasis on the programming at that level — particularly in adding electives — that has been transformative.

“We know that our families, especially at the middle-school level, have a lot of options so to try and make our program the most competitive and the most attractive as possible is our goal,” he said. “Every middle schooler has an individualized schedule, three activities periods a day, and that is where they can choose their art, their music, their PE courses, as well as their general electives.

“The kids that love music, they’re doing choir, and hand bells and band. The kids that love their sports, they’ve got strength training and pickle ball, and they can really tailor their schedule to their individual interests and needs as well. For some kids, that’s the thing that might get them into school that day, knowing that they have that ceramics or photography elective that they look forward to every day.”

It is this type of out-of-the-box thinking that has kept St. Pius X fresh and thriving.

“The landscape of private education, and really education as a whole, is changing. The dying phrase is: ‘This is the way it’s always been done.’ Change is scary. As humans, we don’t always embrace change,” Rucinski said. “I hope what my leadership has brought to this school is someone who has his roots here in the school, in the parish. 

“I have been a member of this parish my whole life but I also have experience teaching outside of this school and I bring that perspective but I also hold true to some of the traditions and some of the things that made St. Pius that great school that it is today. I think because of that I have been able to make some really positive changes but I’ve also kept the fabric and tradition of what we do pretty similar.”