New archdiocese schools chief focusing on enrollment, Catholic mission

In his tenure as superintendent of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's schools, Jim Rigg earned a reputation as an efficiency guy.

Rigg stepped into a Cincinnati parochial school system that was losing roughly 1,200 students a year, had seen 22 schools close and had a dozen more on the brink. By the end of the last school year, that had turned around and the schools that were on the verge of closing because of low enrollment all reported being at or near capacity.

Rigg, who took the helm of the Archdiocese of Chicago's 230 schools last month, said that wasn't due to a cookie-cutter approach or even a primary focus on finances.

"Really, finances are the trailing indicator of success in a Catholic school," Rigg told the Daily Herald in his first newspaper interview since he took the job Oct. 5. "The best marketing strategy is to make your current clientele happy with the right kind of leadership and mission focus. Quality is what attracts new families."

Now, Rigg aims to apply that philosophy to a much larger job - overseeing 83,000 students in the nation's largest private school system, which is down 25 schools from the 2011-12 academic year.

Catholic school attendance is down 7.2 percent over the past four years in suburban Cook County, from 35,994 in 2011-12 to 33,415 in the most recent head count, archdiocese figures show. Enrollment in Lake County schools has dropped 7 percent in the same period, from 7,926 to 7,370.

Rigg envisions developing a strategic plan for local Catholic schools, perhaps using some of the same tactics he found successful back in Cincinnati.

That plan was developed with the help of the University of Notre Dame and pinpointed concerns for Cincinnati-area schools that included declining enrollment, long waiting lists at some schools and others with empty classrooms, and need for more financial assistance than schools were able to provide families.

"We looked at how schools were performing in every aspect - academically, (in) faith, financially," Rigg said.

That study prompted a $130 million capital campaign and programs to improve school performance and hone their missions as Catholic institutions. It also recruiting more Hispanic families to Cincinnati schools.

In Chicago, Rigg said, he plans to "build on an already strong system and make sure the schools are positioned to give the best possible quality and are accessible and affordable to any family that wants to come to us." He said it's too early to say if closings would be part of that plan.

While some private religious schools have made religion optional for students of differing faiths, Rigg said he's "a believer the Catholic faith should be present in every classroom."

Rigg says he plans to "get to know the lay of the land" at schools throughout Cook and Lake County.

This week's stops include St. James School in Arlington Heights on Wednesday and St. Raymond in Mount Prospect and St. Teresa in Palatine on Friday.

"I'm prioritizing getting into the Catholic schools, not for an emergency, not for an event, but just seeing a typical day," he said.

He's also keeping an eye out for a suburban school to enroll his own four children, ages 6 through 11, when wife Lauren moves with the children to the Chicago area sometime in the first half of 2016.

"We're in the stage of our lives where we want to have a yard," he said.