Pius X administrative officer to receive St. Thomas Aquinas award
By Deacon Matthew Hecker, Ph.D.
Tom Korta, chief administrative officer at Pius X High School in Lincoln, will receive the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln’s St. Thomas Aquinas award for Administrator of the Year
Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, the fourth of six children, Tom Korta never imagined he would live in Nebraska.
Interestingly, long before Pius X High School in Lincoln would become such a part of his life, his parents attended Pius XI High School in Milwaukee. A family move to the suburbs made the distance too great, so Tom and his siblings attended local public schools.
As a child, Korta was formed in a solid and loving Catholic family.
“My parents were very faithful Catholic parents,” he said. “They were highly involved in our parish. They were lectors and extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist. My brothers and I were altar servers. As a family we never missed Mass.”
When he was a high school student, Korta was very involved in the parish youth ministry program. He recalled a particular clown ministry in which he was involved.
“We would visit places like nursing homes and camps for children with special needs. We entertained by doing juggling and magic tricks and making balloon animals. It was a fun way to be a witness to the faith, which is why we did it. For me, it created a strong desire to be closer to our Lord,” he said.
Korta attended the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and majored in secondary math education. While there, he wasn’t involved in the Newman Center.
Instead, he said, “I found a small off-campus parish I really liked; St. Lawrence.” Following in his parents’ footsteps, “I got involved there as a lector.”
After graduating, a mountain lifestyle beckoned. Following a long-held desire, Korta moved to Ft. Collins, Colo., and took a job teaching math in the Poudre School District.
“I got involved at the John XXIII University Center, the Newman Center for Colorado State University students.”
It was there that Korta met his future wife.
“Jill was the youth director for John XXIII. I taught a CCD class in morality for high school sophomores. I remember visiting with Jill to prepare for teaching the class. Those discussions about morality led us to start dating when we realized we had a strong sense of shared faith.”
Jill is from Lincoln, a product of Cathedral of the Risen Christ Parish and a Pius X High School graduate. After college, she too, felt the call of the mountains. However, Tom Korta explained, “When it came time to marry, Cathedral parish is where she wanted the wedding.”
Some time later, Jill was accepted into a graduate program for physical therapy at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
“So in 1992, we moved from Ft. Collins back to Lincoln to be near her family. Jill commuted to Omaha for school and I found a job teaching math at Pius X. We were sure that when Jill finished her program, we would move back to Ft. Collins.”
Certain he wouldn’t be staying, Korta said, “I was reluctant to get involved at Pius. At that time, Pius had what they called a faculty committee. It was made up of teachers elected to represent the faculty in discussions with the administration. After my first year at Pius, I was nominated and elected to the faculty committee.”
By the fall of 1997, Jill was pregnant with their first child.
“As a physical therapist, Jill was making more money than I was as a teacher,” Korta said. “We decided I would quit teaching and be a stay-at-home dad.”
“When I told Father Mike Morin (then the chief administrative officer) I would be leaving, the administrative team put together a position that involved being a teacher, assistant principal and the tech coordinator for the school. Altogether, the new position paid enough to convince us that I should stay at Pius and Jill would stay at home.”
Until that time Korta said, “I was reluctant to consider administration. But at the end of that year, the main assistant principal left and his position became available. I applied for the job and got it.”
Korta quickly enrolled in a master’s program in education administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in order to get certified as a principal. He spent the next seven years as the Pius X assistant principal, followed by 15 years as the principal. Now, he’s in his third full year as chief administrative officer (CAO) of Pius X.
Korta said he was privileged to work with Father Morin and Father James Meysenburg (the most recent CAO).
“Both were great administrators. I learned a great deal from them,” he said.
Through the years, he said, it “has been fun to watch the sense of spirituality grow” at Pius.
“It was a little hidden at first. But now, to see the numbers of students who attend Mass, the number of students who participate in campus ministry, the strong interest in TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) retreats, the open embrace of the faith by the whole community of faculty, staff, students and parents, is really satisfying.”
Pius X has seen significant changes during Korta's time there.
“The enrollment... has grown from about 850 when I began to nearly 1,100 current students,” he said. “How do we continue to reach every student so that each one understands they are known and loved by our Lord? How do we ensure we provide every student with a personal invitation to encounter our Lord? In the end, that’s the only thing that matters.”
Korta admitted another challenge.
“Honestly, the financial piece weighs heavily. How do we keep tuition affordable, pay our teachers and relieve some of the pressure on our pastors/parishes?”
In fact, this year, necessity has forced Korta to return to the classroom part-time because Pius X was unable to fill a math teaching vacancy.
Still, Korta is proud of the school.
“Every day, we have 14 priests and two religious sisters in our building,” he said. Theology classes are taught by priests and religious sisters. “Sixty-three Pius X graduates have been ordained as priests or have taken religious vows. We average one new vocation every year,” Korta said.
“It speaks to the critical importance of faithful, affordable Catholic education,” he continued. “With an average tuition of $3,400 per year and generous scholarships funded by our donors, we are affordable for everyone who wants a faithful Catholic education.”
The Kortas now have four grown children. Long-time members of Cathedral Parish, Tom and Jill recently moved to Denton, where they are now members of St. Mary Parish.
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Korta will receive his award Oct. 15 at the second annual “Saints & Scholars” dinner to celebrate Catholic schools, educators and benefactors in the Diocese of Lincoln. See www.goodshepherdscholarship.com for more details.
