Barb Rezac, Director of Schools
Director of Schools Barb Rezac joined the Catholic Views podcast recently to introduce herself to the diocese. This is part of the interview, edited for length and clarity.
Would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself?
I grew up in Crofton, Nebraska, just across the border, in kind of a bubble. I always say it was a pretty idyllic way to grow up on a wonderful family farm. I went to a Catholic school. I have six siblings. My mom was a home health nurse and hospice nurse, so I learned a lot from her, and my dad was a farmer.
I went to college at the University of Nebraska. I got a degree in elementary and special education. I was engaged to a farmer who lived near Tabor, South Dakota, so I started my career at Sacred Heart School in Yankton teaching second grade, which I loved. But I was called to more in education and went back to the University of South Dakota and got a degree in administration. At that time, I was probably 25 or 26 years old, and then I started as a principal at Sacred Heart School.
I served in the principal’s role for a number of years before I realized we had a waiting list of students to get in, so I started a development office for the parishes and school so we could build some new buildings.
I left the principal’s role to start the development office. I really enjoyed the fundraising world and did that for about 14 years for the parishes and school. We were able to build two school buildings and increase the size of the school.
About that time, Mount Marty called and asked if I would come up there and work in their fundraising office. I served as the vice president for advancement at Mount Marty for 14 years. Along the way, I learned more about mission and integrating mission into academic and co-curricular programing. During that time, I also sought out a PhD at the University of Nebraska. I finished my PhD about a year ago.
I’m married, and Joe and I have been married now for 34 years. We have three grown daughters who are out in the world doing their thing. We have just a wonderful life together. Oh, and we have a little grandson who is 1, and he is certainly the light of all of our world.
Can you tell us a little bit about what faith has meant to you throughout your life, and what role that has played?
I grew up in a faith-filled household. We prayed before and after every meal. It was just a big part of my life. I went through a Catholic school, first grade through eighth grade.
As I’ve grown up and throughout my career, I’ve been trying to dig a little deeper all the time and continue to expand not only my knowledge, but the depth of my faith as well. So, I continue to try to keep praying, keep attending Mass and doing what’s necessary to stay true to my Catholic faith and let it help me discern and make decisions, because the depth of my prayer life is how I’m able to discern what’s next for me and what’s right for me. Where should I spend my time? What should I be focused on? And how am I being called to build God’s kingdom?
So, my faith is very important. I spend a lot of time in prayer because I have quite a drive. I drive up to the office up here in Sioux Falls because I still live on the farm by Tabor. It’s about a 90-minute drive for me, and I drive three to four days a week, but it’s beautiful because I have that time. It’s just built-in time to pray. And I’ve always desired an amount of time to pray because I struggle to just sit for an hour and take the time to pray, but it’s kind of forced upon me now, and it’s been beautiful.
I love the commute. I pray for our schools and our pastors and our principals and all the people that are affected by our Catholic schools. It’s just been a great time to really devote that time to prayer.
You’ve had several faith-based roles throughout the years. Is there a way that you incorporated your faith into those roles?
You know, I’ve worked for the Church for 35 years in this diocese. From second grade teacher to the principal job to the advancement roles that I played, both at the parishes and at Mount Marty, I’ve always worked in faith-based institutions. I really focus on starting meetings with prayer, and guiding and directing the people that I work with in prayer has been a really important part of my leadership. It always pays in amazing ways when we really turn our work to God.
Which of those roles has had the biggest impact on you?
I would say the principal’s role. I was a very young principal, so my learning curve was pretty great there.
I had a big learning curve when I went to Mount Marty, too, because I had never been a part of higher ed. Learning all of the governance model of higher ed
was a big learning curve as well. And now this role
is kind of a culmination of all of my roles, I would say. It’s been a really beautiful fit for me.
I’m hoping that I can share my faith with others and that can impact what I’m doing. It all comes back to prayer because it helps me discern my next decision; my prayer life helps me discern where I should be and what I should be focused on at the moment.
What fruit have you seen coming from this faith-centered way of working?
That’s a great question, and I would say the fruit of all of that and the fruit of my focus on God is joy. And that’s what I pray for, too. I’ll do anything: I will clean the carpet here tonight if it’s going to bring me joy, and that’s my prayer. I will do whatever you ask, but let me have joy.
How did you end up applying for this position, and how’s it going?
Someone from the Chancery office called and asked if I would be interested in this particular position, and at first, I wasn’t really interested. But upon visiting and hearing more about Bishop’s vision for liberal arts education in the K-12 program, I thought, maybe this is right where God’s calling me. I started to pray and discern and, sure enough, here I am.
I think it’s going really well, and I certainly am enjoying it here. There are many, many challenges, but I think it’s an exciting time in Catholic education. Just with this idea of the liberal arts and stringing that through all the way from preschool through higher ed, to me is a really exciting notion.
When we add the federal tax credit and the opportunity that our schools are going to be seeing with that starting Jan. 1, it’s a time in education that I think is unprecedented. I’ve never been more excited to be in Catholic education than I am right now.
I wake up every morning and think, “What do I get to do today?” And I’ve been thrilled with getting out to the Catholic schools. We have 22 Catholic schools in our diocese, across a dozen or so communities. I love getting out to the communities and just seeing what’s happening in each of those individual schools and visiting with the principals and trying to share and come up with ideas of how we can be more efficient, more effective. And just seeing the joys that are happening out there and the beautiful education that is happening and seeing what we can do to build God’s kingdom.
Click here to listen to the full podcast to hear more about Barb, including the importance of St. Benedict in her life.
