By John Rohlf
The Message Assistant Editor
Mater Dei alumnus Josh Reising is now filling one of the top roles at Reitz Memorial High School after recently taking over as the school’s President.
Reising was appointed to the role of President in April after working at the school for the past four years as their Director of Finance and Operations. Prior to joining the school, Reising worked in multiple other roles in the corporate world, most recently Tri-State Community Clinics, which is now Ascension Tri-State Clinics.
Reising said when he saw the job posting for the business manager position at Reitz Memorial, it seemed like a good fit with his skill set.
“It’s within my scope and it’s working for a Catholic institution,” Reising said. “It seemed like it was right up my alley. I was just really kind of not necessarily reinvigorated in my faith at the time but it just seemed like one of the right moves.”
The initial plan after the announcement of the hire of Reising as President was that he would take over as President at the conclusion of Christian Mocek’s tenure, which was slated to run through the end of June. However, due to an unexpected personal situation for Mocek, Reising took over as President prior to the end of the school year.
Reising noted the timing of Mocek’s departure was not ideal, with work on the capital campaign ongoing, among other projects. If Mocek were still in place, he could have continued to drive those projects forward and Reising could have continued to fulfill his duties as Director of Finance and Operations and work on finding his replacement.
“The workload would have been less and I could have been attentive to things that I needed to be attentive to,” Reising said. “But now it’s just you’re spread a little bit thin. But I’m perfectly at peace with all of it. Because this is all kind of what’s supposed to be happening at this point and time.”
In his four years at Reitz Memorial, Reising worked under both Mocek and before that, John K. Browning. Reising said the plan was initially that he apply for the position and be a candidate during the last hiring process that ended with Mocek’s hire. Reising said he was not ready to fill the role at the time and was happy in his business manager role.
“His (Mocek) talents were fantastic with culture building and fundraising, those types of things, amongst many other things … He built the team here within Memorial to something that’s not so much a dyad president principal model. You still have that of course but it’s very much a team approach. The administration team kind of makes a lot of those decisions and we meet regularly,” Reising said.
Reising brings a plethora of experience to his new role, even prior to joining the Reitz Memorial staff. Reitz Memorial Principal Aaron Schmitt said Reising has brought a great presence to the school’s administration team.
“His level of self-reflection is admirable and his background knowledge from outside of the education setting has led to valuable insights on our day-to-day operations of the school,” Schmitt said. “Add in his commitment to the Catholic faith and you have a leader who is able to fulfill the mission of the school.”
Schmitt has worked with Reising as both a teacher and administrator. In both of the roles, he found Reising’s level of professionalism to be assuring and helpful in the situations they have encountered.
Schmitt thinks Reising understands the work that the administrative team has put in over the last two years and the structure they have created.
“It has involved a lot of self-reflection and awareness of how we come across in our roles,” Schmitt said. “And there have been pain points. Josh understands that the role of the president is deeper than just understanding finances. He knows that the work has to be rooted in our faith and that it has to be centered on the individuals we are impacting each day.”
Reising’s main duties as President include fulfilling the mission, vision and enculturating the values of the institution with all people at Memorial and within the community. There are also capital campaign and strategic planning focuses, as well as a focus on maintaining a culture of excellence.
“We’re educating them in that whole person mindset. Mind, body and spirit,” Reising said. “But it’s also creating people that deeply understand what it means to be a Memorial student. What kind of rich traditions that we’re kind of helping to incorporate into their lives and how they can then become leaders. Or just they don’t really have to be leaders. As long as they’re in some way fulfilling the mission God has given them and we’re helping to facilitate that in some way, shape or form. That’s what’s most important to me.”
Reising conceded he never thought he would work in a school system. However, he said if he is called to do something, then he follows it. He stressed he was not necessarily looking to get out of his role at Tri-State Community Clinics but felt a change was needed.
“This just kind of happened, which was so weird how all this stuff just kind of fell into place,” Reising said. “I guess I’m just open to the movement to the Spirit is what I’m saying. This is where it led me.”