Former principal to lead marketing for Catholic schools

Associate Superintendent Marguerite Olberts to help with retention, fundraising

Published: September 14, 2015

By Malea Hargett
Editor

Malea Hargett

Marguerite Olberts will help all the Catholic schools in the diocese with marketing, fundraising and recruitment and retention of students.

Malea Hargett

Marguerite Olberts will help all the Catholic schools in the diocese with marketing, fundraising and recruitment and retention of students.

The Diocese of Little Rock’s commitment to better marketing Catholic schools is being addressed with the addition of Marguerite Olberts to the Office of Catholic Schools.

As an associate superintendent she will focus on assisting all the schools with marketing, fundraising and recruitment and retention of students.

Olberts has 20 years of experience in Catholic school leadership. From 1995 to 2005 she was the principal of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Benton and from 2005 to 2015 she was the principal of St. Theresa School in Little Rock.

Both schools were small and relied on her to know how to promote the schools in the local community.

“As a small school principal, you wear lots of hats,” she said.

Olberts is a product of Little Rock Catholic schools, graduating from Our Lady of the Holy Souls School and Mount St. Mary Academy. She went to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for computer science and biology, but later decided to fulfil her passion for teaching by becoming a preschool and prekindergarten teacher and director. She got into education by working for one year as a science teacher at Harmony Grove High School in Saline County.

As an active member of Our Lady of Fatima Church, serving as parish council president and catechist, she was tapped as the first lay principal of the parish school.

“I didn’t consider myself necessarily qualified to be a principal of a school,” she said, adding that then-pastor Father John Marconi and then-superintendent Dr. Mike Rockers believed Olberts was gifted in education. “The next thing I knew I was the principal of Our Lady of Fatima.”

Olberts returned to college to earn her master’s degree in elementary administration at Henderson State University.

In 2005 she said she felt called to accept the principal position at St. Theresa School.

“I really felt called spiritually. It was a God moment in my life,” she said. “I was praying after Communion and I heard God say, ‘You need to go to St. Theresa’s.’”

In the spring 2015 she again felt called to move on from St. Theresa and she accepted the new position at the diocese.

“The Lord has been good to lead me throughout the years,” she said. “I felt the Lord was letting me know that my time as a principal was coming to an end and it was time to give it up.”

As an associate superintendent Olberts will work closely with the principals and school development directors in their marketing and public relations plans.

“I have been in two small schools where I had to work very hard at fundraising and marketing our schools and appealing to our diverse audiences,” she said. “Working closely with the Hispanic community at St. Theresa has helped me gain a lot of experience that will be helpful to the other schools.”

With more than two decades in a school each day, Olberts admits she did miss the excitement of the beginning of the school year.

“I truly loved being part of their lives,” she said of the students. “In a pre-K to eighth grade (school), you really get to know them…. I got to know every child. I got to know every family…. I will truly miss that.”