Michelle Peduto, Superintendent of Catholic Schools, dies of cancer

Michelle Peduto, who successfully led the Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Pittsburgh through both the planned challenges of a diocesan-wide school reorganization and the unplanned cataclysm of COVID, died of cancer on August 13 at her home in Sewickley.
 
“She was a beautiful example of deep trust in the Lord. She leaves us a legacy of what it means to work for the building of God’s kingdom,” Bishop David Zubik wrote in a letter announcing her death to clergy and diocesan staff.

Bishop Zubik will celebrate her funeral Mass Monday at 10 a.m. in Saint James Church (Divine Redeemer Parish) in Sewickley. The homilist will be Father Thomas Kunz. The service will be livestreamed at https://youtube.com/live/v0Pbh8NqzQQ?feature=share .

After battling metastatic breast cancer on and off for several years, she helped to choose her successor and retired in June to spend more time with her family. 

“Her creative, visionary approach has played a vital role in shaping the future of our schools,” Bishop Zubik said when she announced her retirement in January. “We are grateful for the impact she has had on Catholic education in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and for who she is as a person, and the warmth she has brought to our diocesan family.”

Mrs. Peduto had served Catholic schools in the Diocese of Pittsburgh for more than 21 years, and since 2019 as diocesan superintendent. Her prior experience included a focus on students from low income and minority families.

A native of Maine, her teaching career began after earning a Bachelor of Science in elementary education from Trenton State College in 1981. Four years later she married David Peduto, a career army officer specializing in medical logistics. She earned a Master of Education in the cultural foundations of education in 1989 at the University of Texas at San Antonio. They had four children: Elizabeth, Emily, Joseph and Samuel.

After her husband retired in 2003, they moved to his native Pittsburgh, where he founded a company to teach organizational leadership. She also excelled at leadership, beginning as principal of Saint Agnes School in Oakland, and serving sometimes overlapping roles as a curriculum and instruction consultant for the Extra Mile Education Foundation – which supports diocesan schools for low-income urban students – and adjunct faculty at Carlow University. Meanwhile she earned a Master of Education in school administration from Duquesne University, then became executive director and head of school at The Campus School of Carlow University. She was serving there when her husband died of a heart attack in 2016. 

In 2017 she became director of educational programs and partnerships for the Extra Mile Foundation. Two years later Bishop Zubik appointed her director (later superintendent) of Catholic schools for the diocese.

She oversaw implementation of a sweeping regionalization of Catholic schools that had been in the works for years. No longer would a single parish support one school, but every parish in a geographic region would support the schools in that region, and those schools would share staff and resources. While some schools closed and many changed names, they became more sustainable, more affordable and enrollment in many grew. 

Less than a year into her tenure the COVID pandemic led to a nationwide lockdown that included all schools. Under Mrs. Peduto’s leadership, the Catholic schools of the Diocese of Pittsburgh won accolades for resuming in-person instruction while following all public health guidelines – including masking – with only limited temporary closures for remote learning if someone in the school community contracted COVID. She worked closely with both public health officials and union officials in the Federation of Pittsburgh Diocesan Teachers to accommodate the needs of staff and students, with both optional remote learning for students and year-long leaves for teachers who requested them.

In 2023, when many school districts nationwide were grappling with severe educational losses from the COVID years, test scores in schools of the Diocese of Pittsburgh were stellar. 

Mrs. Peduto often hesitated to trumpet that fact, saying that smaller classroom size and extra space gave Catholic schools room for social distancing that public schools lacked. But in October 2023 she testified before the Pennsylvania House Appropriations/Education Committee, explaining that students in Catholic schools had emerged from the pandemic performing well above grade level on national tests, regardless of racial demographics.

“The perseverance of our school communities in sustaining student engagement during COVID allowed us to keep learning loss to a minimum and actually highlighted the strength of our Catholic school programs,” she told the legislators.

Throughout her tenure she piloted the schools through achievements and challenges great and small, and helped to tell their stories on the weekly KDKA-AM radio broadcast, Catholic Education Plus.  The diocese currently has about 13,000 students in 45 schools with more than 1,000 teachers.

One of her final duties was to organize a convention of the National Catholic Education Association in Pittsburgh. The organization presented her with its 2024 Lifetime Commitment to Catholic Education Award.

“Working for the Church and being able to embrace the faith every single day personally and professionally has been an incredible blessing,” she said as she prepared to retire.

She thanked everyone for their prayers and support.
 
“The hardest part of this is stepping back from that. God places people in our path to enrich our lives in ways we often do not recognize as it is happening. I am the beneficiary of the kindness and support of so many individuals. My gratitude is beyond words. I have seen that it’s the love that we give and the love that we receive that is the Church.”