New principal, Rick Bartman, leads Judge Memorial

Intermountain Catholic

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Rick Bartman, the new principal at Judge Memorial Catholic High School, is confident he, his students, the staff and faculty, and the alumni of the school will overcome any challenges facing the school.  IC photo by Barbara S. Lee

SALT LAKE CITY — Rick Bartman is settling in well in his new position as principal at Judge Memorial Catholic High School in Salt Lake City. At 49, most of his career in education has been spent in Florida, where he taught in a high school, instructed special education students, and served as dean of students in a public high school.

"Now, I’m ready to make the transition to a Catholic education system," he told the Intermountain Catholic. "I was educated in Catholic schools."

Bartman, a quiet man, earned his Bachelor’s degree at the University of California, San Diego, and his Master’s Degree at Rutgers in New Jersey. He earned a second Master’s Degree, in education, at the University of Florida.

"I’m very impressed with Judge Memorial’s good reputation," Bartman said. "It’s obvious that Christ is front and center here. The school offers a definite challenge financially, but I love the physical plant, and nothing is insurmountable, even our athletic field (one corner of which collapsed some weeks ago). We’re working on both an immediate fix for the field, and a permanent fix, of course."

Judge Memorial is a small school (with 840 students) compared to the other schools where Bartman has worked. The largest school he’s run had 27,000 students.

In addition to keeping pace with the students, Bartman said the next important goal is a capital campaign.

"I’m working very closely with Jim Beisel, operations manager of the school, and we are tracking tuition payments," he said. "We’re also looking at cutting costs. When it comes to money, I’m the bad guy. I don’t waste money. I’m driving a seven-year-old Honda Civic."

The school will be run, Bartman said, on a board-approved budget. "I don’t believe in spending money we don’t have. That will be my capital campaign promise. We will work closely with the school’s board on marketing."

Attracting new students and maintaining the school’s high quality teaching staff will have Bartman working closely with Matt Finnigan, the school’s director of community relations.

"We are working on personalizing Judge Memorial," Bartman said. "I don’t want my face to be the face of this school.

He said Judge Memorial stands on its own good reputation for being "a small academic powerhouse."

Our goal will be to balance the school’s needs with its excellence and its 50-year high standard of academics and athletics.

"So far, coming to Judge Memorial has felt very good to me and my wife, Marianne. It has felt like coming home. I’m excited to see where we can take this school in the next dozen years."

Bartman said one of the aspects of Judge Memorial that has impressed him has been the number of its alumni who have come back to the school to teach and those who have gone on to teach in other Catholic schools.

"Judge Memorial graduates go on to impact the world by impacting other people. We have excellent students here, and a teaching staff that is unsurpassed.

"We have an infrastructure that is aging, and that is part of the financial challenge of the school, but I have no doubt that we – all of us together – are up to that challenge.