Henry Rubio
Hundreds of people celebrated the 11th Annual Bishop Ignatius Catanello Scholarship Dinner at Douglaston’s Immaculate Conception Hall on November 23rd, where Henry Rubio, President of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, is being honored as Educator of the year. Bishop Catanello was a graduate of Cathedral Prep in Elmhurst and went on to serve as Auxiliary Bishop from 1995 through 2010. He died in 2013. “Iggy” was known as a priest who had a strength in engaging with people on various levels. “When you talked with him, it felt like you were the only person in the world,” said Frank Steele, one of the organizers of the Scholarship Event. “… that’s a skill, but it turns out it was really more about how he saw the world and how every person was a treasure.” So in late November nearly a hundred individuals who knew him well, get together for a dinner and Mass to celebrate Iggy, with proceeds to benefit Cathedral Prep Seminary, where Catanello served as principal in the early 1990s.
Henry Rubio, the educator of the year was honored at the dinner. He began serving as the President of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators in January 2023, after having served as the union’s Executive Vice President and First Vice President. Prior to that he represented school leaders as the District Chair for Manhattan High Schools and was elected by his colleagues to serve on the CSA Executive Board.
Henry was born, raised, and educated in New York City, and entered the field of education with a background in business and an undergraduate economics degree from Fordham. He later earned a graduate degree from Queens College and administrative certification from the College of Saint Rose. He began his career in 1997 as a Bilingual Social Studies teacher in Queens. Additionally, he completed studies at Cornell University’s AFL-CIO Union Leadership Institute and served as CSA’s chief negotiator for the union’s most recent agreement with the city.
In 2007, Henry was selected to participate in Columbia University’s Cahn Fellows program, and in 2011 he became a mentor and coach to school leaders across New York City through CSA’s Supervisory Support Program. He is currently also the president of the New York State Federation of School Administrators and a vice president of the American Federation of School Administrators. Henry serves on several committees and boards, working with labor and research organizations such as the NYC Municipal Labor Committee, the NYC Central Labor Council, the Cornell Labor Institute Advisory Board, the Independent Budget Office, and the Research Alliance for NYC Schools.
