THE TABLET
August 23, 2008

Ongoing Efforts at School Planning

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Over the past few years, our Catholic elementary schools have begun an extensive strategic planning process whose aim is to strengthen their mission to provide an excellent academic education and form our children in the Catholic faith. Those involved in this planning process include our pastors, school principals, school administration and staff, and the lay members of the 76 school advisory boards that serve 85 of our 113 elementary schools. The remaining schools are in the final process of creating their respective advisory boards. These efforts at strategic planning will bear fruit this December when every Catholic elementary school is required to submit a detailed strategic plan of action to foster its continued growth.

There are five essential qualities that serve as benchmarks to assess a school’s excellence: its Catholic identity, pursuit of academic excellence, the establishment of a governance structure that includes competent lay involvement, financial viability and enrollment stability. When these qualities exist in any school, then its fundamental mission to form its children in the Catholic faith can be realized. This formation is achieved in body, mind and spirit through excellence in education, ongoing, holistic faith formation and by inviting our children and their parents to be members of a school environment founded upon Catholic social values. Among the long-term fruits of maintaining excellent Catholic schools will be the identification and training of a new generation of committed Catholic lay leaders to serve our parishes and schools and increasing numbers of young men and women who will respond to the Lord’s call to serve Him as priests and members of religious and consecrated life.

At the heart of all school strategic planning must be the desire to bring the work of the New Evangelization to our children and their parents. Pope Benedict, during his recent visit with Catholic educators in Washington, reminded us that the work of evangelization applies to every Catholic school. “Education is integral to the mission of the Church to proclaim the Good News. First and foremost, every Catholic educational institution is a place to encounter the living God who in Jesus Christ reveals his transforming love and truth” (Address to Catholic Educators, April 17, 2008). 

The Pope’s recent call to foster evangelization in our schools echoes a similar challenge given by Pope John Paul II in his 1979 message to the National Catholic Educational Association. At that time, Pope John Paul reminded his audience that Catholic education is above all a question of communicating the person of Christ and helping to form Christ in the lives of our children. Thus, the effectiveness of every strategic plan will become apparent by its ability to foster in all the members of its school a deeper faith, hope and love in Jesus Christ.

In order to fully realize the work of strategic planning in our schools, it is essential that dedicated, competent lay leaders give of their time and expertise to assist school administration by serving as members of the school advisory board. These boards are asked to help identify and address the key challenges faced by their respective schools. Among these challenges are shifting demographics, diminishing enrollments, rising costs and the financial stresses faced by many Catholic families who are prevented from sending their children to Catholic schools.  The lay advisory boards were created to assist and the support their school to meet these immediate and long-term challenges by assisting in the creation of a long-term strategic plan with specific goals and objectives that address particular challenges. Progress in realizing these goals and objectives will be evaluated over time. I wish to take this opportunity to thank the service and dedicated commitment shown by the 760 current lay members of the school advisory boards and encourage others to volunteer to join this important, ongoing work.

In the months ahead, as local efforts at strategic planning move forward, I believe that the time has come to begin a diocesan-wide assessment of the future of Catholic elementary school education. This assessment must be conducted in a systematic and coordinated fashion, with input from both every school and diocesan leadership. More specifically, the Office of Catholic School Support Services has already provided every Catholic elementary school with a detailed, comprehensive school data report. These reports provide a summary of every aspect of a school’s life- its Catholic identity, enrollment trends, demographics, finances and assessment results.

Long-term financial projections are also being prepared for each elementary school and will be distributed to our pastors and principals in mid-September. These reports will provide the beginning of a diocesan-wide examination of the long-term global needs of our schools. This examination will include informational meetings and consultation within each cluster of the Diocese. Our goal is to create a diocesan-wide strategic plan that will address the general, fundamental challenges facing Catholic education, while each school works towards identifying and addressing its particular needs. I will explain this diocesan-wide process in greater detail in a separate column in the coming weeks.

Finally, the Church has always taught that the first and best teachers of the faith are Catholic parents. The mission of Catholic education cannot ultimately succeed without the commitment of our parents to help create a Catholic home where their children can answer in very personal ways the call to holiness and faith in Jesus Christ. For this reason, as we address the need to create a diocesan-wide strategic plan for Catholic elementary school education, the ongoing support of our families must be a key ingredient of whatever plan is proposed.

Let us commend our school planning efforts to Mary, the Mother of God and patroness of our Diocese. Through her intercession, may all that we plan on behalf of our schools bear great fruit and help our children grow in knowledge and love of the Lord Jesus. With her prayers, may we have the courage to “put out into the deep” and seize this important opportunity to plan the future of our Catholic elementary schools.

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