Catholic School Community

Is There Really Hope in the Young?

The turnout for the beatification of Blessed John Paul II far exceeded even the most optimistic expectation of 1 million people, the number Rome city officials predicted. This was also true of World Youth Day in 1993. It was thought no more than 60,000 young people would make that pilgrimage, when a throng of nearly 600,000 attended--often chanting "John Paul II we love you." And a quarter million pilgrims were with him in an Easter Week deathwatch in 2005. This charismatic saint-to-be attracted all ages but had a special connection with youth. His life and ways serve as a wonderful model for Catholic educators. In this Easter season I will offer seven principles for educators based on Blessed John Paul's reflections in Crossing the Threshold of Hope.

Leader as Peacemaker

During our principals' retreat the retreat director, Sister Cele Breen, SCL shared some excellent insights regarding the Principal as Peacemaker.  She shared several thoughts on peace with us, but one particular quote stood out for me, "If you disagree with me, you have something to give me; if you are sincere and seek the truth as best you may, honestly with modest care, your thought is growth to mine, you deepen my vision." --Dom Helder Camara

As administrators we engage in many critical conversations--marked by high stakes, high emotions, and differences of opinion.  I find this quote to be a good marker to place within my mind and heart during those conversations.    

 

Social Media: Fad or Revolution?

 

Do not be afraid of new technologies! These rank “among the marvelous things” – inter mirifica – which God has placed at our disposal to discover, to use and to make known the truth, also the truth about our dignity and about our destiny as his children, heirs of his eternal Kingdom. (From the Vatican, 24 January 2005, the Feast of Saint Francis de Sales, Patron Saint of Journalists)

One dimension of the New Evangelization is to appropriately utilize the new means of communication available to our education ministry.  Although I am a "fountain pen guy in a would of twitter," I think it is important for us to manage and appropriately utilize social media.

Principals in the Archdiocese of Denver Catholic Schools were recently provided a professional development session in  the use of social media as a marketing, branding, and communication tool.  Three schools--Blessed Sacrament, St. John the Evangelist, and At. Anthony--shared their best practices in the use of social media, providing principals with many good practices and ideas to utilize in their schools.

As a follow up to the development session and to assist our schools choosing to utilize social media, the Office of Catholic Schools is contracting with a resource person to conduct social media training and development to principals, pastors teachers, committees, vendors and other stakeholders as necessary to help schools achieve their goals.

Social Media--fad or revolution?  It is neither, but well within the tradition of Catholic schools' engagement in prudent innovation.  

 

 

 

Principals' Retreat: Spirituality in Leadership

Catholic school principals today must balance their functional, institutional responsibilities with the core of their educational ministry--spiritual leadership in building a community of faith.  Principals in the Archdiocese of Denver have been asked to maintain an audit of their extremely valuable resource of time. What percent of their time in a given week or month is devoted to functional administrative tasks compared to the percentage of time they devote to spiritual leadership and formation of students and teachers?

Time must be set aside and protected to engage themselves and their community in prayer, reflection, catechesis, and formation in order to cultivate a true community of disciples.  This doesn't just happen.  It must be intentional with time set aside to devote to formation rather than functionality.

Each year we provide principals with a two day retreat at beautiful  St. Malo in the magestic Rocky Mountains. In this setting, visited by John Paul II during World Youth Day in 1993, time is set aside in a busy calendar for principals to "be" together--in prayer, reflection, catechesis, and socializing.  

It is hoped that this respite from function is a gift to principals that will, in turn, be shared with their school communities in ways throughout the school year.   

Vouchers Work

In a recent interview, President Obama said, "I will not allow my predispositions to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn.  We're losing several generations of kids, and something has to be done."

Education analysts said Mr. Obama's statement is the closest they have ever seen a Democratic presidential candidate come to embracing the idea of vouchers. Vouchers are taxpayer-funded scholarships that allow families to opt out of public school and use their government-allotted education dollars to attend a private school instead. They are despised by teachers unions, powerful players in Democratic politics. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

I  hope and pray that he does resist the pressure from the teachers' unions and truly puts children before politics.  Vouchers work.  In the Archdiocese of Denver we have engaged in a four-year philanthropically funded voucher program.  There are currently 250 students being served in this program, ranging from grades 1 to 12. All families meet the federal poverty guidelines and all come from public schools. 

These voucher students, previously unsuccessful in school, have been very successful in ways that I will be sharing in the next few postings, beginning with parent satisfaction.  Each year parents must re-apply for the voucher annually and the students must meet various performance and behavior benchmarks in order to continue receiving a voucher.  Below is a sample of the comments made by families on their renewal application.

My family has been able to send Amanda to a school that will help her succeed in life, to develop her sense of community, we feel so happy to be a part of this program.

My family has benefited from the Catholic School Voucher a whole lot. It has given a great change in our history and has brought us together with Christ, which is the most important that matters.

Joni has grown so much while in Catholic Schools. She has become so knowledgeable in her religion classes throughout the years. She is an "A" student and she is in 4 honor classes. Next year she will be in one AP course and she's only a sophomore.

We thank you for my daughter's Voucher because without your help she wouldn't be able to attend this school which is such a good school and has good discipline.  They take good care of all the students.  Thank you and God bless.

I cannot begin to express the gratitude that I have in my heart for this program in all that you do for our family and countless others.  if there is anything I can do to try and repay this great debt that I owe, please call on me.

Thanks to the voucher program my daughter can have an education with solid principles and a secure environment.

I feel my grand kids are very fortunate to come to Catholic school.  They teach them discipline, how to be loving to others and not to mention I feel my grand kids have learned so much more than other kids I know who are not as fortunate to come to Catholic school

 

 

 

 

Catholic Schools: Transforming Lives One At A Time

In partnership with parents, Catholic schools serve as a catalyst for transforming individual students through teaching and living Gospel values within the school community.  In The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium it states,  "In a very special way the Catholic school affords the opportunity to meet young people in an environment which favors their Christian formation."  The picture below, provided by a grateful student to her principal, is worth a thousand words of explanation about the leavening effect of the Catholic school community. In one year, this student was transformed in so many ways, and through this transformation found greater meaning and purpose in her life (from sad face to happy face). She knows that. She is grateful for that, and in her gratitude has shared her story through the gift of this picture.

In this Year of St. Paul our school communities have been reflecting and praying on his writings.  One such prayer based on 1 Cor 15: 20-21 helps students know and understand their transformation power:  Lord, Let me put you first today, in both my day and my heart.  Help me continually to begin again in you and may my whole life be sanctified through your presence.

Reasons to Believe in Catholic Schools

Our research in the Archdiocese of Denver has determined that families select our schools because they have confidence that their children will experience more complete development and unsurpassed academic and personal success.  The main reasons parents have this confidence are (1) Catholic Faith Formation; (2) Rigorous Academics; (3) Nurturing Community; (4) Reinforcing Family Environment.

We have developed research-based information snapshots as "proof points" for each of these reasons to believe in Catholic schools.  These can be found on our web site.

http://www.archden.org/schools/snapshots.htm