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12/18/2009
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Status of the Diocesan School Study: We want to “Get it Right”

By Bishop Robert W. Finn
Kansas City-St. Joseph

The work of our Comprehensive study and plan for Catholic schools continues to move forward with deliberation. It is clear that this is a formidable task that will have a profound effect within the whole diocese. We want to get it right.

In April, 2008, we began a consultative effort with Meitler Associates to create a comprehensive plan for diocesan Catholic schools. A year later, after a lengthy collaborative process, the diocese received the report from Meitler. While it offered the principal elements for our planning, there remained serious concerns, specifically about how the proposed funding model for schools could be successfully implemented.

To address some of the remaining questions, in May, 2009, we established nine Task Forces, involving about 80 people, including many pastors, to look at all the substantive recommendations of the Meitler Study. The task forces studied the recommendations of the Meitler Study, focusing on these areas:

Funding Catholic Schools (with five subcommittees)

Assessments for Non-School Parishes

Covenant Agreements between School and Non-School Parishes

A Diocesan Tuition Assistance Fund

Catholic Identity of the Schools

Strategic Planning

Local School Boards

Communications and Marketing

Development

At the same time I authorized a group of parishes in Southwest Kansas City to develop and propose a separate tithing model of school support for their five schools, set within parameters that scrupulously safeguard the integrity of any legal issues associated with charitable giving.

In early Fall, as the Task Forces and Southwest Pod concluded their studies, we reviewed and discussed these many reports. The work remained to begin to put together the elements of a plan. To assist with this I established another Committee to develop the plan, confirm its viability, and assure its faithfulness to the Church’s mission.

The work of this committee continues, and from it I intend to appoint an Implementation Team which, along with the Diocesan Director of Planning, will oversee the realization of the Plan. We hope to announce a Comprehensive School Plan in early Spring, 2010, which will include a timeline for explaining the plan and achieving its implementation.

The Comprehensive School Plan is mission driven, and we have tried to keep certain goals in mind at all times. Our Comprehensive School Plan must:

Stabilize weak schools and strengthen all the schools for generations to come;

Maintain school environments for good teaching and learning;

Fortify Catholic Identity to express and further the Church’s mission;

Make schools more affordable and increase enrollments;

Create greater uniformity in financing of schools, but allow for some differences;

Eliminate all potential IRS conflicts and challenges in any tithing model;

Broaden the base of financial support and ownership of schools across parishes;

Create a blueprint for the continuing viability of “Central City” schools.

Although the Meitler Plan attempted to address the above issues, there were other important goals that were beginning to emerge. Our plan must also:

Do more to support multiple-child families in attending our schools;

Be an instrument to further a “Cultural Transformation” to true stewardship;

Strengthen the link between parish schools and the diocesan high schools.

This process may end up being nearly two years in its formulation, but the effectiveness of the plan for our Catholic Schools will be worth it, if it allows our schools to emerge stronger than ever.

Thank you for all you are doing to support Catholic education. Please pray for the success of this vital work.

END