Schools assess strategic plans

Halfway through a five-year strategic planning process, representatives from Catholic schools in the Albany Diocese met last week to discuss their accomplishments so far and examine the goals they hope to reach by 2007.

Diocesan school superintendent Sister Mary Jane Herb, IHM, told The Evangelist that the forum, held at St. Pius X parish in Loudonville, was meant to help Catholic educators "focus their energies" on meeting the challenges facing Catholic education in the Diocese.

The meeting was also a follow-up to a symposium held in January by the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), where a document on Catholic education across the U.S. was released. Both Sister Jane and Bishop Howard J. Hubbard made presentations at the local gathering.

Six topics

About 200 representatives from Catholic schools across the Diocese attended the meeting, where they looked at the six aspects of the Diocese's strategic plan for schools. Created in 2002, the plan focuses on six topics: the Catholic identity of schools, educational programs, enrollment, faculty and staff, leadership, and resources.

Quoting from the NCEA's strategic plan document, Sister Jane told the group that "Catholic schools should ensure that all educational programs are authentically Catholic in their context, methodology and witness, so that all will recognize those programs as an integral mission of the Church."

That goal has already been met in the Diocese's schools, she noted.

Other completed or ongoing goals include:

* all schools achieving accreditation from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools;

* having adequate staff, and completing certification requirements for teachers and catechists;

* creating guidelines for excellence in classrooms;

* deciding on minimum enrollment targets;

* doing studies of middle schools, demographics and enrollment;

* creating a diocesan-wide marketing and recruitment plan;

* revising the diocesan salary scale;

* providing professional growth opportunities for teachers;

* ensuring there is a school board at each school and that each has a strategic plan (including financial, technology and facilities plans);

* revising plans for "regionalization" of schools on a regular basis;

* requiring parishes to supply no more than 30 percent of income to support schools; and

* continuing to promote Catholic schools.

Plans are also in the works to address the needs of special-education and gifted students, increase diversity in schools, develop a system to evaluate administrators, and work on aspects of funding for schools.

Feedback

Attendees at the forum spent some time discussing the information in small groups and wrote up their feedback for the Schools Office to peruse. Sister Jane noted that the information was on the agenda for discussion at a meeting of the Diocesan School Board this week.

So far, she said, feedback from participants has been mostly positive. One attendee sent an email calling the meeting "very productive," and suggesting the creation of a website where school representatives could post comments and suggestions.

Sister Jane said the ideas have been helpful, stating: "We might look to have more of these [meetings] in the future."

(12/16/04)