I read this article with interest and wonder if consolidation is really the answer to any kind of education. Bigger has never been proven to be better. As a Catholic, as an opinionated Catholic, I fully understand the idea that we want our children close to home - in our Catholic community.
Sending a child outside the "family" is the last thing parishioners want to do. Every parish is different even though we are all supposed to believe the same things. Every Catholic knows there are parishes that one refrains from entering for one thing or another - even though you can go to Mass at any Catholic church anywhere in the world.
Community is important to Catholics, and that's one thing that has remained protected and therefore different from most public systems. Parishes do count because family counts. Consolidation may look wonderful on paper, it may look like a good deal financially, but the quiet children who needs to be closer to home will be lost in the shuffle, and he will no longer have any place to go.
I was lucky enough to live in a public system that's very family like. Twenty nine years ago I sent my first child to Newburgh Elementary School. I still keep in contact with those teachers. It's family. What makes Newburgh such a great little school is that it remains a private public school for every child involved much like a traditional parish school.
I know the best and the brightest always came from one room school houses out from the middle of the great plains and the mountains. These were the super kids because there were so few. A good teacher could really teach in a nearly a tutorial situation. Time was abundant and didn't get disposed of trying to handle 1000 kids moving through the lunch lines. It was true teaching one on one.
As schools become larger, there is less and less time for individual children. The little parish classes become one hour gigs shoved between the state requirements for health and fifteen minutes that they run outside. What happened to a curriculum based on what is good rather than what is trendy?
And to build a big consolidated elementary school away from a church building is the most grievous flaw. "Give me a child before he is six..." Catholic thought. What happens to attending Mass through the week? Is it now dispensable as we become private but lose the sense of being Catholic?
I've been accused of being opinionated. I am. People with opinions that matter to them are opinionated. Truly opinionated people regard differences of ideas as mental food. The question I like to ask is why do you think that? Curiosity and interest are not the tools for battle, they are the tools for peace.
It's a good article and worth reading because it's probably the wave of the future.
WFCCourier.com
Consolidation a Focus of Catholic Schools Strategic Plan Proposal
By ANDREW WIND, Courier Staff Writer
CEDAR FALLS --- Cedar Valley Catholic Schools officials say consolidation into a single elementary and single middle school --- into two new buildings --- would financially strengthen the system and help improve the education it offers.
The first of two public input forums was held Sunday at Area Education Agency 267 as the school system's board prepares to adopt a far-reaching strategic plan. The CVCS system includes Columbus High School and four K-8 schools in Waterloo.
John McCoy, one of three co-chairmen of the strategic planning process that began in June 2004, said the wide-ranging proposal would take the system five to 20 years into the future.
"What we're talking about is an improvement from a good education to excellence in Catholic education," he said."This is going to be the kicker: long-term fiscal responsibility," he added. "These recommendations are going to cost millions and millions of dollars."
McCoy said the system will have to increase its endowment and look at other financial means, such as bonding, to implement the proposed plan."There are going to be very substantial challenges. We have to look at the whole community, both Catholic and non-Catholic to support us."
A draft strategic plan was completed earlier this year. McCoy summarized reports from 11 subcommittees on early childhood, elementary, middle school, high school, Catholic identity, athletics/wellness, fine arts, leadership, technology, enrollment/marketing and facilities/grounds.
But the proposed new schools were a focus of the presentation. Officials from Struxture Architects in Waterloo surveyed all of the system's schools and assessed costs to upgrade or build new facilities. The firm recommended the new consolidated schools with early childhood and K-5 at a single site and sixth- to eighth-grades in a building adjacent to Columbus.
Before the board makes any decisions, though, a feasibility study will be done. McCoy said a firm will be hired to find out how many people in the community would financially support and send their children to the consolidated schools.
"We do not want a Valley Lutheran situation. We do not want a situation where we build a school and nobody comes," he said, referring to a recently opened Cedar Falls high school. That school, in its second year of operation, has only 16 students.
McCoy said the subcommittee recommended a neutral site for the elementary not connected to a parish, as the schools are now. The subcommittee also recommended greater emphasis on early childhood education.
"There was a feeling there's a significant need in the community for a good early childhood center, and it would be an introduction to Catholic education, as well," said McCoy.Kathy Walz, principal of St. Edward's School and a member of the middle-school subcommittee, advocated a separate building for all sixth- through eighth-grade students. By bringing them into a single school, she said, educators could focus more effectively on faith development, teacher expertise and specialization, interdisciplinary and team teaching approaches and age-appropriate co-curricular activities.
Locating the school next to Columbus would allow for sharing resources while still separating the grade levels. She said it would also take congregational loyalties out of the mix."It would be a neutral site with no parish winners or losers," said Walz."I believe that offering excellence means being proactive," she added. "We must make changes that allow us to educate for the future."
McCoy expects the board to authorize a feasibility study in early 2006, after it receives the strategic plan report. Once the level of community support is established, officials can itemize the expense and cost savings of its proposals. The board may be ready to approve the feasibility study by next spring.
After the presentation, those attending the forum were encouraged to brainstorm and write down concerns about the proposed plan. Input from the forum and another one Tuesday will be considered in recommendations to the board.
"I commend them for making a long-term plan. It was very much needed," said attendee Kevin Bernt of Cedar Falls.But he said it would probably stop St. Patrick's School in Cedar Falls from ever joining CVCS. St. Patrick's, which goes through eighth grade like its Waterloo counterparts, has chosen not to be part of the CVCS K-8 system while still feeding into Columbus.
"If people were thinking maybe we should join, I think now they're definitely thinking we shouldn't join," he said. "If St. Pat's joined, it would just kill our school."
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