Values for a Lifetime

I cannot believe that the 2010-2011 school year will soon be coming to a close. My time has truly passed swiftly since I first arrived in the Archdiocese last July. I continue to be amazed at the strength and great diversity of our Catholic schools. I also continue to learn about how the Catholic Schools Office can best support our schools. We have been fortunate to have some wonderfully dedicated and intelligent people in the Catholic Schools Office. However, as we initiate our vision planning process for the schools, we have been closely examining how our office can bolster the religious and academic education taking place in the schools.

As a result, we have announced that a few new positions will be added to the Catholic Schools Office next year. The purpose of adding these positions is to provide additional support to our schools in some key areas that are not currently addressed by our office. By doing this, we hope to facilitate the creation of our vision and offer a greater array of services to our schools.

In spite of the addition of these jobs, we will still be employing the same number of people in our offices. To accomplish this, we are reconfiguring the existing jobs. I’ll explain more about this reconfiguration in a future post. For the time being, I’d like to focus on the new positions coming into the Catholic Schools Office next year.

In my last blog post, I outlined our plans to hire a Coordinator of Latino Outreach for Catholic Schools. In addition to this position, we will be employing, for the first time, a Director of School Strategic Planning. This individual will be charged with coordinating the many planning efforts already taking place across the Archdiocese. Traditionally, these efforts have taken place in isolation; schools decided independently when best to plan and how the planning process would be structured. However, by hiring a dedicated expert in planning, I hope to align the various planning efforts with the overall vision of Catholic school education. Furthermore, I hope that this individual will work with schools where planning needs to be initiated, but has not yet begun.

A focal point of our vision for schools is the concept that we must engage in continual, thoughtful planning for the future of our schools. We become complacent and assume that our schools are the best they will ever be. Rather, we must continually examine our religious and academic programs, as well as our operational and financial practices, to ensure that they are most effective an aligned with the best practices taking place across the country. The Director of School Strategic Planning will work with principals, pastors, faculties, school boards, and others to encourage, initiate, and guide strategic planning for the future.

Working under the Director for School Strategic Planning will be the Associate Director for School Finances. We have offered very little support for our schools in the area of financial planning. Although the staff members of the Archdiocesan Finance Department work hard, they are focused on all Archdiocesan institutions (particularly parishes). The Associate Director for School Finances will work closely with the Finance Department to provide guidance and expertise for the financial practices of the schools. Many of our schools lack the expertise to formulate financial plans for the future. Others have become stuck in year-to-year financial “survival mode”; they know they have enough money to keep the school open for the coming year, but are unable to plan for the future beyond. The Associate Director for School Finances will help the schools with developing budgets, controlling expenses, and cultivating new sources of revenue.

It is worth mentioning that the Associate Director for School Finances will not be operating as the Business Manager or Bookkeeper for all 113 schools. Most schools employ local personnel who fill these roles. Even more fundamentally, financial decisions are made by the local authority (typically a pastor or religious order); the Associate Director for School Finances will partner with local decision makers and provide resources, support, and advice when requested. This individual will also work very closely with the Archdiocesan high schools in managing their fiscal resources.

Overall, I am greatly excited by the addition of these two positions to the Catholic Schools Office. As we develop our vision to support vibrant and viable Catholic schools, I know these positions will be of great service. We have received an enormous number of applicants for both positions, and will begin interviews shortly. I will announce any hires through my blog as they occur.