Members of the Keeping the Faith task force continue working on proposals that will help strengthen Catholic education in the Diocese of Cleveland and ensure its vibrancy and affordability to all who desire a Catholic education. They presented reports and proposed change ideas to the full committee during a plenary session on Oct. 12.
The task force was announced by Bishop Edward Malesic during Catholic Schools Week 2021, which was observed Jan. 31 to Feb. 7. The initiative evolved from a think tank created in 2019 by Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Perez during his time as bishop of Cleveland.
Father John Betters, pastor of SS. Robert and William and St. John of the Cross parishes in Euclid, is leading the initiative.
During the plenary session, he updated committee members on the status of the group’s work. The committees and subcommittees have been meeting regularly for several months to distill their areas of responsibility into some change ideas that will be presented during listening sessions scheduled for Nov. 23 and Dec. 4. The first session is for priests, principals and business managers; the second is for parish pastoral and finance councils. Bishop Malesic is planning to attend the sessions, at which the constituencies will hear the committee proposals.
Father Betters said he expects robust discussion will follow once the proposals are presented.
“Where have we been? Reports have been submitted by the committees, as well as their change ideas and summaries,” he said. “It’s still early, there will be more to come and the ideas will need lots of development,” he said. Father Betters said he expects additional input after the listening sessions.
Six committees presented their reports on Oct. 12:
- Catholic identity
- Finance
- Governance
- Leadership and Talent
- Data and Performance Systems and Analytics
- Marketing and Communications
The Catholic Identity Committee said it is important to prioritize faculty/staff faith formation and support, foster mission integration between parishes and schools and focus on evangelization efforts.
The Finance Committee said work is needed to create a delivery channel ensuring that affordable Catholic education is available to every family in the diocese within a reasonable distance and at a reasonable cost. The committee also said attention must be given to schools at risk of imminent closure, the cost of elementary education must be balanced, sharing services/resources and centralized and regionalized services should be examined in order to be more cost efficient, a focus is needed on teacher and administrator compensation, facilities strategies should be developed and a global funding strategy should be developed.
In the area of governance, that committee recommended that every parish be linked to a school in some fashion; a menu of governance options should be developed for schools and parishes, new forms of collaboration and oversight should be developed, an advisory board for elementary Catholic education should be created, a process for identifying at-risk schools and intervening should be created and a protocol for grievances should be established.
The Leadership and Talent Committee said recruitment strategies, inclusion, school system model honoring essential elements of current schools, pipelines and pathways to leadership positions, educational leadership skills for pastors with elementary schools and strategies to share best practices and retain principals were among the key issues discussed.
The committee recommended creating a diocesan human resource position to deal with elementary schools, creating and identifying goals for another new diocesan position, an inclusion director, developing required training for priests who are pastors of parishes with schools and development and implementing formal professional development programs to help principals share best practices.
In the technology realm, the Data and Performance Systems and Analytics Committee was charged with finding ways to improve data flow, accessibility and transparency with the ability to share pertinent data, yet keep data confidential, if required. The group is suggesting unifying the data systems for Catholic elementary schools, creating a dashboard and benchmarking key measures of quality and viability and developing regular diocesan reports to share with all schools.
And finally, the Marketing and Communications Committee pointed out how their area has become more difficult, complicated and expensive in recent years. They made three key recommendations: identify target audiences and the most compelling message for each; enable schools to use best in-class marketing technology to engage prospective and enrolled families and students; and provide marketing leadership and assistance to help schools execute the best in-class marketing. Sharing messaging, tools and assets and expertise were among their change ideas.
“Since coming to the Diocese of Cleveland last fall, I have come to see that one of our greatest treasures are our Catholic schools,” Bishop Malesic said. In the eight-county diocese, there are 87 elementary and 20 high schools that educate more than 37,000 students. He also described the Catholic schools as a major evangelization tool and a large component of youth ministry.
The task force consists of about 60 members who are charged with creating a plan with objectives, strategies and tactics to keep schools in the diocese grounded in the Catholic faith, academically excellent and as widely available and affordable as possible. Members of the task force represent a cross section of the diocese: clergy, school staff, diocesan staff, members of the business community, past or current parents of Catholic school students and experts in education.
The group is to present the bishop with a strategic plan for Catholic elementary schools by May 2022. After reviewing the plan with additional consultation, he hopes to implement the plan in the 2022-2023 school year.
Learn more about the Keeping the Faith initiative here. A series of podcasts is available to help listeners better understand the goals of the process. To date, six episodes have been released.