APRIL, 2010
Dear Parishioners of St. John, St. Mary, and St. Michael Parishes,
The Monroe Catholic Schools Commission, along with the pastors and principals of the Monroe Parish Schools sought input from parishioners on the importance of Catholic schools as a part of the mission of the Church. An informal survey was developed by the Monroe Catholic Schools Commission and distributed to parishioners attending Mass the weekend of January 30-31st. We are encouraged by the fact that out of the 3,600 families registered at St. John, St. Mary, and St. Michael parishes, a total of 1,223 surveys were returned.

The following survey results will be helpful as we continue to collaborate toward the improvement of Catholic Education in the city of Monroe. A more complete report is available at: www.monroecatholicschoolscommission.com

• Approximately 12% of the respondents were between the ages of 18 and 39, while more than half of the respondents were between the ages of 40 and 69.

• More than 70% of respondents attended a Catholic Elementary School and more than 50% attended a Catholic High School.

• Similarly, more than 60% have or will send their children to Catholic Elementary School, while half of the respondents have or will send their children to Catholic High School.

• The survey concludes that at least 20% did not or will not send their children to a Catholic school.

• Almost 85% of the respondents believe that Catholic grade school students acquire strong Catholic identity because of schooling and participation in parish life.

• Among the three parish communities there is a strong belief that a strong connection exists between the future of Catholic schools and the future of the Church.

• There were 142 (12%) respondents who have their children enrolled in Religious Education; 101 (9%) respondents do not have their children enrolled in Religious Education or Catholic Schools.

• 15% of the respondents not chosing Catholic Schools would consider a Catholic school for their children if there were scholarship opportunities and financial aid available to them.

• Most respondents believe that the parish should do all that is possible to financially support the school, 3.5% disagreed with this statement. 73% felt that it is the duty of all Catholics to support Catholic schools, 15% were neutral on this and 10% disagreed.

Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. Although space does not permit the inclusion of all the data collected, All responses and comments have been reviewed by the Monroe Catholic Schools Commission, the pastors, and the principals. We are always open to your input. Feel free to email your concerns, and questions to us via MonroeCatholicSchoolsCommission.com.

Yours in Christ,
Rev. Marc Gawronski, Pastor; Mrs. Melody Curtis, Principal – St. Mary
Rev. Jack Quinlan, Pastor; Mrs. Cheryl Tibai, Principal – St. John
Rev. Stephen Vileo, Pastor; Miss Karen Pilon, Principal – St. Michael
Mr. Sean Jorgensen, President; Mrs. Jenny Biler, Principal - SMCC

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Dear Parishioners of St. John, St. Mary, and St. Michael Parishes,

A little over a year ago, the Monroe Catholic Schools Commission was formed by the Pastors and Administrators of St. John, St. Mary, St. Michael parishes, and St. Mary Catholic Central (SMCC) High School. The task of the Commission is to assist the Pastors and Administrators answer this question: How can the Monroe Catholic Community ensure effective stewardship of our shared resources as we strive to provide quality Catholic education for our children?

Over the past year, the Commission has:
• gathered financial and statistical information from the parishes and schools
• solicited input from Principals, teachers, and parents
• studied demographic information
• examined collaborative educational ventures in other communities
• reviewed publications and studies about the future of Catholic education
• spent countless hours analyzing the information

The Commission has come to a few conclusions:
1. While all of the schools are viable, enrollment in our three grade schools has been declining for several years.

2. Tuition and school fund-raising at our grade schools has never been sufficient to pay the cost of the running each school. Each parish has subsidized the costs of operating its school by providing between 20 and 25 % of parish income for school purposes. This is not a new development. The parish school has been part of the parish mission to teach the faith for over 150 years in Monroe. Religious Education programs, Faith Formation for Adults, Evangelization, Parish Outreach, Health Ministry, etc. are not self-supporting either. Parish income from our Sunday collections helps pay the cost of all of these programs. The subsidy for school purposes, however, is much larger than the amount needed to sustain other parish programs.

3. Parish income has declined over the past few years, at least in part due to the economy in southeast Michigan.

4. St. Mary Catholic Central High School serves the parishes of the Monroe Vicariate and other surrounding parishes as a regional high school. While the local parishes do not subsidize the cost of operating the high school, they support the school in many ways, including providing pastoral support, use of facilities, and board leadership. The continued viability of the three city parish schools is vital to SMCC because approximately 60% of SMCC’s students come from the three city parish schools. The Pastors and Principals of all four city schools, upon the recommendation of the commission and on their own initiative, have collaborated more regularly and more extensively than ever before in providing a coordinated curriculum, adopting common business practices, and marketing and enrollment efforts. We believe that we are better stewards by doing these things. Parish-Wide Survey Before considering any additional collaborative recommendations, the Commission recommended and the Pastors agreed that there should be a Parish-Wide Survey. We are looking for input from parishioners on the importance of Catholic schools as a part of the mission of the Church. Is the Monroe Catholic Community willing to continue to support Catholic education financially? How important is the tie between the parish and the school? Would parishioners consider/support a school not exclusively run by the parish? We include the survey so that you can start thinking about these questions.

The survey will actually be conducted at the conclusion of all parish Masses the weekend of January 30th-31st. However, you may complete this survey and return it to the parish office, an usher, or the collection basket at any of the three churches before that weekend if you so desire. We ask each parishioner over the age of 18 to complete and return the survey. This letter (and the survey) may raise plenty of questions. We hope it does just that. WE LOVE QUESTIONS!

More information about the commission and the work done thus far can be found at monroecatholicschoolscommission.com. We need informed parishioners to provide input. If you would like to discuss these matters with a commissioner, the Pastor, or the Principal, we urge you to do so.

The commissioners are:
St. John - Lou Bonanni, Jean Foster, and Gabe Martin
St. Mary - Lyric Hodgson, Bill Kipf, Jack Ready, and Donna St. Pierre
St. Michael - Jim Bellestri, Mary O’Lear, and Molly Roehrig
SMCC - Kenyon Calender and Renee´ Darrow

The bulletins of December 19th & 20th included a joint letter from our pastors to the Monroe Catholic Community about their hopes for the future of Catholic education in Monroe. A copy of that letter is posted on the commission website. They asked us all to join in hope and prayer as we explore creative ways to preserve and improve the rich heritage of Catholic Education in the city of Monroe. We join them in asking for your prayerful reflection and response. Click here to read the pastors' Advent letter

Thank you.
Jack Ready,
Chairman Monroe Catholic Schools Commission

>>>Click here to view and print the parish survey.<<<

JUNE, 2009
HERE ARE THE RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE MONROE CATHOLIC
SCHOOLS COMMISSION. PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR A PRINTABLE VERSION.

• Since its formation in November, 2008, the commission has worked hard to come up with recommendations to enable our schools to survive and thrive in Monroe. The tasks undertaken include the following:
  
  • Met with Pastors and Principals
  • Gathered data about each school including facility information, enrollment history, tuition history, parish subsidy, scholarship availability, staffing, curriculum, academic achievement, faith development, interaction and involvement with parish life, etc.
  • Conducted a public input session with faculty, staff, and school boards/committees
  • Conducted a survey of faculty and staff
  • Studied demographic information available from the Archdiocese of Detroit and the South East Michigan Council of Governments
  • Conducted a survey of parents of current students
  • Conducted two public input sessions for the school and parish communities
  • Made preliminary recommendations concerning curriculum, business operations, and marketing to Pastors and Administrators
  • Gathered information from other communities that have developed new models of leadership, governance and financing for Catholic schools
  
  The Commission was asked to conclude its study and make final recommendations by the end of the 2008-2009 school year.
  While this report constitutes the final recommendations of the Commission as it currently exists, we know that the work we began in the fall is not done. We therefore are recommending that a commission, in a new, expanded form, be established this summer to continue the project and help bring it to a conclusion by Spring, 2010.
  
  1. Suggestions for an Expanded Commission
  The new Commission could perhaps consist of 11 to 15 members including representation from parent clubs, school boards or school committees. The expanded commission ideally would include people with business and marketing experience as well as education experience. All should be committed to preserving and improving Catholic education in Monroe. We suggest that the new commission be in place by August 1, 2009. The tasks of the expanded commission:
  
  • Monitor and encourage progress on the recommendations already adopted
  
  • Study the collaborative educational models that have worked elsewhere and, together with Pastors and educational leaders of our four schools (and perhaps with the assistance of a consultant), help fashion a structure that will suit Monroe by the Spring of 2010 and a timetable for implementation.
  
  2. Provide Consistent and Clear Communication
  The commission established a website to inform our constituents about the work of the commission. The Pastors and the SMCC administration also wrote two letters about the work of the commission, one in November, and another in March. We conducted an open meeting for school personnel in December, wrote to parents in conjunction with the questionnaire project in March, and help two open meetings for the greater parish community in May. Despite all of this, many tell us they don’t know what is going on. Some confusion understandably results when parishes and schools continue to operate and plan for next year as if no cooperative efforts had commenced. Our message about working together has to be consistent in everything we say and everything we do A brochure (tri-fold has been suggested) describing work done, recommendations adopted, and plans for next year should be professionally prepared and distributed by the end of June.
  
  3. Hire a Consultant
  We recommend that the Pastors consider hiring a consultant to help with the project. We also suggest that we request a grant from the schools office at the Archdiocese of Detroit to pay the cost of the consultant.
  
  4. Continue Curriculum Coordination
  The four schools already have begun developing a common curriculum. We believe this work should continue at an accelerated pace and make the following recommendations to move the curriculum coordination forward:
  
  a. Select a Leader who can act as a Catalyst
  Someone should be selected to be the mover and shaker on this project. This person could be one of the Principals, another staff member with experience and interest in curriculum projects, a parishioner who is a professional educator, or perhaps a curriculum consultant. We recognize that everyone is very busy with current tasks. Unless there is someone who energetically takes on the task, we are fearful that progress will be slow. Ultimately, the curriculum position for the Monroe Catholic schools should be a permanent.
  
  b. Start Now
  The curriculum committee under its new leader, should begin work during the summer.
  
  c. Establish goals and a timetable
  The Curriculum committee should establish a task list and a timetable to accomplish those tasks. Progress reports can be published quarterly. For example, the committee can examine the MEAP results from the grade schools and MME results from the high school and then establish priorities based on those results. The weakest academic areas should be the examined first.
  
  d. Foreign Language
  Consider a collaborative program among the grade schools for a foreign language curriculum.
  
  e. Professional Development
  Takes steps to insure that professional development is planned for every teacher and department
  
  f. End Result
  By the end of the 2009-2010 school year, our constituents should be able to see that our schools, working together collaboratively, have improved course content and standards, have participated in teacher training and workshops, examined options for textbooks and ancillary materials, and are sharing curriculum resources.
  
  4. Business Operations Project
  SMCC plans on hiring a Business Operations Manager. We recommend:
  
  a. Study of Business Operations
  With the assistance of the high school business operations manager, or another appointed Business Operations Coordinator, examine business practices and policies presently in place at each school. This study could include, for example,
  • human resources matters such as payroll, benefits, and PGC tracking
  • tuition management and collection program
  • consideration of cost-based tuition
  • advisability of a common grade school tuition
  • purchasing
  • cafeteria services
  • pre-school and latch key programs
  • accounts payable management
  • facilities management
  • Information technology
  • janitorial services
  • waste management and recycling
  • system maintenance contracts
  • lawn care and snow removal
  • SCRIP
  • Transportation including day transportation, field trips, athletics
  
  b. Make recommendations for a combined business plan by March, 2010
  
  c. Goal
  Have a coordinated business operation plan in place for the 2010-2011 school year.
  
  6. Marketing and Recruitment Project
  a. Empower a Director
  SMCC currently has two part time employees working in this area. One person works in public relations and the other is the Enrollment Coordinator. As with curriculum and business operations, we suggest that someone be empowered by all four schools to work on marketing Monroe Catholics Schools and assist in recruiting students. We don’t know whether the SMCC employees could provide the leadership. Our recommendation: explore the possibilities and come up with someone who would be excited to take on the challenges.
  
  b. Religious Education Program Survey
  We recommend that parents of students participating in REPs at the three parishes be surveyed. The commission worked on a draft questionnaire but did not have time to conduct the survey this spring. This survey could provide information about why parents choose the REP option instead of the parish school. The commission prepared the draft survey attached to this report as Exhibit 1.
  
  c. Enrollment Program
  The Schools office of the AOD sponsored a seminar last fall presented by the ISPD. We suggest that the ideas be studied and those found suitable to Monroe should be implemented.
  
  d. Broaden the scope
  The Together In Faith process recommended that the Monroe Vicariate develop a plan for schools that is vicariate-wide. So far, we have been look at this project from the perspective of four schools in the city. Three south county parishes are looking into the possibility of a regional school in that area. There are three parishes in close proximity to St. Mary, St. Michael, and St. John that used to have schools: St. Anne, St. Joseph, Monroe and St. Joseph Maybee. St. Joe, Ida and St. Irene have not had schools, but there may be parishioners at those parishes who have never thought about sending their children to a Catholic school because they have never been asked. St. Charles, St. Patrick and St. Mary Rockwood have schools but they might welcome the opportunity to work together with the Monroe Area Catholic schools in marketing and enrollment efforts. Our suggestion: Don’t rule out a broader approach. There could be a vicariate wide enrollment effort, in keeping with the TIF recommendation.
  
  e. Consideration of cost-based tuition program
  Cost-based tuition at both the elementary and secondary level should be studied for possible implementation
  
  Our Conclusions
  The C words: Closing, Collaboration, Consolidation and where do we go from here?
  We have a rich legacy of quality Catholic education in Monroe. Last year, our Pastors and the President of St. Mary Catholic Central decided it was time to work together to ensure that our legacy will continue for generations to come. Fr. Steve Vileo from St. Michael the Archangel, Fr. Marc Gawronski from St. Mary, Fr. Jack Quinlan from St. John the Baptist and Mr. Sean Jorgensen from SMCC established the Monroe Catholic Schools Commission. They charged the Commission with the task of recommending ways to ensure effective stewardship of our shared resources as we provide Catholic education for our students.
  
  During the course of the year, we frequently heard three words beginning with the letter “C”: closing, collaboration, consolidation. For example, we heard:
  • Is our school in danger of closing?
  • How can we collaborate with other parish schools while we are competing for the same students?
  • Our school’s strength is its autonomy within our parish. Consolidation will destroy our school.
  
  Several people commented at the May forums that the words collaboration and consolidation sometimes were used interchangeably but have very different meanings. Collaborate means “working together” but consolidate means to “make into a single whole, merge, or unite.” Which is it, they asked? Are you proposing that the schools collaborate or consolidate? The implication behind the question was that parents are open to collaboration, but opposed to consolidation. Some parents threatened to pull their children if their parish school was consolidated with other parish schools After six months of study, we have concluded that greater collaboration among our schools is essential if our schools are going to survive and thrive. Our March recommendations make that clear. We made our recommendations because we know the following:
  • Fifty-nine Catholic elementary or high schools closed in the Archdiocese of Detroit between 2002 and 2008. (36% of the schools open in 2002)
  • The number of school age children in Michigan and Monroe County has declined over the past several years. Demographic information from SEMCOG suggests that the decline will continue for at least another 20 years.
  • Tuition revenue and enrollments in our four schools are down, in part due to our poor economy. However, enrollments were dropping well before the economic downturn.
  • There is an increase in the difference between the cost to educate and tuition rates
  • Parishes have been required to increase the subsidy for schools at the same time parish revenue is declining. Each parish contributes approximately 25% of parish revenue to help operate the school
  • Parents have identified “Freezing or Lowering Tuition” as the most effective way to increase enrollment
  • Our professional educators subsidize the schools by accepting employment at a compensation level well below that paid in public schools
  
  While the above facts that led to our March recommendations for Collaboration on curriculum, business operations, and marketing are basically “economic facts of life”, we are also convinced that collaboration will lead to a better nurturing of our children in the Catholic faith and an enhanced academic environment. In other words, we believe that collaboration will result in a more attractive product for our constituents. We were not asked to undertake this project just to see our schools survive for a few more years. If we felt that our recommendations were merely putting our fingers in the dike to postpone an inevitable flood, we would say so. We do not consider the commission’s job merely to buy some time before our schools close. Rather, our goal is to assist our Monroe Catholic Community fashion a plan that will enable Catholic education to thrive in Monroe for generations to come. If that goal can best be accomplished by something akin to consolidation, so be it.
  
  All four of our schools are currently viable. All of them do a great job nurturing students in the faith and providing a strong academic program. But our schools can do a better job by working together. Parents send their children to our schools because they provide both faith-based education and strong academics. If we can enhance those two drawing cards and effectively market them, we can increase enrollment, despite the economy. “If you build it, they will come.”
  
  Here are some other things we learned from the parent survey and other sources over the past six months:
  • 89.6% of parents surveyed either strongly agree or agree that Catholic Schools are worth what it costs to operate them
  • 90% of our parents believe that our Catholic schools teach Catholic doctrine reasonably well
  • 92% of our parents believe that our schools have a strong Catholic identity
  • 64% of our parents would welcome great collaboration among the four Catholic schools
  • 63% of our parents agreed with this statement: If my child’s school was no longer managed and exclusively operated by my parish. I would continue to send my child there as long as the quality of the Catholic educations was preserved and enhanced.
  • 60% of the students at SMCC come from the three Monroe Catholic grade schools
  • SMCC is willing and able to provide a leadership roll with the parish grade schools in all three collaborative areas: curriculum, marketing, and business operations. The relationship can and should be symbiotic.
  
  So does all of this mean that by next spring, Monroe will have a consolidated Catholic School system? We can’t say. Consolidation would mean a unified governance structure. The three grade schools have one governance structure dictated by canon law but the high school has a very different structure “chartered” at the time of the merger of MCC and SMA. Putting these different governance models together will require bold and visionary thinking, creative and open minds at all levels, encouragement and support from the archdiocese, and a common goal and vision for our schools.
  
  Under canon law, a pastor must maintain responsibility for a parish school. The grade schools have school advisory committees and a principal, but ultimate responsibility remains with the pastor. SMCC, on other hand, has been “chartered” as an independent entity, not tied to any one parish. It has a policy making board rather than an advisory board. The pastors of the vicariate appoint a pastor delegate to the board, but the pastor delegate roll is not comparable to that of a pastor with a parish school.
  
  We are blessed to have three pastors who share a common desire to preserve and improve Catholic education in Monroe. With their vision, the hard work and creative thinking of our school leadership, and an openness to change in the Monroe Catholic community, we believe that by the end of next school year, we will have a Catholic Education system that is built upon the long established tradition that has existed in Monroe County for almost 165 years and will continue into the future for generations to come. The system will provide a quality education in a faith-based surrounding for students ranging from preschool through high school graduation. The system will allow any students in the Monroe County area to attend affordable Catholic Schools, and keep strong ties to their respective Parish communities. We don’t yet know how it will be led, how it will be financed, and how it will be governed.
  
  Let us pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we move forward on this project. Respectfully submitted, Monroe Catholic Schools Commission June 8, 2009.
  
  
  Respectfully submitted,
  Monroe Catholic Schools Commission