In a few weeks, a new school year will commence. Tearful parents will send their children to their first kindergarten class. Elementary school children will fret over whether to get the Spongebob Squarepants or Dora the Explorer lunchbox. High schoolers will grumble over syllabi and heavy textbooks.
With every new school year comes some tension, as well as a sense of excitement and anticipation.
“As a new school year begins we look and see all the good things happening and continue to work at what still needs to be done to make our schools strong and vibrant,” said Sister Dawn Gear, superintendent of schools for the Camden Diocese.
Enrollment figures are not available yet for the coming school year, but last fall the Catholic elementary and middle schools in the diocese enrolled 13,175 students, and the 10 Catholic high schools enrolled 6,656 students.
Fifty-one schools offered extended day care programs and two dozen schools had waiting lists. The freshman class (1,723) entering high school was larger than the senior class (1,597) preparing to leave. But the freshman class was also significantly larger than the eighth grade class (1,429). The smallest of all classes from first to 12th grade was the first grade, with 1,261 students.
Catholic schools in the diocese employ hundreds of teachers. Last year the elementary and middle schools employed 1,047 professional staff, including 77 clergy and religious, and the high schools employed 485 professional, including 30 clergy and religious.
Most of the work of the teachers goes unnoticed by the wider public – the endless hours of class preparation and grading, the cafeteria and playground duty, the staff meetings and workshops – but one educator made the news more than once.
Lynn Domenico received the 2007 Distinguished Principal Award from the National Catholic Educational Association, in recognition of her work as principal of St. Lawrence elementary school, Lindenwold. She also was named a National Distinguished Principal by the U.S. Department of Education. With the coming academic year, she is leaving St. Lawrence to become the new principal of St. Joseph High School in Hammonton.
St. Jude, Blackwood, elementary school students in grades K-2 moved into a new building, complete with six classrooms, last February.
This year fourth, fifth and sixth grades at Guardian Angels School, Gibbstown, will attend classes at the new Paulsboro campus. Yesterday Assumption Regional School, Galloway, held an open house for its new building at the intersection of Pitney and Great Creek roads. The K-8 double-graded school, on 24 acres, includes a science lab, gymnasium, media center, music and art rooms, computer lab and early childhood department.
Enrollment figures, the rising cost of education and changing demographics are factors in the “Faith in the Future” initiative to strengthen Catholic school education in the diocese.
“Faith in the Future” is a planning process that addresses the challenges of declining enrollments and demographic changes. But it is also meant to “lay the foundation for the long-term stability of Catholic school education and the unique learning opportunity it affords our children,” said Bishop Joseph Galante when the initiative was announced last year.
Schools have been planning in groups, or clusters, and examined demographic information, enrollment figures, facilities, transportation and curriculum to determine how Catholic education can be improved in their individual clusters.
Last February, Bishop Joseph Galante made decisions on four clusters, representing 17 schools that will go into effect at the beginning of this year.
– St. Matthew, National Park (117 students last year), St. Patrick, Woodbury (189), and Most Holy Redeemer, Westville Grove (175), is consolidating at the Westville Grove location, now named Holy Trinity;
– St. Francis of Assisi, Vineland (151 students), is consolidating with Sacred Heart, Vineland (310) at the Sacred Heart location, now called Bishop Schad Regional Elementary School;
– St. Raymond, Villas (104 students), is consolidating with Our Lady Star of the Sea, Cape May (157), at the Cape May campus.
– Immaculate Conception, Bridgeton (106 students), closed. In its place Our Lady of Guadalupe will open to serve both the Anglo and Hispanic population in Bridgeton and Western Cumberland County;
– St. Nicholas, Egg Harbor (114), closed. A private school run by parents and community members will open at that location.
The remaining school planning clusters submitted preliminary recommendations to the bishop in June, and after reviews and possible revisions, final decisions, to be put into effect for the 2008-2009 academic year, will be announced by the bishop in late November 2007.
Principals for the new schools are Patricia Mancuso (Holy Trinity), Patrice DeMartino (Bishop Schad Regional), Joan Dollinger (Our Lady Star of the Sea Regional), Kathleen Bischer (Our Lady of Guadalupe) and MarySue Link (the private academy in Egg Harbor).
Other new principals in Catholic schools in the diocese of Camden include Lynn Domenico at St. Joseph High School; Michael Healy at St. Anthony of Padua, Camden; Kathryn Chesnut at St. Lawrence; Sallianne DeCarlo at Blessed Sacrament Regional, Margate; and Sister Elizabeth Calello, MPF, at St. Peter, Merchantville.
The Faith in the Future initiative will bring major changes to the way in which Catholic schools are funded – although the changes will not take effect in the coming 2007-08 acadenic year.
Under the current “Tuition-parish Subsidy” financing model parishes are required to subsidize schools directly through parish ordinary income. Currently, this averages about 23 percent of total parish ordinary income, but varies greatly from parish to parish.
Under the new financing model, parish support will be paid into a central fund to be used for tuition assistance and school support. It is anticipated by the end of the phase-in period (the 2011-12 school year), total required parish support will be reduced from the current 23 percent average and set at a uniform percentage of parish ordinary income.
Parishes, rather than directly subsidizing a school, will send their support to this central fund from which a Catholic School Foundation will be formed for the sole purpose of providing tuition assistance for those who need it.
In addition, beginning with the 2009-10 school year, the Catholic elementary schools of the diocese will move to a “Need-Based Tuition Assistance/Cost-Based Tuition” model. The model will be phased in over a three-year period.
While new tuition rates have not yet been set, the average annual tuition in the diocese presently is $2,430, which falls well short of the actual cost of educating a student, which currently is about $4,000. While the diocese is working out the details of new funding model, tuition rates will continue to be set by the schools, as they have in the past.