The steering committees of nine school planning clusters, representing 35 elementary schools in the diocese, have received feedback from the Diocesan School Planning Commission on preliminary planning recommendations that are designed to strengthen and revitalize Catholic elementary school education in the six southern counties that comprise the diocese.
The feedback was provided in the form of observations and questions to planning committee members at meetings held Oct. 2 (Cluster 2A), Oct. 3 (Cluster 2B), Oct. 4 (Cluster 3), Oct. 9 (Cluster 5), Oct. 10 (Cluster 4), Oct. 11 (Clusters 1 and 6), Oct. 18 (Cluster 8) and Oct. 17 (Cluster 11).
The feedback followed a summer review by the Diocesan School Planning Commission, which considered demographics, enrollment trends and projections, finances (including parish subsidies to the schools), facilities and transportation for each cluster. Committees from the nine clusters will formulate responses to the feedback given at the sessions in the form of final recommendations. The final recommendations from Clusters 2A, 2B and 3 are due to the diocese by October 19. Final recommendations from Cluster 4, 5 and 6 are due October 26 and final recommendations from Clusters 1, 8 and 11 are due November 2.
Decisions are expected from Bishop Joseph Galante on November 29. The preparation for implementation will occur between December 2007 and June 2007 with decisions effective with the start of the 2008-09 school year. The anticipated November decisions follow a full year of preparation and planning by steering committee members. Last February, steering committee members from each school were selected and trained. Meetings to study demographics, enrollment, finances, facilities, transportation and the curriculum were held from February through May. Under the guidance of a trained facilitator, the steering committees formed sub-committees to focus on key aspects of school planning, including demographics, finances, facilities, and transportation.
Preliminary recommendations were made by steering committees to the diocese in June.
Currently, the 47 Catholic elementary schools serve 11,000 students in the six counties of the diocese.