Denver Catholic

4 JANUARY 23-FEBRUARY 12, 2016 | DENVER CATHOLIC Cover Story Around of Creation and giving them a love for learning." In order to foster this mentality of dis- cipleship, the Oce of Catholic Schools will be implementing ongoing formation programs for its school employees as well as a mentoring program.® To ensure the highest quality teachers are hired and to promote excellence from them, a new hiring toolkit with the intent of finding and forming disciple-teachers is being developed, as well as an improved teacher evaluation instrument "that will assess behaviors, actions and practices that are used by highly-ežective Catholic school teachers." EXCELLENT IN EVERY WAY The vision document also goes into detail about the role Catholic schools play in the formation of the entire person, their function in supporting families and their need for continuity and security.® To better compete with the education market, the Oce of Catholic Schools will be assisting schools in developing new methods and innovations to meet the unique needs of students and provide an even higher quality of education to its students.® "This will assist schools in becoming uniquely and individually excellent, all the while driving enrollment across the school system," the document states.® Boards of specified jurisdictions could also potentially be established at schools to help alleviate some of the challenges pastors face being the president of a school. By employing board members with specific areas of expertise, pastors are given the tools they need to govern parish schools more ežectively, the plan states. The Oce of Catholic Schools will pilot two boards of specified jurisdiction at Holy Trinity Catholic School in Denver and St. Joseph's Catholic School in Fort Collins, and should they prove successful, similar models will be deployed in various configurations across the archdiocese. Another important pillar of the "Excellent in every way" focus area is implementing a more ežective market- ing strategy to share with the public the many benefits of enrolling students in Catholic schools. "There are already many aspects of our schools that make them very attrac- tive, yet sometimes they are not readily known to the community, and especially prospective families of students," the document states.® ACCESSIBLE TO ALL The ever-growing Latino population in Denver, as well as other immigrant groups, are also addressed in the vision document.® "The future of the Catholic Church is closely bound to this growing popula- tion," the document states.® The Oce of Catholic Schools will launch specialized ežorts to ensure that the Latino and immigrant populations have access to Catholic education and that this demographic is better-repre- sented in Catholic schools.® "Ežorts to transform the Latino pop- ulation into key stakeholders in parishes and schools are necessary for the arch- diocese to thrive in the future," the document states. Taking inspiration from the® Mari- nas Model at the University of Notre Dame,®The Oce of Catholic Schools will implement a Latino Enrollment Initiative to draw more of the Latino population to schools. "Communication with the Latino community is dižerent than the com- munication methods typically used for non-Latino communities. Within the context of the new communication ežorts for Catholic schools, particular attention and resources will be used to create a plan specifically for Latinos," the document states. A new position specifically for this ini- tiative will also be created in the Oce of Catholic Schools. The Director of Latino Enrollment will coordinate and lead ežorts to recruit and retain Latino stu- dents in all Catholic schools. Finally, those in leadership positions will be trained in understanding the cul- ture and faith of Latinos, and there will be a conscious ežort to recruit and form leaders from within its population. SUSTAINABLE FOR THE FUTURE The final focus area of the vision document addresses the business and financial aspects of Catholic schools. This part of the document involves reworking school budgets, centralizing fundraising and raising teacher salaries. The concept of developing "right-sized" school budgets is a central pillar of this focus area. The Oce of Catholic Schools will require schools to turn in budgets based on a reasonable enrollment pro- jection and a reasonable allocation of the parish's ožertory, the document states. Additionally, "right-sized" target ratios between school personnel and students will be worked toward over the next sev- eral school years, which includes a goal of at least 20 students for every core teacher. School budgets, tuition and financial aid will be based on per pupil costs. The document states that "tuition across the system will be set to give families an even starting line." The Oce of Catholic Schools will also develop a more cohesive network between each individual school in the archdiocese to address fundraising needs. "Archdiocesan schools operate mostly autonomously from each other. The future success of Catholic schools in the archdiocese, especially with funding, will depend on system-wide solutions where appropriate," the document states.® A centralized method for fundraising will be developed for all archdiocesan K-12 schools. This will include a centralized financial aid system to assess individual family financial needs and disburse aid.® A discount will be ožered as incentive for teachers to enroll their own kids in Catholic schools as well as for families to enroll multiple children. The plan also addresses the question of teacher salaries. Salaries will be "pru- dently" raised to ožer a more competitive and attractive environment and better recruit and retain highly ežective teachers. « 1 | Any entity or mission that can accurately describe itself as Catholic must accept their responsibility as stewards of something that Christ himself founded." EXCERPT FROM "WORTHY OF THE NAME" " L iving evident especially according Catholic that took in Centennial There representing nation, from all The event by Father Macehbeuf was to create olic high order to ples of Jesus "The the key Kostka More be a forum together ežective olic identities The Catholic took place inspiration said. The from the prevalent Father around encountered professionals to encourage He's built from these were the There ics, house points that to Christ, Fostering in BY AARON 303-715-3138 www.twitter.com/AaronLmbrt The vision: authentic discipleship, academic excellence, financial stability PHOTO BY ANDREW WRIGHT/DENVER CATHOLIC

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