School Study
Steering Committee
Communiqué
After consultation with their respective Parish Pastoral and Finance Councils, the pastors of Immaculate Conception Parish, Levittown; Queen of the Universe Parish, Levittown; Saint Frances Cabrini Parish, Fairless Hills; and Saint Joseph the Worker Parish, Fallsington; petitioned His Eminence, Cardinal Justin Rigali, to undertake a formal study of their respective schools. Struggling to maintain their own parish school, and facing low enrollments and rising costs, the pastors expressed to the Cardinal their desire to restructure the way in which they are providing for the Catholic school education of their children beginning in the 2010-2011 school year.
In response to the educational needs of their respective parishioners, recently, each pastor formed a School Study Committee with representation from across their parishes. In addition to themselves and their school principals, they have designated three persons from their School Study Committee to represent their parish on the School Study Steering Committee.
On May 27th, the School Study Steering Committee gathered for their first meeting during which time they discussed the strengths, weaknesses, limitations and challenges of each of the four parish schools. The Committee also discussed the vision of a new school utilizing existing facilities.
At this meeting, the School Study Steering Committee agreed to meet monthly beginning in August and the individual School Study Committees will also be meeting monthly, gathering after the monthly School Study Steering Committee meetings in order to discuss the pertinent issues. Working very closely with the School Study Committees, and with broad consultation with the parish and school communities, the School Study Steering Committee will formulate a plan so as to ensure an excellent, accessible, affordable and sustainable Catholic school design for the education of future generations of children living within the respective parishes.
Based on the work of the School Study Steering Committee and the School Study Committees, at the conclusion of the process, the pastors will present a recommendation to the Cardinal in December 2009.