ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

On June 13th-14th and again on August 29th-30th, on behalf of the School Study Steering Committee, we provided the first two Communiqués. You will recall that we indicated that 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 Cardinal Justin Rigali, to undertake a formal study of their respective schools. Struggling to maintain their own parish schools, 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 order to provide a diverse range of ideas during the planning process, each pastor formed a School Study Committee with representation from across their parishes. In addition to themselves and their school principals, they designated three persons from their School Study Committee to represent their parish on the School Study Steering Committee.

On May 27th, the Steering Committee gathered for their first meeting to discuss the strengths, weaknesses, limitations and challenges of each of the four parish schools. The Steering Committee also discussed the vision of a new school utilizing existing facilities. Both the Steering Committee and the School Study Committees agreed to meet monthly beginning in August. These Committees are currently working closely together in order to review and discuss pertinent issues.

Following the May 27th meeting, an independent professional firm was engaged to perform an inspection of each property. The inspection was performed to evaluate the site, roof, structure and building systems of each school. At the completion of the inspections, four individual Reports were rendered to the pastors, who in turn shared the pertinent information with their School Study Committees. Beginning at the end of the school year and continuing well into the summer, the principals met several times in order to develop a vision for an Ideal Catholic School for our area. Upon completion of their Principals' Report, Budget Forecasts were developed for various scenarios of projected enrollments for the 2010-2011 school year.

Pastors, principals, and their respective School Study Committee members reviewed the building evaluations, the Principals' Report and the Budget Forecasts. Following these reviews and discussion, the Steering Committee met on August 12th and formal presentations were made on each of the three Reports, namely, the Building Reports, the Principals' Report and the Budget Forecasts. During August, the School Study Committees continued their work as they utilized the information and findings to develop possible options for a regional school. In their deliberations, the Study Committees discussed the rationales for each of the options.

On September 9th, the Steering Committee met to hear the Study Committees' various suggested options for a regional school. Although there is still much more to discuss before any recommendation is made regarding the regional school, the Steering Committee has asked that the Study Committees now arrange to hold a meeting within their own parish community. The purpose of these individual meetings will be to advise the parishioners regarding the findings gleaned from the building evaluation reports, share the Steering Committee's vision for an ideal school, and to share some insights regarding the tuition, the parish subsidies and the need for serious fundraising endeavors so as to alleviate the pressure on the tuition rates. These parish level meetings are set for Wednesday evening, October 28th at 7:00 PM at the local parishes.These parish level meetings, which will be hosted by the Study Committees, are intentionally set for the same evening and at the same time, so that the Steering Committee's information can be disseminated simultaneously and parishioners' feedback can be ascertained at the same time.

It is the Steering Committee's intention to have broad consultation with the parish and school communities, and in time, through a survey instrument, gather the opinions of the respective parish communities as the Steering Committee formulates a plan to ensure an excellent, accessible, realistic and sustainable Catholic school design for the education of future generations of children living within the respective parishes.

Based on the work of the Steering Committee and the School Study Committees, at the conclusion of the process, the pastors will present a recommendation to Cardinal Justin Rigali in December 2009.

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