“Beginning in 2020, Catholic leaders in the Scott County, Iowa community began the process of forming a regionalized school system to better serve students in Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa and throughout the Quad Cities area.
Upon completion, the regionalized schools model will lead to even greater educational and spiritual benefits to students and families including enhanced program offerings, improved efficiencies and resource sharing, common tuition rates, updated facilities, as well as competitive compensation and benefits packages for attracting and retaining top-level teachers, administrators and staff.”
This quote shares the result of strategic planning conducted by the leadership of the Scott County Catholic schools including Assumption High School, All Saints Catholic School, Lourdes Catholic School, St. Paul the Apostle Catholic School, and John F. Kennedy Catholic School in developing a new vision in collaboration with Meitler in 2018-19. Their vision entailed taking four parish schools and a diocesan high school to create a new organizational and governance model to ensure their sustainability and vitality.
Now in its third year of implementation and continuing growth, the President of the Scott County Catholic School system, Mr. Andy Craig, shared some of the significant changes that are positively impacting Catholic education in this area of the Diocese of Davenport:
- Developing a two-tier school board system: the Board of Trustees (pastors) and the Scott County Regional School Board which has specified responsibility and authority, and maintaining parent engagement through school site Parent Advisory Committees,
- With the Regional School Board, creating standard business practices and procedures for the system:
- standard budget for all school sites
- a Human Resources office and policies,
- a regional tuition schedule,
- unified salary/compensation schedule,
- consolidated payroll
- Introducing a new parish support/investment model providing a more balanced approach for the level of support each parish would provide moving forward,
- Developing a facility lease agreement between the regional system and parishes hosting a school.
Andy Craig summed up the results of the Scott County Catholic Schools planning process by indicating “we are now finally addressing issues we had been ignoring for 20 years!”
We congratulate the Scott County Catholic Schools, the Diocese of Davenport, and all those who not only led the creation of a new vision for Catholic education in this area but endeavored to bring that vision to life.
