Across the country, Catholic Schools have outshined public schools in the innovation and quality of education they provide during this pandemic. We can help make sure your school is in position to continue offering the quality education that you always have.
Schools
Altering the Status Quo: High School Alert
Amid the ongoing pandemic and the many unknowns for the 2020-21 school year, Catholic schools are facing a significant, though familiar challenge – enrollment. Predictions of 100 or more closures by the start of the next school year are becoming a reality as we hear of the loss of three, five or ten schools in a week. And those schools that remain open face enrollment challenges. In conversations with superintendents and school administrators in the past few months, we at Meitler are hearing of planned budget reductions to accommodate between 10% to 20% fewer students from last year. But this reduction in primarily Catholic elementary schools is not a new problem: “98 schools closed before the start of the 2019-2020 school year; 93 in 2019, 110 in 2018, 86 in 2016 and 88 in 2015.” (America: The Jesuit Review of Faith & Culture online/Catholic News Service; 6/23/20) Catholic high schools need to recognize that their traditional feeder system is in trouble and needs to be reorganized.
In response to this enrollment challenge we see and read a plethora of articles, briefs and how-to advice about marketing, recruitment and retention in a “new normal” for 2020-21. We hear about sharing our value proposition in a more emphatic fashion, highlighting the great transition to remote online learning our schools were able to achieve during the second semester and sharing plans to safely reopen school buildings. These initiatives are appropriate, but they are only a short-term response to the concern parents have sending their children back to the classroom and the impact of unemployment or reduced wages on a family’s ability to afford tuition. The long-term reality is that we have to look to different ways for Catholic high schools to be sustainable.
Many of our high schools are dependent on the enrollment strength of Catholic elementary schools. A diminishing and smaller feeder school base, however, means the high schools must look to a more reliable source of students in order to build enrollment in all grades. As more Catholic feeder schools are merged, consolidated or closed, the high schools have started to reach into the private and public school world for students. Unfortunately, high school administrators tell us that often these students are not as well-prepared as those coming from their traditional Catholic feeder schools. With fewer Catholic elementary schools to provide high school students and the uncertain quality of education found in alternative feeder schools, some high schools have implemented a different model – the “Middle/High School,” with grades 6-12 or 7-12.
High schools are finding numerous benefits in this model. The expansion of grade levels provides the opportunity to prepare students for high school through a well-articulated and aligned middle/high school curriculum. This also creates a middle school experience with enhanced opportunities for advanced courses, counseling and student support services and a broader range of co-curricular activities.
There are other advantages as well. In some areas, parents are looking for a more stable middle school experience than the local public school system provides. The free public elementary experience was sufficient in the primary grades, but now the value proposition of a disciplined and value-focused middle school justifies tuition payments. In addition, many Catholic elementary schools experience enrollment declines in the middle school grades. Creating a plan in partnership with the current Catholic elementary schools could assist them in balancing their budget by focusing on fully enrolled grades. Maintaining sensitivity and a collaborative spirit with local Catholic elementary schools during the planning stages is imperative.
At a time when Catholic high schools need a new vision and possibly a different path for sustainability and vitality, some high schools, like Pope John Paul II High School in Hendersonville, Tennessee are taking a look at this model to stay relevant for the future, following on the experiences of Catholic high schools like La Reina Middle and High School in Thousand Oaks, California, Benilde St. Margaret’s School in St. Louis Park, Minnesota and Pope John XXIII in Sparta, New Jersey.
From Adapt to Adopt – Moving Through the Health Crisis (Part 2)
I recently heard someone say “Never do planning during a crisis.” Granted, everyone needs some time to react to the immediacy of a crisis, determine if we fight or flee, and try to understand what is taking place. But then we have to start adapting, especially when we realize the crisis is here to stay for longer than we thought or want and may not get better for the foreseeable future.
After almost three months into the present health crisis, our Catholic schools have made incredible adaptations to sustain their mission and continue providing quality education for their students. Everything is moving at what seems light speed and we are learning a lot of lessons through it all – how to organize a totally remote learning system in a matter of days (perhaps hours!), pondering and researching options for reopening schools that will be very different in a few months, adjusting for potential changes to enrollment and funding, and constantly asking ourselves, “What’s next!” We are learning to pivot, flatten our curves, look for a “new normal,” and swivel to something new, while keeping some of the familiar in our schools and lives.
In pivoting or swiveling from adaptations to the adoption of enhanced or very different ways of sustaining quality Catholic education in our schools, we need to be planning and talking about a new vision for a different world in our Catholic schools. It is time to reflect on what we did best in our schools and classrooms before the pandemic, what worked well, what may have been so-so, and of course, honestly admitting to “let’s not do that anymore!” In considering what folks are calling a “new normal” we need to see if our best practices still have merit and vitality, what we can retool, adjust and enhance to make it better in a new fashion, and make our schools even better, stronger, and far more sustainable.
Pema Chodron, a Tibetan Buddhist nun reflects, “Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.” Evidently, we still have much to learn in our world as this current crisis continues. While we are working to conquer online teaching and learning, sustaining our teacher-student and school-family relationships via Zoom, trying to decide what our schools and “classrooms” (real or virtual) will look like, and making almost weekly adaptations, it is with all due respect that I say we need to do some serious planning beyond adaptations and create a new vision to determine our own “what’s next” for Catholic education.
Preparing for 2020-21
All of us concerned with PreK-12 education are laser focused on the present. Every day brings issues we not only did not anticipate, but potentially have never considered before. From moving to virtual classrooms to establishing fair grading policies to balancing the logic or rebating tuition with the reality of still paying salaries, school administrators are bombarded daily with difficult questions and few resources for answers. Well, here is another question: What about next year?
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…”
With apologies to Robert Frost, it is clear that as we look toward the 2020-21 school year that we are facing a fork in the road, and unlike the two roads in Frost’s poem, our fork is more like a pitchfork with multiple tines. Since we do not know how long the COVID-19 danger will last, we cannot predict what instruction next year will look like. Therefore, we need multiple plans. Not just a Plan A and Plan B, but perhaps a C, D and even E!
In order to control expectations, let me say at the outset that I will not be presenting a definitive answer. No one can. It is like trying to decide whether to take a car or an airplane on your next vacation without knowing where you want to go. What I can do is provide some resources that might assist in your design.
Plan A, of course, is that school looks a lot like 2018-19. Students and teachers in a classroom, after school activities resumed and parents back at work. I think we must start here. There are going to be significant additions to the old model, especially around social distancing, facility sanitation and personal hygiene. I also hope there are significant changes to instructional methodologies, given all that we have learned this year about remote instruction.
Plan B assumes that the virus is still uncontrolled and social distancing is still required and, therefore, we are still conducting 100% virtual education. What have we learned during this chaotic year that can be implemented and improved in a more orderly way for next year? With some extra time in the next few months, can reasonable policies regarding grading, homework, attendance, and promotion be constructed? How can we move closer to equity for all students, regardless of their access to technology, or supportive homes?
Plan C finds school open, but operating with extreme measures of social distancing: desks 6 feet apart, perhaps plastic dividers between desks, no cafeteria with lunch in the classroom, classes limited to a maximum number of students, such as 10, requiring staggered groupings (i.e. one group on site M-W-F, the other group on T-Th, with the remote students on line in real time) and on and on. This plan requires significant adjustments to staffing, student schedules, classroom methodologies and even cleaning procedures.
Plan D assumes that we will see periods of “normal” school (Plan A) and periods of remote instruction (Plan B). If the year starts out with stay at home restrictions lifted, Plan A is in force. But we need to be prepared for a resurgence of the virus and a sudden return to remote instruction. Rather than scrambling to move from one scenario to the other, we must be ready to make the transition seamless and predictable. Policies must be thought through, developed, and implemented for when your school must close again.
“…And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could…”
Having various plans is obviously good for the smooth operation of the school year, but it is also critical for your parents’ sense of confidence in the school. Each school not only needs to prepare for multiple contingencies but how to communicate those plans to the parents. Parents need to know that their lives will not be thrown into chaos if unfortunate circumstances arise again. This proactive communication will also go a long way in promoting retention of students and even attracting new students from schools that have no plan.
Here are some resources available to help you work through the creation of various plans for next year. Anecdotally, Denmark has begun opening classrooms and some of the precautions they are taking are in this article from CNN. There is also this AP article about California schools.
More functional resources are also available. Dr. Tim Uhl, the Superintendent of Catholic Schools for Montana wrote a blog, Doubt, Trauma, Faith, that was published in the April 19 issue of Catholic Schools Matter and provides a concise summary of the situation and numerous links to helpful articles and tools. Dr. Tim includes numerous links in his blog, but two are particularly helpful in planning. There is a planning outline from Director of Catholic Schools John Galvan, Diocese of San Diego. While primarily concerned with this year, it is very relevant to the issues of 2020-21. Another helpful link is An Open Letter to Independent School Leaders written by two professors at Kennesaw State University, particularly the latter part of the article, subtitled Health Considerations for 2020-21. One additional resource is the article How to Reopen Schools: A 10-Point Plan Putting Equity at the Center. Published by Getting Smart, an online media channel for educators, this article is aimed primarily at public school administrators, but it provides helpful advice for administrators of all schools.
There are other resources out there now and will be many more as this year draws to a close and more people start to think about next year. Keep in mind that your current and potential parents are thinking about next year right now and wondering what you are going to do about all the various scenarios out there. Be prepared, and let people know that you have a plan. Be decisive, yet flexible. Be in control. Parents need to know that their children are in safe hands.
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
From Adapt to Adopt – Moving through the Health Crisis (Part 1)
As we continue to move through the uncertainty of the current health crisis, we are seeing the impact vividly in all areas of our lives, particularly in our Catholic schools and parishes. Our schools have been leaders in a tremendous effort of responding to this crisis with a quick turn-around in online, remote instruction. This has been no mere fete, especially for schools in urban, rural and other areas where resources and technology may have been limited. Yet, we are doing it and doing it well.
As we began getting a handle on instruction, we started experiencing the financial wave – unemployment impacting families and their ability to pay tuition (and of the effect on enrollment), loss of fund raising events and revenue, the question of refunding tuition, the decrease in or loss of parish support as Sunday collections decline, and the continuing roller coaster effect on investments. Sadly, schools that were facing significant enrollment and financial challenges prior to the crisis are now even more vulnerable and serious decisions are being made about their survival. The unfortunate reality is that some schools will have to close over the next several months.
As a former coach, I learned that you don’t win games on defense alone. You still must score points to win! Our focus now must be on sustaining all of the schools we can by moving from reacting and short-term adaptations and begin using our ability as smaller, more flexible institutions to consistently and loudly declare and demonstrate the value of a Catholic education. We need to continue building on our strong tradition of faith, prayer and community. We also need to build on the success of online instruction and embrace new approaches such as blended learning and perhaps hybrid instructional models with innovative daily or weekly schedules. We need to also embrace and enhance the new levels of collaboration among schools, teachers and families.
How will we adapt moving forward? One of my colleagues recently remarked, “The first semester next year could be messy.” If we consider all of the decisions we need to make by September, it could be somewhat “messy” and challenging, but also rife with potentially exciting and game-changing opportunities for our Catholic schools. It can and should be a new day for us. The conversations we have now to set up a prototype(s) for 2020-21 will provide an opportunity to try, readapt, readjust and lay the groundwork for a more strategic focus in adopting what could be a less messy “new normal” for the 2021-22 school year. In Part 2 of this blog we will look at more adaptations folks in the trenches are considering.
