Good Shepherd School Plans 50th Anniversary Gathering

Since Good Shepherd School's plans for a Fall 2008 celebration of its 50th anniversary have been felled by the DOR's closure decision, the alumni reunion has been rescheduled for May 31. The following is from this week's parish bulletin:

"The date has been set! Calling all alumni of Good Shepherd School. On Saturday, May 31, please come and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the school. The celebration begins with 4:30 Mass and continues in the school following Mass. You will have plenty of opportunity to meet old friends, walk around the school, and reminisce. Refreshments will be served and may even include ‘belly-wash’ and ‘Sugar Daddy’s’. Please spread the word! More information will be forthcoming, including reservation information. In the meantime, you can register to be put on our database by emailing gssalum3288@yahoo.com."

Click here to see the D&C video profiling Good Shepherd School alumni.

D&C: Catholic Schools' Decline in Rochester Among Worst in U.S.

The Democrat and Chronicle this morning carries a feature on Rochester's rank among Catholic school enrollment shifts nationwide. The DOR ranks 6th worst among 176 U.S. dioceses, with 10-year enrollment drop of 39.36 percent. It also ranks as 26th worst for school closures (23.81 percent) -- before taking into account the closures planned for this June.

Upstate New York was hit particularly hard, with Ogdensburg, Syracuse, Buffalo and Albany dioceses also being ranked among the worst. Click here to see the full rankings.

Of course, responses by the DOR continue to defy logic, as shown by the D&C story:

"We certainly are not happy with that status, but we are turning that around," said Sister Janice Morgan, interim Catholic schools superintendent for the Rochester diocese.

A few paragraphs later, however, we read that "The diocese started the current school year with 4,884 students in these schools, and 3,796 students so far have re-enrolled in other diocesan schools."

That's a loss of 1,088 students for the coming year -- definitely not a turnaround. Factoring that into the current report (without the benefit of projections from other dioceses), the projected 11-year enrollment decline for the DOR will be 45.5 percent, moving it up to the second worst position in the ranking. Does someone need to remind the DOR that we're not trying to be #1 in this race?

Related Coverage: Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin - Broome Suffers Third Worst Decline

D&C: Part 7 of "A Prayer for Good Shepherd" Video Series

View Jeff Blackwell's latest video in the "Prayer for Good Shepherd" series here:

A Prayer for Good Shepherd - Part 7

This segment features alumni reminiscing about their time at the school, which would have celebrated its 50th anniversary at the start of the 2008 - 09 academic year.

Click here for the complete listing of videos in the ongoing D&C series.

Fordham Institute: Who Will Save America's Urban Catholic Schools?

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has released a new study entitled "Who Will Save America's Urban Catholic Schools?"

It reads, in part, "America’s urban Catholic schools are in crisis. This report finds that over 1,300 schools have shut down since 1990, mostly in our cities. As a result, some 300,000 students have been displaced – forced to attend other public, private, or parochial schools. The school closures have cost taxpayers more than $20 billion to accommodate the additional students that public schools have had to absorb.

Is this a crisis worth addressing? Are further closures inevitable, or can Church leaders, parishioners, philanthropists and/or public policymakers reverse these trends? Should they try? This report answers those questions and more."

Rush-Henrietta Schools Again Pursuing Good Shepherd Space

According to reports from parish administrators, the Rush-Henrietta School District is again pursuing an option to occupy the Good Shepherd School facility in Henrietta. It seems the presence of the integrated parish chapel -- the primary worship space -- is requiring that the school district obtain permission from the State of New York to proceed.

Related Coverage:
Sad Saga - March 22, 2008
WHAM-TV - Closing Adds to Rush-Henrietta Overcrowding

Sr. Janice Morgan: Pope's Direction Contradicts MCCS Decision

According to an article in the Catholic Courier, Sr. Janice Morgan, interim superintendent of the Diocese of Rochester's Catholic schools, said Pope Benedict XVI stressed to U.S. educators this week that that "the financial bottom line should not be the driving force in Catholic education."

"He said we get caught up in the numbers," Sister Morgan said. "It’s not the numbers. It’s not statistics. It’s the action of teaching the truth to the students."

Of course, the Diocese and Sister Morgan herself have said time and time again that the decision to close 14 Catholic schools come June centers on finances. Will the Pope's message have any bearing on Bishop Clark, who continues to refuse to discuss the issue with parents, faculty or the media three months after announcing the closings in January?

Related Coverage: WHAM-13 TV

Pope Benedict XVI's Speech on Catholic Education

Read the full text of Pope Benedict XVI's address on Catholic education in the U.S., delivered yesterday in Washington, D.C.

School Break Week: Site Updates on Hold

The site will be going offline for a few days in conjunction with school break week in Rochester. See you in a few days.

Letters Show DOR Changed Course on St. Monica & Good Shepherd Schools

A few days following the outcry over the DOR claiming it had not received any requests to review independent school proposals, more evidence is emerging of the Diocese turning back on its own statements and recommendations.

The first, pointed out in this posting at StBlogs.com, concerns St. Monica's school. In an June 2005 letter to the 19th Ward/Corn Hill/Bullshead pastoral planning group, Bishop Matthew Clark writes, "Although not mentioned in your recommendation, it is clearly important to me that one of our vibrant Catholic schools operates on the St. Monica campus." The school only had 94 students then; today, it has 193 but has been tagged for closure. [Thanks to DOR Catholic as well.]

The second is a September 2004 letter from Bishop Matthew Clark to the Rush-Henrietta pastoral planning group, which had designated Good Shepherd School as a primary ministry. He wrote, "“Your communities are fortunate to be blessed with many young families and I encourage you to envision ministry from ‘womb to tomb.’ Search for any gaps that may leave an age group searching for more." Again, despite his acknowledgment of the demographics of the Henrietta area, he changed course and created a massive "gap" by shuttering Good Shepherd School come June.

The Good Shepherd School parent/faculty group presented this information to members of the Diocese during the February 4, 2008, "listening session," but received no response as to why the Bishop's position had changed. What's more striking is that the original letter, posted to the DOR Web site (with a mirror posting here), included mark-ups/edits which the Bishop's staff forgot to remove (scroll to the end, past the blank page). One comment reads, "...not sure why this is in this particular group’s letter—we haven’t raised life-long faith formation or life-long ministry in any other group." The fact that the Bishop would choose to leave this "womb to tomb" remark in his letter, yet proceed to close the school just a short time later, again calls into question the rationale behind targeting specific schools.

Democrat and Chronicle: Upset Catholics Say They Will Pull Support for Diocese

The Democrat and Chronicle reports on area Catholics ending their monetary donations to the Diocese of Rochester in the wake of the school closures.

A portion of the article has further aggravated parent groups pursuing independent school options, as well as those seeking honest and open communication from the Diocese. It reads, "[Spokesperson Doug] Mandelaro said the diocese hasn't received any requests to lease space from potential schools that would be operated outside of the diocesan system. He said any decisions about leasing buildings to independent schools with a Catholic curriculum would be made by the pastors or pastoral assistants, with input from the diocese."

As one reader notes in the D&C comment section, this is a "flat out lie or carefully crafted misdirection. There have been requests for at least three different independent Catholic schools, all of which have been refused."

If your school has pursued this path and yet has been denied based on Diocesan "input," contact D&C reporter Erica Bryant via e-mail by clicking here.

DOR Catholic: It Isn't About the Money?

The DOR Catholic blog digs deeper into a possible connection between Catholic Ministries Appeal giving and schools targeted for closure. The blog says, "The diocese, I'm sure, will say it isn't about the money. The data, however, are saying something else."

RCSD Invites Affected Families to Elementary School Fair on Saturday

From the Democrat and Chronicle:

K-6 school fair is Saturday. The Rochester School District will host an Elementary School Fair on Saturday. The district invites families of students who will enter kindergarten in the fall and also families of students whose Catholic schools are closing or families whose children will be entering city schools for the first time. The fair will be at School of the Arts, 45 Prince St., from noon to 3 p.m. Staff members will answer questions and assist with registration.

Holy Cross Encourages Parishoners to Voice their Concerns

In this past weekend's bulletin, Fr. Wheeland (pictured) from Holy Cross encourages his parishioners to make their voices heard with regard to Catholic education. This comes in anticipation of the Diocese reaching classroom and school size limits, with its "expert" task force having grossly underestimated the re-enrollment rates for displaced students.

What Plans Exist for Closed School Buildings?

The Buffalo News carried a story today about vacant school buildings posing problems for the communities in which they're located. "It’s not like having a vacant house on the street. You’ve got a large building, and if that goes vacant, sooner or later the windows are going to get broken or it’s going to have to be boarded up," said Thomas J. Adamczak, Cheektowaga’s supervisor of building inspectors. "It’s just going to speed up deterioration in neighborhoods."

It begs another question relating to the closings of Rochester-area schools -- what are the plans for the facilities? Could it be that the Diocesan task force didn't take this into account in its decision, giving it another reason to prevent disclosure of its report to Bishop Matthew Clark?