The program aids to improve governance and business models and will help the schools with marketing, financing, recruitment and fundraising.
View full sizeDiocese of Allentown Bishop John Barres formed a commission in 2010 which recommended using the Catholic School Development Program."Even more Catholic schools will now own their own futures by embracing a new way of doing business," foundation Executive Director Christine Healey said in the release. "Our approach to Catholic school sustainability, along with the reforms of other innovators, can stop the downward spiral of the Catholic school system in the United States. This expansion demonstrates the current optimism around real solutions."The foundation's Catholic School Development Program was recommended by Allentown Bishop John Barres' Commission on Catholic Schools, according to the news release. The commission began meeting in 2010, a diocese spokesman said.
The program will be implemented in the fall at four diocese elementary schools and two high schools, according to the news release.
Diocese spokesman Matt Kerr said Allentown Central Catholic High School and Berks Catholic High School in Reading will be in the program, as will Immaculate Conception School in Berks County, Good Shepherd in Northampton Borough, St. John Vianney in Allentown and St. Michael's in Upper Saucon Township.
If the program succeeds in those schools, it's planned to expand to the other 34 elementary schools and five high schools in the diocese, Kerr said.
The program has been in use since 2007 in the Diocese of Camden and was implemented in 2011 at six Archdiocese of Philadelphia schools in association with the Connelly Foundation, according to the news release.
The board would assist schools with marketing and finance, Kerr said, and could work with pastors in parish elementary schools. Many of the schools already have lay principals, he said.
The business goal is to raise money and strengthen enrollment, Kerr said. While the two high schools already have paid development people, similar positions would be created in the elementary schools, Kerr said.
Fundraising would feature "well run" annual appeals and major gift programs, the foundation said.
The program was founded in 2004 by Robert T. Healey "to bring business principles to to the challenges of revitalizing Catholic schools," the release states.
"The BCCS has done a superb job of researching the Catholic school initiatives in other dioceses throughout the United States," Barres said in the release. "They have recommended a school governance model that has been proven effective at building sound management and school viability. Clearly, the CSDP model brings with it a great opportunity to reinvigorate many of our diocesan Catholic schools."Using "best practices used successfully for decades by Catholic universities and independent schools," the program includes an "empowered laity" through a Board of Limited Jurisdiction and a full-time advancement director, who would oversee enrollment management, fundraising, communications and constituent relations for each school, according to the release.
The board would assist schools with marketing and finance, Kerr said, and could work with pastors in parish elementary schools. Many of the schools already have lay principals, he said.
The business goal is to raise money and strengthen enrollment, Kerr said. While the two high schools already have paid development people, similar positions would be created in the elementary schools, Kerr said.
Fundraising would feature "well run" annual appeals and major gift programs, the foundation said.
The program was founded in 2004 by Robert T. Healey "to bring business principles to to the challenges of revitalizing Catholic schools," the release states.