Text Box: - From the Superintendent - DIOCESE OF TOLEDO CATHOLIC SCHOOLS INITIATIVE 2010 ~ NEXT STEPS ~ To: Stakeholders of the Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Toledo Date: April, 2008 BACKGROUND November, 2005: The first ever diocesan-wide “Catholic Schools Summit” was held in November of 2005. This two-day event involved nearly 400 key leaders from every school in the Diocese of Toledo. Bishop Leonard Blair was also an active participant. The purpose of the Summit was: “To come together as a whole Diocese to design the future of our Catholic Schools.” Our hope was to clarify the present challenges facing our Catholic schools and then develop a diocesan-wide strategy to use in the future. It produced very intense work and resulted in a “Strategy Document” that serves as a basis for future planning for our Catholic schools across the diocese. That strategy document contained a “Mission Statement”, a “Vision Statement” and “Key Goals” that serve as the foundation for planning the future of our Catholic schools. (The statements are spelled out in the attached “Foundational Statements Document”.) Spring, 2006: The next steps involved informing more Catholic school stakeholders about the work that went on at the Summit. Summit participants also agreed that specific steps were needed to accomplish the goals that were established. To facilitate this planning, work was necessary on a more local level. Therefore, six geographic regions in our diocese were created. Each region held a “kick-off” meeting in the spring of 2006 to explain the process to more stakeholders. Fall, 2006: In the fall of 2006, each of the six regions held its own “Regional Summit”. At those regional summits, stakeholders from all the schools in that region met to formulate the specific steps needed in their regions to work collaboratively on long range planning. At the end of each Regional Summit, specific action plans or “annual imperatives” were agreed upon. 2006- 2008: Since the original Summit in 2005, many of the efforts centered on collaboration efforts involving two or more schools working together to chart their common future. At the present, we have a number of new configurations with new governing structures as well. Efforts in Sandusky, Norwalk, Tiffin, Defiance, as well as the CCMT School in Toledo are examples. It is expected that these new configurations will continue to grow and flourish. Other similar efforts will likely begin in other regions around the diocese. These efforts are important and will certainly continue. These re-configurations and new governing models can be characterized as “efforts outside the walls” of the Catholic school classroom. NEXT STEPS 2008-2010: It is now time to focus on some of the other goals that came out of the original Summit that call for work “inside the walls” of the classroom. The Mission Statement developed at the 2005 Summit certainly calls us to this internal view: Through Christ, we come together as a Catholic community to immerse our students in profound, holy learning that calls them as Disciples of Christ to embrace the Kingdom of God, thereby transforming the world. In addition to the goals and the Mission Statement from the Summit, some other events seem to confirm the need for this “inside” focus. Some are: In the fall of 2007, Bishop Blair scheduled regional meetings with the priests of the diocese. These meetings emphasized the importance of the Catholic identity of our schools. It is clear that the “Catholicity” of our schools is of primary importance. Schools need to demonstrate their effectiveness of passing on the faith to students. This seems to be calling us to focus on specifically what is happening in the classroom with the students. In addition, our “Innovative Educators” effort is being re-evaluated. Innovative Educators has been an initiative of our diocesan schools’ office for the past ten years and provides direct professional development for our teachers. The work is based on the latest research on how students learn best. Innovative Educators has been very successful, but it is time to look at its future. We feel that the Innovative Educators effort will be an important part of our focus “inside the classroom walls” of our Catholic schools. Finally, our logo and our Educators’ Credo (shown below) are key elements as well.  CREDO: As Catholic School Educators, We believe our Catholic School is not only a school, but a community of Faith; We believe those entrusted to us are not only students, but children of God; We believe we are not only educators, but Ministers of the Gospel; We believe the values we teach are not only character development, but a call to Holiness; We believe our courses of study are not only academic pursuits, but a search for Truth; We believe the purpose of education is not only for personal gain and the development of society, but for the Transformation of the world. To begin this focus “inside the classroom”, our diocesan schools’ office (Catholic Youth and School Services) will sponsor another two-day gathering with the following elements: The focus will be “inside the classroom walls.” It will involve both elementary and high schools. The title of the two day gathering will be the “Catholic Educators’ Academy.” Two two-day academies will be held during the summer of 2008 and two more during the summer of 2009. Schools can choose either of the 2008 meetings or either of the 2009 meetings. Because the focus will be on what happens in the classroom, schools will be asked to send teams made up of administrators and teachers. A primary goal of this “inside the classroom walls” effort is insure that we are constantly finding more and better ways “…to immerse our students in profound, holy learning” as stated in the Mission Statement developed at the 2005 Summit. Further, we expect that this work will have direct impact on professional development offerings to be planned by the Catholic Youth and Schools Services office for Principals and for K-12 teachers. We also hope to develop more partnerships with Catholic colleges and universities in order to provide college courses, programs, expertise, resources, etc. Finally, it also has direct correlation with our Ohio Catholic Schools Accreditation – especially the Catholic Identity goal required of all schools. As we move forward with this new effort, updates will be posted to the “Catholic Schools Initiative – 2010” page of the CYSS web site. Jack Altenburger Superintendent Diocese of Toledo

¨ Foundational Statements

 

¨ Common Imperatives

 

¨ Summary  Document

~Regional Updates ~

 

¨ Metro-Toledo Summit Region

¨ Central Summit Region

¨ Northeast Summit Region

¨ Southeast Summit Region

¨ Northwest Summit Region

¨ Southwest Summit Region

 

~ Regional Map ~
Text Box: Catholic Schools Initiative 2010

¨ Catholic Educators’ Academies!