Catholic parents are being asked to answer a survey about why they do or do not send their children to Catholic schools. The survey, which is available in hard-copy form from parishes and online until Feb. 1, will provide data to help the Office for Catholic Schools finalize a strategic plan this spring. That effort dovetails with the Fiscal Advancement Stabilization Team initiative started in November to help Catholic schools create plans to increase enrollment and improve financial health, academic excellence and Catholic identity. “The acronym is FAST, but it really could be FEAST,” said Catholic schools superintendent Sister M. Paul Mc- Caughey. “The E is for Eucharist, and energy and enrollment.” The goal is for all schools to be academically excellent, Catholic and vital. The effort comes at a time when the schools have had some good news. Catholic school enrollment in the city of Chicago is up for the second year in a row, and overall enrollment is holding steady, with a decrease this year of less than 1 percent. But the Archdiocese of Chicago this year is still giving $12 million in grants to schools that cannot make ends meet, and the private, non-profit Big Shoulders Fund is supplementing that with another $1.8 million. The archdiocese cannot continue that level of financial support, so schools must learn to stand on their own. The need for the initiative became clear in October, Sister M. Paul said, and schools received materials to help them evaluate every area of school life and develop action plans in November. Those were due before Christmas “so it really was ‘fast,’” she said. “But we had to start right away, because if we waited until spring, it would be too late to have anything in place for next year.” Staff in the Office for Catholic Schools and other archdiocesan departments evaluated each school’s materials and action plans to determine whether they were comprehensive and realistic. Representatives from about 100 schools — including those that receive archdiocesan grants and loans — will come to the Catholic schools office to discuss their action plans; others will meet with their assistant superintendents. The schools office will use the action plans to figure out where it can offer help or guidance by, for instance, adjusting a marketing plan so it better addresses the needs of a school’s community. “A lot of these ideas have been around forever, and a lot of the schools have been using them,” Sister M. Paul said. “This will help other schools reach out.” Some schools could see their form of governance change, with a board or the Catholic schools office assuming responsibility for curriculum and business matters, while the parish takes care of providing a faithful, welcoming environment, Sister M. Paul said. Others can use the survey results to find out why their families choose Catholic schools. Nationally, the top answer is that the schools are academically excellent, while having a good community and culture of faith are high on the list. In Chicago’s inner city, the reason most often given first is that the schools are safe. “No matter why they come, we know what we have to do when they get here,” Sister M. Paul. The need for help boosting enrollment is not necessarily tied to the socioeconomic status of a school’s community, she pointed out, with some “very stable” schools that have 98 percent low-income students, and others with more middle-class families having difficulty. Sister M. Paul acknowledged that it would have been easier to simply close schools that aren’t already making it financially, but that’s not what the Office for Catholic schools is choosing to do. “This has a tremendous fairness to it,” she said. “This says, we believe in you. But it is a very labor-intensive process for everyone.” Some schools might still have to be closed or restructured, Sister M. Paul said, but she thinks nearly all will make it. “We think it can be done, especially if we can get a general scholarship program off the ground,” she said. “That would make it in the realm of possibility for more families who want to send their children to our schools.”