The Archdiocese of Chicago’s new strategic plan for Catholic schools aims to keep the school system vital and viable, with emphasis on both new management strategies and finding new funding, as well as a strong focus on Catholic identity and excellent academics. The plan, which was released March 21, calls for increased funding through a capital campaign to establish a scholarship fund and raise money for capital needs, increased partnership with the Big Shoulders Fund (See story on Page 6) and other organizations and maintaining efforts to capture some public funding for Catholic education. It also includes a reorganization of the Office of Catholic Schools, creating new senior management positions in the areas of Catholic identity, academics, operations and finance. The plan was announced weeks after the archdiocese announced plans to close St. Gregory the Great High School and four elementary schools this year because it was unable to continue supporting them at the level it would have taken to keep them open. Savings from closing those schools helped the Office for Catholic Schools reduce its budget gap by $10 million for fiscal year 2013, said Superintendent Sister Mary Paul McCaughey. Other savings came from the work of the schools to reduce loans, a pilot scholarship program funded by a donor, and increased scholarships from the Big Shoulders Fund. Scholarships can be an effective way to bring more money into the system since students almost never receive a full scholarship, Sister Mary Paul said. That means every scholarship dollar brings increased tuition funding with it. The strategic plan was already being developed when the Office for Catholic Schools learned that it would need to make significant cuts this year, she said, but the planned changes follow the direction the office had already set of increased marketing efforts and financial management, in tandem with upholding high standards for school programs. Those changes had started to bear fruit, with increased Catholic elementary school enrollment in the city of Chicago for two straight years. “We were already going in the right direction,” Sister Mary Paul said. “Now we’re taking what we were doing and putting it on steroids.” Under the new plan, schools that have required archdiocesan funding will be required to participate in the Financial Advancement with Strategic Teamwork (FAST) initiative, which started last year with promising results. In includes more hands-on participation from the Office of Catholic Schools in everything from the selection of a principal to setting tuition prices. The plan also envisions expanding the Archdiocesan Initiative Model, in which the Office of Catholic Schools takes over full operating authority of a school with the pastor’s consent. The AIM model started as a pilot program with 20 schools in 2010. Schools that do not succeed in their turnaround efforts could be closed, according to the plan. Not all schools will see such dramatic changes; schools that are self-sufficient will be monitored to make sure they meet Catholic identity and academic standards and remain financially stable. Most Catholic high schools in the archdiocese are sponsored by religious congregations and, while they work in collaboration with the Office of Catholic Schools, are not under its jurisdiction in the same way parochial elementary schools are. However, the Office for Catholic Schools wants to create “associations of the Christian faithful” to take over sponsorship and governance of the seven high schools that are under its jurisdiction. That model has worked well for Notre Dame College Prep, which was left without sponsorship when the Congregation of the Holy Cross withdrew in 2007. As a rule, Catholic schools continue to be academically excellent, with standardized test scores well above the national norm in all subject areas at the third, fifth and seventh grades in 2011, according to a draft of the plan. Most Chicago Catholic schools outperform public schools in their neighborhoods, including charter schools although a handful do not. The Office of Catholic Schools will continue to work with those schools to bring their academic levels up, while maintaining the high level of instruction at the other schools. In the area of Catholic identity, all schools are in the process of adopting a new religion curriculum, and schools are working to strengthen the faith formation of teachers and principals. Pastors are encouraged to work to strengthen the bonds between parishes and schools. Catholic identity is the reason for the school’s existence, Cardinal George said in his introduction to the plan. “The Catholic schools of the Archdiocese of Chicago are centers of learning in a community of love. They are excellent educational institutions, as the following plan makes clear; but the most important lesson any of us learns is that God loves us,” Cardinal George wrote.