6 Catholic elementary schools collaborate

The leadership team is taking a proactive approach to education.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Six area diocesan parishes and their elementary schools have joined forces to ensure they offer the best Catholic school educational opportunities possible.
The Mahoning South Catholic Schools Leadership Team, which is concerned about the future of Catholic education, was formed in October 2004 and hired a part-time marketing coordinator last spring.
Declining enrollments and frequent closings have hit the Catholic schools education system across the country, and the Mahoning Valley is no exception.
Participants
"We wanted to be proactive and foster Catholic education," said the Rev. Joseph Fata, pastor of St. Luke Church, Boardman.
The pastors and the principals of the six schools didn't want to sit idly by and watch that education go down the drain, he said.
The schools are part of the Mahoning South Deanery of the Diocese of Youngstown, but educational issues are local parish matters, said Monsignor William Connell of Holy Family Church, Poland.
There was no leadership being offered from anywhere else, leaving the churches and their schools to formulate their own inter-parish plans, he said.
Other churches on the team are St. Nicholas Roman Catholic, Struthers; St. Matthias, Youngstown; St. Joseph The Provider, Campbell; and St. Charles, Boardman.
All of the churches run their own schools.
It was important for the six schools to get together and work as a community toward a common goal, said Christine Ricottilli, the group's marketing coordinator and only paid employee.
The schools are in a position to reinforce and support each other, and the leadership team meets monthly to discuss and seek solutions to common problems and issues, she said.
Joint programming
They also have started running some joint programs and plan to have a pair of free "Preparing Your Child for Kindergarten" seminars after the first of the year.
The programs will be open to parents of all kindergarten-age children, not just parish members, Ricottilli said, explaining that the idea is to attract participation from all of the surrounding areas.
The seminars will be in one or more of the six schools as a way to get people into those buildings to see what the Catholic schools have to offer, she said.
The team's mission statement notes that the participants have committed to collaborate in leadership and no longer work in isolation. The group hopes to rekindle a commitment in the laity to Catholic schools and thereby offer hope for the future of Catholic school education in the diocese.
Goals
The team has developed a series of both short- and long-term goals.
Developing a plan to respond, support and help families, teachers and parishes when a school must close, bridging the gap between the city and the suburbs and developing a comprehensive approach to preschools are among the one- to two-year goals.
Examining the use of various buildings, developing an approach to gifted programs, considering the possibility of opening a Montessori School, and investigating a unified approach to fund raising and tuition are some of the items on the three- to five-year list.
The six schools serve a total of 1,460 pupils from pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade.
gwin@vindy.com