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A Makeover worthy of HGTV

For illustration purposes only

George Grenier, our facilities director, came to town this past week.  He had already connected with diocesan facilities people, Dominic Ozanne of Ozanne Construction, and Paul Siemborski of the DLR group before arriving.  He spent his first day talking with the principals of our two Cleveland schools, St. Thomas Aquinas and Archbishop Lyke.  Initial plans for work to take place over the next 6-8 weeks were presented to our Cleveland Facilities Committee on Tuesday.

I cannot wait to be there in August when our staff and students come back (in whatever way that will happen).  Every interior surface will be repainted, floors stripped and polished, railing added where needed, lighting upgraded, bathroom facilities modernized, carpet replaced, blackboards replace by whiteboards, exteriors spruced up where needed, landscaping improved, new classroom code compliant doors, signage upgraded, and more!

Meanwhile our assistant Superintendent Christian Davallis has been and will continue to work with our two principals, Nancy Lynch and Rachael Dengler, concerning leadership training, faculty professional development, and new curriculum role out.  Our two principals have been working and are on fire with a renewed passion!

Enrollment on the rise

We have set an agressive enrollment growth goal of a total of 25% new students in both schools.  Presently we are at a 5% growth rate.  The great news is that the Cleveland Voucher program is reopening on July 1.  Summer is a time when Catholic schools in the city are still seeking new admissions.  The added incentive of being able to sign up and getting the voucher is a definite shot in the arm.  We clearly know that admissions is quite challenging in the time of COVID, but we are still aiming high!

A Thought Experiment

This week I had the occasion to be invited to Canterbury Golf Club to exhibit my amazing ability to hit a golf ball 100+ times and walk 7000 yards! I accomplished both, not without effort! I was at Saint Martin before I left and I took E. 55th to Woodland Road.  It dawned on me that Canterbury, in Shaker Heights, is actually on the same road.  It is 7.4 miles and took me 18 minutes.  The change in scenery from E. 55th and Woodland to 22000 S. Woodland Rd. was absolutely mind blowing.  What changes happened to create this dramatic chasm.

Woodland Ave in the 50's

Woodland Ave Now

This article gives a basic history.  I strongly urge you to read this.  I think it would be an excellent history project for a high school to take on.  Have students drive along one of our major streets (Superior, St. Clair, Chester to name a few) from downtown to the suburbs and then encourage them to research and answer the question, "How did this happen?"

The Hard Work Begins!

"So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Mt 10:29

Vision first!

These two quotes by theologian Walter Brueggemann come to mind today.  The Gospel today speaks fundamentally about the value of each human being.  Years ago I was promoting Saint Martin de Porres High School in a church near E. 105th and St. Clair.  Rev. Toby led the service and had me stand (I was already standing out!) and everyone welcomed me.  Then she told the congregation how much God loves each and every one of us.  She called on us to do the same and asked us to turn to our neighbor in the pew and say, "I love you and there is nothing you can do about it!"

Driving around a month ago planting lawn signs I saw the result of the 2008 financial crisis had on many of the neighborhoods of our city.  In fact, one neighborhood had the dubious honor of being called the epicenter of the crisis for the whole world!  I said to myself this is not what God had in mind.  This was created by people and therefore it can be corrected by people.  Brueggemann's quote on compassion is eye-opening.

“Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism, for it announces that the hurt is to be taken seriously, that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural but is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humanness.”

Unacceptable!  So that brings me to the next quote.  We need to bring God's vision to our world.  So many people have reacted with great surprise when Partnership Schools continued its drive to become part of these two schools in the face of a global pandemic and economic crisis.  One of our donors was very interested in what our plans would be given COVID-19.  My answer was we are trying to be as agile and thoughtful about what to do, but one thing he said was, "Well the kids still have to be educated."  Yes, that is it--the mission has not changed at all.  The methods will be different and ever-changing, which has actually always been true; perhaps amplified by our present situation for sure.  Someone envisioned derivative mortgages, so we certainly can envision the celebration and growth of our neighborhoods through a loving educational community. 

“The prophet engages in futuring fantasy. The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, for questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision can be imagined. The imagination must come before the implementation. Our culture is competent to implement almost anything and to imagine almost nothing. The same royal consciousness that makes it possible to implement anything and everything is the one that shrinks imagination because imagination is a danger. Thus every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one.”
― Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination

So, the vision has been imagined!  We are keeping the vision of a strong, vibrant Catholic school in a neighborhood that embraces it.  The hard work is ahead of us.  So, please know that we may be calling people to help in many ways.  Also, know that "I love you and there is nothing you can do about it!"

Partnership Schools Cleveland is born!!

Diocesan Announcement

            

Click here!!!

Thank you to Dr. Frank O'Linn and Fr. Don Oleksiak for believing in this model.  To cast their nets out into the deep at this time demonstrates how faith can indeed move mountains.  Here is a link to the Partnership Schools NY announcement:  https://www.partnershipnyc.org/the-partnership-expands/.

My first contact with Partnership Schools was in December of 2017.  As of this week, two and a half years later, we have officially launched Partnership Schools Cleveland!  Here is the first mention of our new entity in a national publication, The Washington Post on June 12.  The article was talking about how closures of Catholic schools are hurting the minorities that attend them:

Here is why we do it!

Twenty percent of students in the nation’s 6,000 Catholic schools are minorities, including Hispanics, African Americans and Asians. The numbers are much higher in what’s called the Partnership Schools, a network of nine Catholic schools in Harlem and the South Bronx in New York and in Cleveland. In addition to the coursework usually found in public schools, schools in the partnership stress four core values — integrity, humility, hard work and service. 

Enrollees at these nine schools are 67 percent Hispanic and 31 percent African American.

So at a most crucial time in Catholic education, particularly in city settings, Cleveland brings a new model to bear on the problem!  Starting with two schools this coming year, our hope is to grow to as many as six!

Thank you!!

As many of you know we needed to secure in cash or pledges a total of $3M by June 1.  We could only begin actually asking for significant gifts once the agreement was approved by then Bishop Perez which he did on February 13, 2020.  Three and one-half months later we got our last commitment on  May 28 to get over the mark!

What now?

We are working on several fronts.  Next week we will begin to work on some of the physical improvements and repairs that we have identified.  Our hope is to have our buildings ready by August!

Enrollment is also a front-burner item.  Presently both schools have strong re-enrollment numbers (~90%) and total enrollment is at last year's level.  As with many city schools, summer is still a time where more families enroll.  Our hope is to increase enrollment at both schools and it appears we are on track. Professional development of leadership and faculty will continue with more emphasis on the new curriculum in the upcoming weeks.

Upcoming weeks

I will begin to set up shop in St. Thomas and Archbishop Lyke!  Our hope is to bring people for visits, practicing the latest safety guidelines from the CDC (bring your mask).  We are considering some sort of digital town hall.  Let me know what you think about that.  We would present more specific plans and begin to introduce our team.

Final Reflection

In response to the trauma and pain, we rely on our belief that we are made for each other in the image and likeness of God. The Trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are the epitome of community; no one is greater than the other as they all serve a specific purpose. The world needs more of this idea of solidarity.

Read more from Vincent Hale, a teacher from New York Partnership Schools  https://www.partnershipnyc.org/whats-going-on/.

 

Wait for it... Wait for it... Wait for it!

News from our schools!

This week Archbishop Lyke was featured on Channel 5 News.  Click on this link to see what Catholic schools offer News 5 on Archbishop Lyke year end parade!

Announcement expected this week!

We have been on quite a ride for the last few months.  Our two year endeavor will come to a head this week.  Look for the announcement!  Recently our country has begun to focus on serious issues that have become so evident during the pandemic.  People have asked me what I think and all I can do is share my personal journey that began since a conversion experience I had in Peru that led to the founding of Saint Martin de Porres High School and now the imminent announcement of the fate of Partnership Schools Cleveland.  A friend of mine, Dr. Matt Cooney has started an audio blog called Shraheens and asked me to tell the story of why I left Saint Ignatius High School to work at building a new school in the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood.  Here is a link to his blog, Shraheens.com.

Fruits of Prayer

For the last two years, I have prayed on a regular basis each day.  At the least I quiet myself and read the daily readings...often I then read about the saint of the day, read a few sections of the Liturgy of the Hours and sometimes continued with spiritual readings.  I take notes and save phrases or quotes that moved me that day.  Someday, I might share those ramblings.  I sat down and thought about the last few weeks of protests.  My own daughter was tear-gassed as a peaceful demonstrator.  She and my son attended another demonstration yesterday which was completely peaceful and no tear gas thank God.  My other son is in Hollywood sending back pictures and videos of what is going on.  The outpouring over the last several days from our country and all over the world has been unprecedented.  So what do I think?

17 years ago I began working with a community that I knew very little about.

My world has been shaped by a deep appreciation for Ignatian spirituality and the Gospel.  My spiritual directors were Fr. Paul Clifford, Fr. Larry Reuter, Fr. John Foley and  Fr. Bob Welsh.  All of them are Jesuits and when I began teaching in 1973 Pedro Arrupe had recently addressed worldwide alumni with a speech entitled "Man for Others." The opening paragraphs of that speech shaped the way I taught:  

"Education for justice has become in recent years one of the chief concerns of the Church.  Why?  Because there is a new awareness in the Church that participation in the promotion of justice and the liberation of the oppressed is a constitutive element of the mission which Our Lord has entrusted to her. Impelled by this awareness, the Church is now engaged in a massive effort to education - or rather to re-educate - herself, her children, and all men and women so that we may all "lead our life in its entirety... in accord with the evangelical principles of personal and social morality to be expressed in a living Christian witness."

Today our prime educational objective must be to form men-and-women-for-others; men and women who will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ - for the God-man who lived and died for all the world; men and women who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors; men and women completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for others is a farce."  Pedro Arrupe, 1973

My belief in the spirituality of St. Ignatius and his way of proceeding along with prayer with the Gospel (which, as I mentioned,  I began in earnest only two years ago) has led me to see the world differently.  I am not motivated by politics or ideology, but rather by a burgeoning relationship with Jesus.

My daily immersion in the Saint Martin community and in particular with our students and their families is an experience I treasure.  It has been fruitful in my prayer life and in particular in the aspect of Ignatius where he talks about finding God in all things.  I cannot dismiss my experience because that is where God is!

What does my experience tell me?  It tells me that the worldview and belief system I was raised with and believed in terms of our national history was very one-sided and in many cases misleading.  Remember, I am sharing with you the fruits of my spiritual life and my real-life experience.  The horrific experience of being an enslaved people and the consequent realities faced by a large number of our citizens has never been faced by me.  This more inclusive view of history, which includes the black experience and experiences of ALL of our citizens meshes exactly with what I have learned over these 17 years.  But, am I certain?  I want to share with you a prayer I came across a few years ago from Thomas Merton:

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

I have always thought that without doubt there would be no need for faith! So, I hope this gives you a sense of my inner life.  Right now, I see the world differently and I hope, whatever happens, all will experience the abundance of God's love!

Subscribe to my Nuzzel!

For the past few years, I have curated news stories, songs, and podcasts mostly centered on urban education and justice.  It is a quick read and comes out each Sunday.  Here is the link! This is the link to the 5/31 edition.  Today's edition comes out after 1 PM.