Turnaround in the midst of strange times!

Half way home!

Caring moment between
Principal Dengler and Fred

These past two months have been full of new experiences, strange holiday celebrations, continued distance from our families and more snow than Cleveland has seen in the last few years.  Meanwhile a staff of dedicated, hardworking teachers and administrators has worked with 460 young scholars during most likely the most stressful school year in our lifetime! 

All of our staff received the first vaccination in mid-February, with a the second one scheduled a month later.  It will be 57° today and the sun is peaking through the clouds.  Our reenrollment rates are skyrocketing and enrollment for next year is beginning to take on steam.  Meanwhile we are praying our way through Lent.

It is good to look back at what has been accomplished and then to look forward to the great work ahead of us.

Partnership Schools Cleveland We Are Better Together

Dr. Christian Dallavis has written a summary of what has occurred since Partnership Cleveland began.  The context of our beginning in Cleveland and the reality of beginning in a full blown world wide pandemic is proof of the power of faith in action!

It's a great blessing to have New York Partnership join us in reaching out to our young people providing Catholic faith, formation, and education [in Cleveland]... we are looking forward to a long, long period of time working together to provide a great opportunity for our young people.

Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, Rev. Don Oleksiak

I am grateful for… Partnership Schools, and the ongoing partnership… for innovation, for the future of Catholic education, so that we can keep the highest quality Catholic education as widely available as possible here in this Diocese and throughout the nation.

Superintendent Dr. Frank O’Linn

Introduction

St. Thomas Aquinas and Archbishop Lyke Catholic Schools formally joined the Partnership Schools network on July 1, 2020, per the terms of the agreement signed by the Partnership and the Bishop of Cleveland in February. We began working to lay the groundwork for implementing the Partnership’s approach to school culture, academics, and operations, as well as substantially ramping up enrollment and making necessary safety upgrades and repairs to the buildings. When the global health crisis overtook our nation, it indeed had a major impact on our schools and the communities we currently serve. Yet, the support that the Partnership has provided both Archbishop Lyke and St. Thomas Aquinas has resulted in critical gains for our schools, in spite of the challenges brought on by the virus. In a few short months we have made substantial progress on the following:

Enrollment:

Across both Partnership Cleveland schools, we have increased enrollment by 39 percent over the past year, with an increase of 47 percent at St. Thomas Aquinas and 29 percent at Archbishop Lyke. On October 13, 2020, the schools had 460 students enrolled. Additionally, we hired an enrollment coordinator shared across both schools—the former assistant principal of St. Thomas, Portia Gadson, is a parent of several St. Thomas alumni and is herself an alum of Archbishop Lyke and resident of the Lyke neighborhood. Portia is uniquely suited to leverage her existing relationships and build new ones in the schools’ communities. Finally, we implemented a professional, systematic inquiry tracking and enrollment management system to ensure all inquiries are assiduously followed up and converted to enrollments.

Leadership and School Culture:

After a national search that yielded 50 applicants and a strong pool of candidates, we hired a new principal at St. Thomas Aquinas Rachael Dengler. Rachael had been a teacher and academic leader at the school for six years and has successfully transitioned into the school leadership role. We also facilitated a process of identifying and adopting root beliefs at each school that anchor the operating norms, teaching and learning norms, physical spaces and artifacts, and communications of the schools to transform the culture of each school.

Teaching and Learning:

Across Partnership Cleveland, we provided new curricula and extensive professional development to all teachers in language arts, math, social studies, and science; we provided further professional development in Teach Like a Champion instructional strategies, including remote instruction strategies. Additionally, we extended the school day, so class is in session from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and increased teacher salaries to compensate them accordingly. Finally, we provided support to teachers to balance instruction to both in-person and remote learners via live, synchronous instruction and on-demand, asynchronous work. Some teachers are embracing and engaging this mode of instruction with skill, energy, and effort; others have been struggling to navigate this new mode of instruction. The Partnership academic team and school support team have been working closely with principals and teachers to provide both professional development at the school and Cleveland network level and also at the individual teacher level.

Facilities and Operations:

We have provided comprehensive personal protective equipment including masks, sanitizer and sanitization services, desk shields, plexiglass dividers, signage, thermometers, and more for all teachers, staff, and students, and a comprehensive back-to-school guide to equip teachers and leaders with a set of protocols and guidelines for a safe return to in-person schooling during the pandemic. We have also completed approximately $250,000 in renovations and repairs to renew
both buildings including: fresh paint in all classrooms, stairwells, and hallways, stripped and waxed floors throughout, new doors and fixtures, new phone systems, new whiteboards, boiler repair and pipe replacements, and

other essential repairs.

Before After (same floor!)

Finally, we have transitioned operational management of the schools, including the back-office financial operations, from the Diocese of Cleveland to the Partnership.

We have hired the retired controller of Catholic schools for the Diocese as interim controller for Partnership Cleveland to navigate the transition from the Diocese to the Partnership for all financial matters.

Emerging Needs

Since our schools opened for both in-person and remote learning, there has been a surge in demand. We had planned for a modest enrollment increase but instead we have seen enrollment increase by 39 percent. While we certainly are excited about the opportunity to keep enrollment growing and serving more students than ever before, we know we will need more support to sustain this growth and keep up with the new measures and protocols necessary to ensure the health and safety of our students and teachers. To that end, we are hiring three additional teachers and have brought on a teacher's aide.

Looking Forward 

We are just a few months into our first year working in Cleveland, and while it feels like much work has been done, and many students have been brought to the schools, we are just getting started. As we look ahead, our teachers will continue to deepen their understanding and hone their skills with the new curricula they are implementing, and the new instructional techniques they are practicing and perfecting. As we look ahead, our teachers will continue to navigate synchronous and 

asynchronous instruction, maintain vigilance around masks and distancing, and build a culture of constant improvement. The primary focus of our work in Cleveland, now that the transition of operations is complete and our classrooms are filling up, is to educate each child toward their potential for full human flourishing. Our teachers, school leaders, and network team are bringing laser-like focus to curriculum implementation and integrating new teaching techniques, engaging in hours of professional formation workshops, coaching, feedback conversations, lesson studies, and video review to hone the quality of instruction. We believe we are always learning—students and teachers alike—and we are focused on developing the skills of extraordinary teachers to deliver proven curriculum to students who are made for greatness.

Growth

It has been our plan since first imagining Partnership Schools Cleveland to expand to at least six schools.  This is still our mission!  We are presently working with the diocese to expand our agreement to allow for a parish school to sign up.  Presently our two schools are owned by the diocese.  They are not parish schools.  Initial conversations have been very hopeful that such an agreement can work within Canon Law.  We met, via Zoom, with our new bishop who was extremely encouraging about our work and our growth.  Bringing on new schools will include a new round of funding.  Our first two schools required $3MM of pledges and cash.  No doubt, a similar amount will need to be raised for the next two schools.

For more information or to make a gift, email me at richard.clark@partnershipcle.org , or give me a call at 216.409.7018.