If you clean it, they will swing!

 School starts today, enrollment up again!

After some pretty hectic weeks of cleaning, repairing, putting in new water bottle fillers and completely new furniture for classrooms and offices at both St. Thomas Aquinas and Archbishop Lyke, students return this Monday.  On the heals of an historic enrollment growth last school year (~40% up), this year as we stand yesterday, we are up 4%!  Typically we will admit more students in the first week or so.  From 2015 to the beginning of last year the two schools had suffered a 35% decrease in enrollment.

If you clean it, they will swing!

Yesterday, 15 volunteers descended on an abandoned playground adjacent to Archbishop Lyke School.  The Harvard Community Center received a beautiful playground several years ago.  They do fantastic work, but are under resourced to say the least.  They could not afford the proper mulch to pass their insurance inspection.  It was padlocked for over 5 years.  You can see the before and after pictures!

And so it begins...

Here come the volunteeers!

   

Backrow:  Dr. Susan Lasch, Maureen Bagley

From left to right: Mark Biche (Chief Playground Officer), Shana, Julie barry, Denny Dunn (looks like gorgeous George), Marc Ciccarelli, Matt Roggenburk, Steve Nock, Tom McIntyre, Neil Barry, Gerard Daher, and Mark McNamara

Inculding St. Dominic's second grader, Sam!

After!!

And before we could lock the gate, children materialized and went right to the swings!!

As a few of us were cleaning up the barbecue set up (yes, Riche Burgers were provided!), the maintenance man from Harvard Community came over and we offered him a Riche and he told us how great everything looks, then someone said, "We need a master gardener!"  He said, "Just a minute I have one."  He soon returned with Rich Goudreau who is a master gardener and Director of Community Development at Harvard Community Services Center.  All of this before noon!

This is why we do it!!

Access!

Driving from Archbishop Lyke to St. Thomas Aquinas I saw this street sign and traffic light!  It is a few blocks from Archbishop Lyke on Harvard.  How fitting!  We are providing effective and results driven education which will lead to access to quality high schools, college and beyond!

	2019-20	2020-21	% increase
St. Thomas	175	248	41.71%
Lyke	156	200	28.21%
	331	% INCREASE=	35.35%
"the diff"	117	448

This our admission's tracker as of this morning.  There's really nothing much to say beyond, "Incredible!"  We have to hire two new teachers and a teacher's aide, if you know of someone please share this link:  http://www.partnershipnyc.org/work-for-us/apply/?gnk=job&gni=8a78839f7475f4bc0174babd39bf0e70

and this one as well:  http://www.partnershipnyc.org/work-for-us/apply/?gnk=job&gni=8a78879f73b5522c0173f9d8621728ff.

Good News Tuesday, 

October 6!

This Tuesday we are presenting a steaming event which is an update on all that we have done and are doing since July 1, 2020.  It is not a fundraiser!  We hope to answer questions you might have and ask that you register and pass the invite along.  It will be available after Tuesday as well.

Here's the link:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/leading-the-change-partnership-schools-cleveland-launch-celebration-tickets-121200294343.

Question from a visitor...

This morning we were at school hosting a family who was looking for a school to include in its year end giving. We had a great time and the family asked many good and insightful questions. One question stuck out and it was about the Catholic nature of our school.





Back in 2000 I remember talking to a colleague at Saint Ignatius High School about opening a school for kids in the inner city of Cleveland. He wondered why I would want to open a Catholic school in an area where there were so few Catholics. At that time, I gave him an answer I had heard Bishop Pilla give many times when faced with a similar question, "We have Catholic schools in the city not because the students are Catholic, but because we are Catholic." I always thought that was a good way of putting. Not unlike Catholic hospitals...they do not only serve Catholics who are ill!



Two years ago I was invited to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to speak about the Cristo Rey model. Calvinists have hundreds of schools throughout the world. Many of them, as I understand it, were founded to educate Christian children of missionaries and colonists. As time went by, the schools, mostly in urban areas began to serve a new clientele. Most of the urban dwellers, particularly in the African cities where the Calvinists had established schools, were now Moslems.



When I mentioned the issue that many American Catholics bring up about urban Catholic schools educating non-Catholics, I told them of the Bishop Pilla answer. They nodded, but said they too had to have a good reason to continue Christian schools for Moslems. Their reason was rooted in the Gospel. We have these schools in poor urban areas because they are our nieghbors and we are commanded to love our neighbors by Jesus! Wow! Great answer...



Happy New Year!