Meeting goals of strategic plan for Catholic schools

By Vernell Bowen
Superintendent of Catholic Schools

Last May a strategic plan was completed for the Pulaski County Catholic Schools. In examining data and identifying the strengths, limitations, external changes and relevant trends, the committee established four areas to be addressed.

The following areas were selected and recommendations, rationale and strategies developed to provide guidance to the seven Catholic elementary and two Catholic high schools in Pulaski County:

• Finances
• Keeping current and competitive
• Marketing and public relations
• Parent formation/participation in parish life

Under the area of finance a major recommendation was to create a diocesan-wide annual appeal to assist parishes with supplementing scholarships.

In the fall of 2013, the Office of Catholic Schools established the first scholarship appeal through a direct mailing to individuals in parishes across the diocese. The mailings for the appeal “Continue the Tradition, Invest in the Future” were sent to more than 50,000 Catholic households the first week of December. As of March, the campaign has netted $19,370.

At the end of May the amount contributed to this campaign will be distributed back to schools that show a need for more scholarship revenue than can be provided by the parish or school. The gap for the calculated need for scholarship for the current school year is $300,000.

The positive effect of this scholarship appeal is that it has created awareness in our diocese for the need for scholarships. Of the amount received from contributing individuals, 52 percent came from individuals from parishes without schools. The Office of Catholic Schools is very thankful to all the individuals who support Catholic education.

Also, under the area of finance, there was a recommendation for the Pulaski County schools to establish a county-wide fundraiser to support the schools in the county. A committee will be formed this summer to work on this fundraiser for next school year.

The Office of Catholic Schools has been addressing the area of keeping current and competitive by continually updating the curriculum and providing the schools with data through testing to address their individual strengths and weaknesses. The Office of Catholic Schools has established diocesan curriculum committees to assess the current curriculum and revise the curriculum guide for K-8 grades to address 21st century learning standards.

To address recommendations in the marketing area, a committee made up of several interested people representing the Little Rock and North Little Rock schools has met twice to establish guidelines for parent ambassador teams. The committee developed talking points about the Catholic schools and submitted names from their schools who they felt would be effective ambassadors. This information has been submitted to the principals for review.

The Office of Catholic Schools would like to see a parent ambassador program implemented in 2014-2015 at each of the Catholic schools in Pulaski County.

The purpose of the parent ambassador program is to empower the team to assist the school in finding its targeted audiences, communicating its mission and welcoming prospective new community members.

The Office of Catholic Schools will continue to monitor the strategic plan for the Pulaski County Catholic Schools and provide support to address the recommendations to tactically navigate toward a brighter future.

This journey calls for a variety of stakeholders to roll up their sleeves and assist the schools in implementing and treating this plan as a living document.

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