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The InterVIEW

Superintendent: Catholic schools a good investment

A regular feature of The Catholic New World, The InterVIEW is an in-depth conversation with a person whose words, actions or ideas affect today's Catholic. It may be affirming of faith or confrontational. But it will always be stimulating.

Springfield Dominican Sister M. Paul McCaughey, who attended Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago as a child, graduated from Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights in 1967. She returned to lead the school, serving as principal for all but two years from 1992-2004, then served as its president. On July 1, she became the new superintendent for Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago — a job she says she never applied for. But when the search committee called, she went, and ended up with the position.

After years of school closings, all the elementary schools in the archdiocese have stayed open for the last two years, and this fall will open a new high school on the West Side, Christ the King Jesuit High School.

She sat down with assistant editor Michelle Martin.

Catholic New World: Why are Catholic schools important?

Sister M. Paul McCaughey: The Catholic way of life makes a difference.

If we’re going to have adults in the pews, we have to have kids in the schools. That’s what the research is showing. There are compelling figures that show education is important for our church. Education is not an option. It is going to be vital for new groups of immigrants and to evangelize our own Catholic people, some of whom didn’t go to Catholic school themselves.

The Catholic culture still has a lot to share with our culture today, of faith, of service, of unabashedly looking toward God to solve some of our problems with our help on this earth.

CNW: What are the challenges for the schools?

Sr. Paul: Catholicity is important. So is academic excellence. We always have had a fine reputation of scholarship. We need to find ways to be able to show that our students are well-prepared, and we know they are. We know what the statistics say for our students who stay in Catholic school, what their transition figures are for graduating from high school. It’s astounding how your chances (of graduating from high school) improve if you go to Catholic elementary school, especially for those in some of the ZIP codes needing the most social justice attention. We’ve proven to be terribly effective in getting kids to get that high school diploma.

Beyond that, we’ve had strong, strong college prep — that’s well known.

So we have internal challenges — both to be sure that we are what we say we are, and I think we are. Where we’re not, it’s time to address those things and move forward. The second piece of that, is a lot of times, we are what we say we are, but we’re struggling because of a simple thing that we can take care of eventually, and that’s money. Resources.

CNW: How can the money problem be solved?

Sr. Paul: We can find the resources. The city of Chicago and Cook and Lake counties are filled with generous, perceptive and caring Catholic people and non-Catholic people, who realize that the greatest gift to an area is the education of its children. If we can bring passion back to the way we speak of our schools, and to the need for our schools — where else are you going to get an investment that’s going to pay off like this? Parents cannot do this alone. We talk about parental sacrifice, and it is, but it’s also parental investment. But for a community, it’s also an investment. It’s making things holy and putting the garments of goodness on to go out and do the right work. We need to say, this is much more of a sure-thing than the stock market or any bonds or even your old CDs. We can give you value for your money, and we’ll prove it, within a Catholic school. Come walk through them. Come see them. Come experience them.

We have to look at ourselves internally and get ourselves lined up so we can tell that story with complete credibility and complete transparency, to be able to say the dollar you invest in the life of a child is going to be the best dollar you ever spent, and engage an entire Catholic community — not just those parishes that have schools — but everyone.

For the vibrancy of the city, and for Cook County and for Lake County, we need Catholic schools. Now is the time to engage people in these schools in a critical way, through the use of their time and their talent and their treasure.

CNW: How did we get to this point, where so many schools are struggling?

Sister Paul: Part of it is our attitude. If you could get people into a vibrant Catholic school which has to fight every day to survive financially, I think you could convince people that this is the investment we need to make. We don’t tell our story well, internally or externally. If priests and principals are on the same page about a school … ka-jing, through the ceiling. You just see it. Then the parents are on board, and you have active boards, you have investment, you have people outside the community investing, because they are seeing that these are live communities of service and learning.

That’s what it takes.

CNW: How can the Office for Catholic Schools help?

Sister Paul: We’ve done a lot of long-range planning, and the Genesis plan is an excellent blueprint. But it’s also overwhelming, taken in total, to do every piece of it. So a lot of our job as a Catholic schools office is to take a look at each school, take a look at each region, and say to them, what do you need and how can we help?

If it’s just money — I shouldn’t say “just” money – let’s work on getting the funds. If it’s more than money, if it’s something we need to look at in terms of leadership or the school culture or the Catholic identity or academics, then let’s address those things as well. It’s transparency and accountability.

Why are places closing? A lot of times you notice there’s no hue and cry until it comes out that, “Oh, this place might close.”

We take Catholic education so for granted, I can’t tell you. The time has passed for that. We need to be up front. We need to be a little bit more in people’s faces. We need to tell the story, we need to live the story, and find ways to see that this story continues in new and vibrant ways.

But no one’s going to close a school or send their kids to another school that’s planned unless they perceive it’s better. We have to create options, create vibrant options, for the teachers, for the parents, for the educational communities before we dare close a school. That’s a social justice issue for me.

CNW: How do you encourage principals and teachers?

Sister Paul: You’re really doing the only work that matters, in raising leaders for the future. Getting the best and the brightest to be our teachers. That’s why I’m visiting the colleges. We want the best and the brightest teaching our kids. It’s for the sake of the church, the mission of the church. We can’t be namby-pamby.

CNW: If you were talking to a parent, why would you tell them they should send their kids to Catholic school?

Sister Paul: I have had that conversation. Normally, when people will come to me, they’ll say something like, “My wife isn’t sure it’s worth the investment,” or “We have such a huge mortgage,” or “My public school down the block has this.” I say, “What are the most important things you want for your children? Name them for me.” Then all of a sudden — although Catholic schools are very strong technologically now — it’s not the newest computer. It’s the old-fashioned catechism: To know, love and serve God in this world and be happy with God in the next. Parents want their kids to be fundamentally good people, whole human beings, loving human beings, human beings who have a faith center. We can do that all week long. We can do it every day. Sometimes not perfectly. We need forgiveness. But we still have a much, much better chance. The research is out there: the more hopeful people, the more centered people, are the ones who have had Catholic education.