Elder Enrollment Strategy

UCArch said:
The closing of some of these parishes that seem to be doing fine could be devastating to the community.
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The plans they spell out seem pretty vague. I will believe it when I see it if they actually try to close Victory, Antoninus, or Lourdes for example. All good parishes/schools. Is 1 stronger than 3 or is 3 stronger than 1? It appears the Archdiocese thinks 1 is stronger than 3.

My thought is you combine 3 into 1, and you look strong for a couple years. Then, you gradually lose strength until your 1 is now equivalent to 1 of the 3 and you are now smaller. You almost need a complete turnover, because each 3 have their own identity and ways of doing things. The dissention trying to merge will be counterproductive and now you've reduced students and parishoners instead of growing.
 
ElderHSfan02 said:
My thought is you combine 3 into 1, and you look strong for a couple years. Then, you gradually lose strength until your 1 is now equivalent to 1 of the 3 and you are now smaller. You almost need a complete turnover, because each 3 have their own identity and ways of doing things. The dissention trying to merge will be counterproductive and now you've reduced students and parishoners instead of growing.
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*Cough* Mercy McAuley *Cough*
 
Just throwing this out there but is Mercy McAuley a fair comparison? From what I heard, before they decided to merge the schools, the Sisters of Mercy wanted out of education all together. The Archdiocese begged/requested them to keep one open so the Sisters of Mercy really aren't motivated in keeping the new school moving forward - just going through the motions.

If they do start consolidating Parrish's, you would hope they would do a better job then the Mercy & McAuley combination as this will be their life blood.
 
ElderHSfan02 said:
I think it is obvious why public school districts aggressively oppose this. It would crush their enrollment.
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Yes, some would be impacted but is that a bad thing? Are these failing schools worth saving? If they truly want what is best for the students/families then they need to bring real value or be eliminated.
 
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ElderHSfan02 said:
The plans they spell out seem pretty vague. I will believe it when I see it if they actually try to close Victory, Antoninus, or Lourdes for example. All good parishes/schools. Is 1 stronger than 3 or is 3 stronger than 1? It appears the Archdiocese thinks 1 is stronger than 3.

My thought is you combine 3 into 1, and you look strong for a couple years. Then, you gradually lose strength until your 1 is now equivalent to 1 of the 3 and you are now smaller. You almost need a complete turnover, because each 3 have their own identity and ways of doing things. The dissention trying to merge will be counterproductive and now you've reduced students and parishoners instead of growing.
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Agree - if they are assuming everyone will just move to the new school, that’s a bad assumption. It could absolutely hurt enrollment.

And if the sight chosen was St Dominic, people aren’t going to send their kids into the non growing part of Delhi. No offense to St Dominic, I’m sure it’s a fine school, but no one is spending their time in that area of Delhi.

I almost think it would make more sense to just take the savings from consolidation and just build a new school in a convenient area. The “new” factor would be a plus for some to not look elsewhere.

What’s unknown is the financial scorecard of some of the schools. They all seem to be doing fine, but who knows.
 
UCArch said:
I almost think it would make more sense to just take the savings from consolidation and just build a new school in a convenient area. The “new” factor would be a plus for some to not look elsewhere.

What’s unknown is the financial scorecard of some of the schools. They all seem to be doing fine, but who knows.
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The money for that will come from the parishoners. There is no tax levy to build brand new state of the art schools. Elder needed money from very wealthy alumni just to upgrade facilities. Seems like private schools have very large endowments, but not much money for operating expenses. Case in point the old Elder scoreboard with lightbulbs out.
 
The Archdiocese wouldn’t pony up some money for a new school in their own diocese? What actually do they even pay for?
 
If Victory and Dominic combined, I'm certain it would move to Victory. When I was there enrollment was over 900 and didn't have K,1,or 2 at that time.
 
ogealbhain said:
If Victory and Dominic combined, I'm certain it would move to Victory. When I was there enrollment was over 900 and didn't have K,1,or 2 at that time.
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Last I heard it's definitely less than that. More around 400 or so, but also that people were excited about the new pastor and the direction the parish/school seemed to be heading. Location-wise, Victory would make much, much more sense than Dominic. Safer, less busy road, bigger, almost isolated campus. Two gyms, multiple baseball fields, soccer and football field(s). Cops down the street keeping things slow-moving in the mornings and afternoons when school starts and lets out, too. Annoying to get stuck in, but nice to know people can't really be flying up and down Neeb at those times.
 
A lot of talk on here about which schools will close and combine...but I didn't read anywhere in the statement from the archdiocese that they intend to do this. They are planning on merging and closing parishes, not schools. Two different things in my view. They are addressing the lack of incoming priests and dwindling attendance at church...nothing to do with enrollment at schools.

I would imagine parishes can still merge but have the schools remain as their own entity.

Maybe I'm wrong??
 
SC10EHS15 said:
Last I heard it's definitely less than that. More around 400 or so, but also that people were excited about the new pastor and the direction the parish/school seemed to be heading. Location-wise, Victory would make much, much more sense than Dominic. Safer, less busy road, bigger, almost isolated campus. Two gyms, multiple baseball fields, soccer and football field(s). Cops down the street keeping things slow-moving in the mornings and afternoons when school starts and lets out, too. Annoying to get stuck in, but nice to know people can't really be flying up and down Neeb at those times.
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Well, I was there a long time ago. Yes, I understand it is much lower now. Fr. Ben is awesome. But, I would not be surprised if he's not popular with the Archdiocese.
 
UCArch said:
Does anyone know the enrollment max for each school? What buildings are currently even big enough to enable a consolidation?

St Dominic makes some sense from that perspective as it used to have a huge enrollment. Can Victory hypothetically take in 300 more students? Jude? Visitation?

I think Ignatius is already busting at the seems and Antoninus and Lourdes just don’t seem big enough to support whole other schools consolidating into them.
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OLV was near 800-900, in the early 2000s. They've since added Preschool and Kindergarten as their 1-8 grades have dropped. Not sure what their additional capacity looks like?
 
adselder09 said:
OLV was near 800-900, in the early 2000s. They've since added Preschool and Kindergarten as their 1-8 grades have dropped. Not sure what their additional capacity looks like?
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I couldn't find numbers on their school website. This link says 583 students k-8, who knows how accurate the website is.

Explore Our Lady Of Victory School in Cincinnati, OH

We're an independent nonprofit that provides parents with in-depth school quality information.
www.greatschools.org www.greatschools.org
 
adselder09 said:
I unfortunately didn't, but I spoke to him in late June and he made some comments about Dewine that made it pretty clear where he stood.
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Was pretty funny and he made a comment about Dewine talking everyday and saying nothing. Dewine actually sent a video response.
 
EHS 2001 said:
The legislation has been introduced, but it hasn't gone anywhere yet.

www.dispatch.com

Ohio Republicans want state to become second in U.S. to have universal school vouchers

Ohio would become the second state in the nation to let any student take a school voucher.
www.dispatch.com www.dispatch.com

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Interesting, I have a few questions & comments though.
1. How would local property taxes be affected for district funding?
2. Will private schools that are getting more taxpayer money have to follow the same rules as the public schools? Will private schools have to open their books 100% for the public to see? If the answer is no to these 2 questions, why not?
3. The article stated that overall voucher students perform worse in private schools than the "failing" district's average performance. This is verified by ODE, so why would more funding for vouchers help "failing" school districts if those students perform worse in "better" schools.

I actually love the idea of having the money following any student to any district/school. Let the market determine which schools survive and die, and I mean the true open market. All rules have to apply for every single school. All schools must be on an equal playing field, have the same report cards, accept all students, be ADA accessible, etc. People love and hate both private and public schools; however, there is no way to actually compare the two since they operate on completely different sets of rules and regulations. I don't think this will ever happen because the narrative is public schools are bad while private and charter schools are good. There are good and bad of each type of school, but we have such a skewed viewpoint because of unfair sets of rules in place.
 
cincifbfan said:
Interesting, I have a few questions & comments though.
1. How would local property taxes be affected for district funding?
2. Will private schools that are getting more taxpayer money have to follow the same rules as the public schools? Will private schools have to open their books 100% for the public to see? If the answer is no to these 2 questions, why not?
3. The article stated that overall voucher students perform worse in private schools than the "failing" district's average performance. This is verified by ODE, so why would more funding for vouchers help "failing" school districts if those students perform worse in "better" schools.

I actually love the idea of having the money following any student to any district/school. Let the market determine which schools survive and die, and I mean the true open market. All rules have to apply for every single school. All schools must be on an equal playing field, have the same report cards, accept all students, be ADA accessible, etc. People love and hate both private and public schools; however, there is no way to actually compare the two since they operate on completely different sets of rules and regulations. I don't think this will ever happen because the narrative is public schools are bad while private and charter schools are good. There are good and bad of each type of school, but we have such a skewed viewpoint because of unfair sets of rules in place.
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Spot on, and these questions are being asked upstate. Everyone wants school choice but it possibly could change some private school rules and mandates if you take taxpayer dollars.
 
?????? said:
Spot on, and these questions are being asked upstate. Everyone wants school choice but it possibly could change some private school rules and mandates if you take taxpayer dollars.
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Good, I'm glad they are being asked and hopefully they create a level playing field for once.

The taxes issue would be the biggest hurdle I would think. Why would people want to pay high taxes for certain districts if anyone can send their kid there. How would it be capped? Publics can't necessarily cap their buildings as it is now...... if there are more more students living in an area than it's capacity, they simply add more desks and get creative with some of the spaces until the locals vote a levy to add on/rebuild.
 
It seems like St Dominics is getting picked on. Before they "close/consolidate" St als, Catherines, Martins, Holy Family, Ressurection, Williams, would all be on the chopping block before Dominic in my opinion.
 
When you think about it, it’s kind of amazing this hasn’t happened already. There are just a ton of parishes in literally a 10 mile circle on the westside.

It’s also kind of sad knowing much of the area isn’t a destination for families anymore.
 
UCArch said:
When you think about it, it’s kind of amazing this hasn’t happened already. There are just a ton of parishes in literally a 10 mile circle on the westside.

It’s also kind of sad knowing much of the area isn’t a destination for families anymore.
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It just depends where you are at. I have a friend that recently listed his house in Cleves. He had like 20 offers on his home within 2 days. Most were families with kids from what he heard.
 
There is an overabundance of schools/parishes on the west side so if a few close/consolidate it wouldn't be a horrible thing.
 
UCArch said:
When you think about it, it’s kind of amazing this hasn’t happened already. There are just a ton of parishes in literally a 10 mile circle on the westside.

It’s also kind of sad knowing much of the area isn’t a destination for families anymore.
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It's probably a combination of a lack of new houses being built in those areas combined with an increase in renters/section 8 housing. I'm not saying all low income housing are bad neighbors, but it seems the westside was heavy hit with it. Another way to look at it is those that have moved to those areas do not practice Catholicism and/or do not want to attend a Catholic school.
 
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