Catholic School Board Approves $8.5 Million Strategic Plan in Divided Vote
By Andrew Wind, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa
Feb. 16–WATERLOO — Cedar Valley Catholic Schools’ $8.5 million strategic plan and capital campaign were approved Thursday, but the Board of Education split over building a consolidated middle school.
The board voted 8-4 in favor of a wide-ranging plan that includes a $6.1 million school. The decision came at the end of a 2.5 hour meeting that filled Sacred Heart Church’s O’Hagen Hall. Eight audience members spoke in favor of the plan while another seven voiced concerns.
Board members Anne Sergeant, Jim Moeller, Russ Heiple and the Rev. Denny Juhl voted against the plan. Much of their concern focused on how building a new school would strain the system’s ability to keep middle school tuition affordable and boost teacher pay.
“I’m extremely concerned that we are putting a building first and foremost ahead of our staff and our students,” said Sergeant.
Juhl likes the middle school idea but fears anticipated tuition increases would put the system on the “slippery slope” to making Catholic education unaffordable for many.
“I think we’re in the process of excluding low-income and poor families,” he said.
Those favoring the new school expressed optimism it would attract and retain families, becoming a rallying point in the community.
“We cannot sit idly by and continue to do things the same way, because if it was working we’d already be growing,” said board member Donna O’Brien.
“I’ve got a real concern that if we don’t do this,” said board President Tim Luce, “there’s not going to be communitywide support when we do building improvements at individual schools.”
Under the plan, grades six through eight at three Waterloo primary schools would merge into a single facility to be built next to Columbus High. The middle school emerged as the plan’s centerpiece after a larger list of recommendations unveiled in December 2005 was pared down through a feasibility study.
The 45,000-square-foot, two-story middle school accounts for the vast majority of the $8.5 million strategic plan. The plan also calls for a $1 million endowment, $1 million in building upgrades at Columbus and $400,000 in program changes at the elementary schools.
The endowment, designed to provide interest income without using principal funds, will help with tuition and cost containment. Other initiatives include a curriculum/staff development director position, a teacher mentoring program, technology upgrades, age-appropriate leadership curriculum and leadership training for staff.
Columbus would renovate the locker, band and choir rooms and improve the entryway, driveway, parking lot and outdoor lighting. A classroom would be equipped with capabilities equivalent to the Iowa Communications Network.
A full-time campus minister would be added to work with middle and high school students, replacing Columbus’ part-time position.
The elementary schools would implement a character education program, increase building safety and security, create a summer school program, attain high level accreditation for early childhood programs, adjust class sizes and make fine arts technology purchases.
Archdiocese approval needed
A separate vote Thursday on the endowment and Columbus upgrades was approved unanimously. That allowed participation by three board members representing St. Patrick’s School, which feeds into Columbus but is not part of the CVCS system at the primary level. A third unanimous vote by the board authorized Cosgriff Co. of Omaha, Neb., to head up the $8 million capital campaign to finance the plans.
However, the fundraising effort cannot move forward until the Archdiocese of Dubuque’s Board of Education approves the action.
“In the next two to three months we would have these approvals, at the longest period of time,” said Cathy Walz, CVCS’ director of education. If everything moves forward, she expects the campaign to be kicked off by this fall.
Several teachers were among those at the meeting who expressed support for the middle school plan.
“I believe we need to stay competitive with the public schools,” said Christine Juhl of Blessed Sacrament School. The new building would allow staff to provide an interdisciplinary structure to the school day, which she called a “key component” to a true middle school.
“They no longer need the rules and schedule of K-5 students, but they’re not ready to be with high school students,” said Sheila Miller, another Blessed Sacrament teacher, of middle schoolers.
But Don Johnston, chairman of the CVCS finance committee, said building a single middle school ignores a decline in enrollment that occurred after Columbus opened as a consolidated high school.
He traced the drop through the decades from a high of 1,241 students in the fall of 1965 to 317 last fall. The same thing has begun happening in the primary grades, which had 1,837 students in the fall of 1992 and now have 795.
“Building a new middle school for 400 students, as I see it, will just be creating another building that will be underutilized,” said Johnston. “Spending $6 million on this is wrong.”
Officials have said tuition would be higher at the middle school than the elementaries and that it could be about $1,800 when the building opens. That’s $350 higher than primary school tuition will be next fall.
Former board member Brian Hayes raised concerns about the planned endowment. He believes fundraising should be equally divided between the endowment and “bricks and mortar” purposes.
“In my mind, the endowment is grossly inadequate,” he said. “Once again, our system will be run on the backs of our teachers.”
Contact Andrew Wind at (319) 291-1507 or andrew.wind@wcfcourier.com.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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