Brooklyn Catholic schools to reopen as academies

by Tom Gallagher on Jun. 24, 2009

It seems that a more enlightened school structure has been identified in the Brooklyn diocese."The conversion of a parochial school into an academy separates pastoral, educational and management roles. The parish priest would still oversee the spiritual needs and religious portion of curriculum, while the principal tends to 'teacher development' and a Board of Directors administers the school."

"In five years, every Catholic school in the diocese will be an academy," said Father Kieran E. Harrington, spokesperson. "One of the deficiencies of the current system is that we need to bring more [people] with various expertise into the schools."

This structural change seems to make sense and reflects the proper roles and gifts of priests, educators and interested and capable lay people.

I mentioned in a previous blog that the Holy Trinity as a governing paradigm seems to make the most sense, as it does in this case. Couldn't this same model work in parishes?

Congratulations to all who divined this plan.

No. Not really. This is

Submitted by PJC (not verified) on Jun. 24, 2009.

No. Not really. This is what happens http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=30734

http://www.notredameva.org/about-history.shtml

They must also change their name since it stopped being a Catholic school as of the end of this school year.

I beg to differ with PJC over

Submitted by Joe Mann (not verified) on May. 24, 2011.

I beg to differ with PJC over his example. The Catholic academies of the Diocese of Brooklyn will each have two boards, one firmly in the control of the bishop. Please see this document
http://dioceseofbrooklyn.org/default_article.aspx?id=5671

and
http://dioceseofbrooklyn.org/uploadedFiles/Education_and_Faith_Formation...

and there are somewhere more specifics on the two-tier governance. I my shorthand, the lay board (the secondary board) will be required to find the money, find the students, and find the teachers. The supervisory board is clearly under the control of the diocese, to keep the schools Catholic, but maybe also to keep the schools in Church possession. I wonder whether cash will flow from the schools to the church authorities instead of the church supporting the schools.

Post new comment

NCR Comment code:

  1. Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger.
  2. Use appropriate language. Avoid vulgarities and slurs.
  3. Keep to the point. Deliberate digressions don't aid the discussion.

For more detailed guidelines, visit our User Guidelines page.

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
(if you have one; if not, leave this blank)
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <font> <swf> <swf list>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • You may use <swf file="song.mp3"> to display Flash files inline

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This is to prove you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.