Carroll area Catholic schools unify into one school system

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
Posted November 28, 2002

CARROLL - Major decisions were reached Nov. 20 at a Kuemper Catholic School System (KCSS) Corporate Board meeting bringing together the Catholic school students into a unified school system.

After considering various options on school facilities and looking over enrollment and financial figures, the board decided to close the buildings at Christ the King School of Breda/Mount Carmel and Holy Trinity School of Templeton/Halbur at the end of the school year. Several months ago Holy Cross School in Vail had decided to close. This will mean that all students will attend classes in Carroll.

Thirteen parishes make up the Kuemper Catholic School System. These parishes include Holy Spirit and St. Lawrence Parishes in Carroll, St. Bernard's Breda, St. Mary's Willey, St. Joseph's Dedham, Sacred Heart Templeton, Holy Angels Roselle, St. Augustine's Halbur, St. Anne's Vail, St. John's Arcadia, St. Francis Maple River, Our Lady of Mount Carmel of Mount Carmel and Holy Family Lidderdale.

These parishes have been unified for many years at the secondary level, Kuemper High School.

Father Craig Collison, president of Kuemper Catholic Schools, said, "What we need to keep in mind is the fact that we are looking at the larger picture all of the time. I know what it is like and what it feels like to have a school closed that I went to and believed in very much, but we have to keep in mind the larger picture as to why we were even looking at that potential situation in the first place - to continue to provide a quality Catholic education for everyone in the area."

By unifying the school system, he noted, Catholic education in the Carroll area will become stronger.

The KCSS board consists of one lay person from each of the 13 parishes and eight priests who serve as pastors at one or more of the parishes.

"It is important that all members of the 13 parishes that do make up the Kuemper corporation get behind the decision and keep in mind that big picture is a plan for the future and will ensure quality Catholic education will be available in all of the Carroll County area for our young people," said Father Collison.

Ken Behrens, president of the KCSS board and representative of Templeton, described it as a very difficult and emotional decision.

"There is a lot of emotion involved in closing the school and the people involved in the outlying areas were hopeful that those centers could remain open. It was decided by the board, for a number of reasons, that it couldn't happen," he said.

For some parents, Behrens acknowledged that it may take time for them to understand and accept the decision.

Ultimately, he said, the desired outcome of the unification board's decisions would be to preserve Catholic education in the Carroll County area.

"I went through the Catholic grade school in Templeton and through Kuemper. My wife went through Halbur and Kuemper. We want Catholic education to continue for our children and grandchildren," said Behrens, whose children were educated in Templeton and then at Kuemper.

Nadine Hoffman, a member of the board from Dedham, has gone through school closures at Dedham and Willey. With that in mind, she is aware that school closings can be a very emotional time.

"Ours was a little different scenario because our school in Dedham was technically condemned," noted Hoffman. "We didn't have a choice." What made the present decision difficult, she explained, was that the buildings were not in bad shape but the student numbers were not there.

In the end, she said the children bounce back quickly after they go to a new school. Hoffman acknowledged that such a change is usually harder on the parents because of the sentimental feelings they have for a school. Hoffman's own daughter recently commented that the move into the Carroll grade school made it easier on her in the long run because she got to know the other students earlier on before the transition into high school.

"This was something that was inevitable," said Father James Smith, pastor at St. Bernard Parish in Breda concerning the school closures.

He pointed out that Holy Trinity School of Templeton/Halbur was looking at about 35 students next year for K-4 and Christ the King School of Breda/Mount Carmel was expected to have a maximum of 55 students in K-4.

"It was almost like stepping off of a cliff. We had 14, 15 or 16 students - a responsible number for one teacher - and then bam, it was down to about five or six. Looking at the baptisms, counting the children that are out there and seeing their history of attendance at school, we will not see classes of over six or seven down the road," said Father Smith. "You could drag it out for a year or two, but is that good stewardship?"

The Breda pastor said that if Catholic education was to be saved in the area, they had to come together.

"It's sad and it hurts, but it is a matter of reality. It is a sign of what is happening out here in the country. We aren't the only ones," stressed Father Smith. "It's just the number of young families are not here."

Kevin Vickery, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Sioux City, agreed that in many ways it was a matter of good parish stewardship.

He pointed out that Catholic education should be seen as the ministry that ensures active lifelong participation in parish life.

"The schools are there to ensure that our parishes live in perpetuity, but when the schools become such a financial burden then what we actually find is that people have that turned around," said Vickery. "The school becomes the focus and the parish takes a secondary stand. Parishes are the center of our Catholic faith community and the schools are ministries of those parishes."

Father James McCormick, pastor at Holy Spirit Parish in Carroll, said, "We have just gone through a very difficult decision. There is a lot of pain, especially for the people who have fought for so many years for their schools. We just hope that the unification will eventually be wonderful for everyone."

Father Patrick Walsh, president of Fort Dodge Catholic Schools that have also gone through a unification process, acknowledged that it is a challenge for everyone involved because it did involve change.

"Whether people like to admit it or not, most people do not like change so it is hard work," he said. "The thing you have to focus on is why we are doing this and what is it we want to accomplish when we get through it? The answer to both of those questions is that we want to have a good, strong school system for our children and we want to make sure there is some future in what we are doing."

Sometimes the best way to prepare for the future, he added, was to make changes. Changes made as a result of the unification process in Fort Dodge have generated a new enthusiasm for the school on the part of the parents, and students are happy to be a part of the system.

Now that the unification board in Carroll has determined the attendance centers, the board and school officials can move forward with decisions relating to curriculum, teaching staff and the administrative team. They will soon begin a search for a superintendent of the Kuemper Catholic School System.

The individual parishes will decide what to do with the school buildings.