Local priest helps develop strategic plan for schools

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
January 27, 2005

Father Paul-Louis Arts, rector of the Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City, was among a select group of 106 participants who met at the American Airlines Conference Center in Dallas Jan. 13-17 for an interdepartmental planning convocation to draft a strategic plan for the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA).

"It was wonderful to be part of the process - people from all over the country coming together," said Father Arts. "We all have a great interest in Catholic education, total Catholic education."

He explained that they met in small groups to establish goals and develop strategies. Father Arts is a member of NCEA's school board, board of directors. NCEA has other boards such as one for elementary schools, secondary schools, administrators, religious education and seminaries.

The planning meeting was another major event in the association's centennial observance, which began in 2004. Prior to its centennial year, NCEA commissioned reflection papers by prominent Catholic educators. In 2003, dioceses and regional organizations conducted more than 100 meetings to collect comments from over 15,000 Catholic educators.

Father Arts pointed out that information collected from the local, grassroots levels was available in January 2004 when a larger group of 250 participants met in Washington D.C. At that meeting, they drafted a strategic vision for the future of Catholic education in the United States. Father Arts had also participated in that meeting.

At the 2004 January meeting, the group drafted a vision statement that was then ratified by members of the association's annual convention in Boston in April.

"In Dallas this year, the members of the boards and committees sat down and worked out the goals and strategies for the strategic vision from last year," said Father Arts, who added that he became involved in the national board after serving as president of the diocesan school board. "This is for total Catholic education. Not only Catholic schools, but also religious education programs and seminaries are affiliated with NCEA."

He pointed out that last year, they had identified three elements in the vision statement - identity, leadership and engagement. Identity: How to proclaim and continue the Catholic identity of schools and religious education programs. Leadership: Where to seek and how to train the administrators, teachers and catechetical leaders of tomorrow. Engagement: How Catholic schools and programs interact with other segments of society.

"What we did this year was to form a strategic plan from the rather extensive vision that we developed last year," said Father Arts. Much of their work centered on "how to" achieve the desired goals. They also worked to establish measurable signs to know when the goals are achieved.

Participants in the Dallas meeting will have the chance to review and refine the strategic planning document before it is presented for the approval of the NCEA board of directors at the 2005 annual convention in Philadelphia in March.

Ultimately, he said the strategic plan is designed to help educators look at what they need to do to ensure a quality total Catholic education program. This plan will be available to schools and will serve as a guide to help them develop such things as stronger school boards.

He pointed out that NCEA represents more than 200,000 educators and 7.6 million students in all levels of Catholic education.

"We are there as an association to help people develop better schools," said Father Arts.