Typically we have some very successful professionals on our Boards who want to help us become a better school. But often, they are quickly disillusioned because “they don’t do anything.”  Absent meaningful work, meetings can easily become sniper sessions where members become critical of administrative decisions. Toxicity results. Principals often dread Board meetings as a result. But that’s on us as school leaders. It’s our responsibility to bring forward meaningful work for our Boards, asking them to help us. We either “drive or get driven.”  So here are tasks we can ask our Boards ..read more

A few years back, Pope Francis said this to an audience of elementary and high school students: “The principle element of school is to learn to be magnanimous. What does it mean? To have a big heart, to have a great spirit; it means to have great ideals, the desire to do great things , to respond to that which God asks of us, and exactly this doing of daily things well, all of the daily acts, obligations, encounters with people; doing everyday small things with a big heart open to God and to others. It is important, therefore, to tend to human formation aimed at magnanimity. School not only e ..read more

Kudos to Mike Juhas, Superintendent of Catholic Schools of Pensacola, Florida, who may have shown us the best possible way to present our test scores to our communities. He tracked the Iowa test scores of the current 8th graders of his diocese from when they were first graders all the way through to 8th grade, comparing their “grade equivalencies” to the national averages each year (see his chart below). As they matriculate through, his students beat the national averages by wider and wider margins. In this one easy to understand graph, Mike makes a compelling case for the academic “value pro ..read more

The greatest professional blessing of my life is to have been mentored for 12 years by Dr. Tom Doyle—he as president, and me as a young principal of Montgomery Catholic High School. Among his many gifts, Tom became well known for his work with school boards, and was often asked to host workshops for dioceses around the country. He concluded each session with his “Six Commandments”—brilliant in their simplicity and wisdom: Boards Decide. The primary work of the Board is to make decisions—to vote, not to talk. Issues have been raised in previous meetings, they’ve been assigned to committees ..read more

Typically Catholic school students outperform the national averages on normed testing, but our math scores usually lag behind our reading scores. My theory on that is most of our elementary teachers have more aptitude and interest in ELA than Math. They do their due diligence teaching Math, but their passion and creativity are poured into what they are best at. When was the last time you saw a math problem or project hanging in our hallways? So as the new head of Pope John Paul II in Nashville in 2008, when I reviewed incoming placement test scores from tiny Sumner Academy in Gallatin, TN an ..read more

Boards which serve our schools sometimes misunderstand their role, believing they have an authority they may not actually have. This leads to enormous tension between boards, principals, pastors and dioceses. My mentor, Dr. Tom Doyle, used to say, “A clear understanding of who makes which set of decisions is an absolute pre-requisite for organizations to function well.” This is certainly the case with Boards, as there are different types of Boards, each with a different scope of authority. It’s important to understand which type our schools are in! There are three: A “Board of Trustees” (B ..read more

A while back I visited a large parish in our diocese that had just completed construction of a new sanctuary. It was midafternoon on a sunny day, and the light poured through the stained glass windows, creating a serene, prayerful worship space, breath-taking in its beauty.Equally striking to me was how quiet things were. There was no one in the Church or chapel, just a few parish workers in the offices. It was midweek, and since the parish did not have a school, the gym was empty, as were the parish classrooms. There were no cars in the parking lot. I drove back to my parish and school and ..read more

In my previous high school there was a 500 yard straight-away from our back student parking lot to the front street. That was just too much temptation for teenage boys! After school each day, one or two would rev up their cars and barrel down the straightaway.I spoke with the students about it at assembly. Didn’t matter. The same kids who followed the rules kept doing so. The ones who didn’t, didn’t. So I placed speed limit signs down the stretch. They were ignored. Then I posted teachers after school down the drive, who reported transgressors. That made a dent, but only if the teachers wer ..read more

The “salary chart” based on years of experience virtually guarantees we underpay our best teachers and overpay others. We can’t afford to do either. So here are three ideas worth exploring: —Broad salary bands—Create “benchmarks” based on years of experience, but leave a lot of flexibility on either side of that benchmark. So for example, the benchmark for a starting teacher might be 50k, plus or minus 5k, whereas the five year benchmark might be 55k, +/- 5k, the ten year mark 60, +/- 5k, up to the 20 year mark of 70k. The scale depends on the market and the school’s resources. But I believ ..read more

We have operated our schools with certain assumptions that I believe no longer help us—indeed, holding onto them may even be hurting us.  Here are a five, with brief comments: “Our tuitions should be low, consistent with the gospel mandate to protect the least among us.” A noble sentiment, but we have a competing obligation to pay our teachers a just wage, and if we don’t, we won’t be able to sustain their long term commitment, to the detriment of our mission and our competitiveness. Better to aim our tuitions at mid-market rates and then assist our most vulnerable families with fina ..read more