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Innovation, generosity can keep Florida’s Catholic schools strongPosted: 07.03.09 The economic recession is squeezing public and private schools alike. Public school systems around the state have cut budgets for the 2009-2010 school year, many laying off teachers and closing schools. The Florida Legislature also offered public schools the option of temporarily increasing property taxes by 25 cents per $1,000 of taxable value to further close budget gaps and help the schools make it through the economic hard times. Many of the state’s 67 county school districts were considering the offer in late June, and some have accepted it. With continued support from benefactors and parents, the future of Florida’s Catholic schools can be bright. Catholic schools, of course, don’t have the option of raising taxes. And, with so many families feeling the economic pinch themselves, raising tuition is not a good alternative either. But Catholic school leaders around that state are adamant they will jeopardize neither excellent academics nor the formation in faith of the state’s next generation of Christ’s disciples. So they’ve looked for innovative ways to save money and generate additional income to keep the schools viable through the end of the recession and beyond. For example, on the savings side, in the Diocese of Venice the director of education, Dr. Kathleen Schwartz, said the principals have been working together on cost-efficient practices such as doing more group purchasing and, in some cases, sharing personnel to the best advantage. On the revenue side, some schools are getting creative about fundraising, rethinking the way the way it’s always been done. For instance, Dr. Michael Coury, the new president of Pope John Paul II High School in Boca Raton in the Diocese of Palm Beach, said the school’s annual benefit dinner/auction/raffle will be moved from its usual hotel to the school’s campus and will become the major fundraiser for the year. “We will discard the black-tie format in lieu of something more casual and, hopefully, more appealing and affordable to a larger audience,” Coury said. Also, across the state, Catholic school leaders and supporters have boosted efforts to provide tuition assistance to individual families, both through official school programs and outside scholarships from alumni associations, Knights of Columbus councils and other benefactors. Officials report that generally enrollment will be down in most of the state’s schools this fall despite the comprehensive response to the recession. It’s unclear, though, how much of the decline will be attributable to the bad economy and how much will be the continuation of a downtrend in both public and Catholic school enrollment in Florida that started after the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. The theory is that high living costs associated with insurance premiums and property values drove some families with school-age children from the state and prevented others from moving in. A handful of Catholic schools in the state closed in Florida at the end of the last two school years, with the biggest impact felt in Miami with the closing of seven schools this year and one last year. Federal education officials predict, though, that population trend will be short-lived, and that public school enrollment in the state will end up increasing by 30 percent between 2005 and 2017. James Herzog, the Florida Catholic Conference’s education expert, expects the increase to be mirrored in Catholic schools, just as the decline has been. So the challenges facing Catholic schools in Florida seem likely to change over the next decade. But, by their strategic response to both the recession and the enrollment decline that preceded it, Florida’s Catholic school leaders have proved their ability to view challenges as opportunities. With continued support from benefactors and parents, the future of Florida’s Catholic schools can be bright.
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