The letters are starting to come in

While a letter sent home this week stated that acceptance letters would start being sent out on Monday, March 24th, it appears that rejection letters may be coming sooner.

A posting on a private group message board for Holy Trinity school from Thursday March 20th states the following:

One of our families already received a rejection letter from St.Rita's today. Their child is devastated. I'm not comfortable sayingwho they are, but I thought you all should know.

Has anyone else received a letter (good or bad)?

Church Official Addresses

From "Citizens for a Decent Community"

If you have taken steps to resolve your concerns with your Priest or Bishop, but to no avail, you should bring the matter to the attention of those Church Officials responsible for the particular concern that you have. Your correspondence with them should be logical, factual, documented and most of all charitable:

Appointment and Conduct of Bishops:
Cardinal Francis Arrinze (Your Eminence)
Prefect, COngregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments
Piazza Pio XII, 10
00193 Vatican City
Telephone: 011 390-6-6988-4217

Matters Affecting Education:
Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski (Your Eminence)
Prefect, Congregation for Catholic Education and SEinaries
Piazza Pio XII, 3
00193 Vatican City
Telephone: 011-390-6-6988-4156

Matters Affecting Catechetics:
Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos (Your Eminence)
Piazza Pio XII, 3
00193 Vatican City
Telephone: 011 390-6-6988-4136

Liturgical Abuses:
Cardinal Francis Arrinze (Your Eminence)
Prefect, Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments
Piazza Pio XII, 10
00193 Vatican City
Telephone: 011 390-6-6988-4368

Cardinal Edward M. Egan (Your Excellency)
Archbishop of New York
1011 First Avenue
New York, New York 10022
Telephone: (212) 371-1000

Liturgical Matters in the Diocese
Dennis Pouse, Conference of Bishops in New York State
465 State Street
Albany, NY 12203-1004
Telephone: (518) 434-6195
E-Mail: info@nyscatholicconference.org
Web Site: www.NYSCatholicConference.org

Let's Show Our Commitment to the Mission of Catholic Schools:

Most of us will agree that our children have decent alternatives for their education. That is not true for the WIN students. If they can't find a place in this new system, they are going to be forced to walk through dangerous neighborhoods to under-performing schools.

These families are expected to pay registration and financial aid application fees before the Diocese will even tell them if financial aid is available. That is money they need for necessities for their families that they cannot afford to lose.

If you are interested in giving them "Nothing to Lose", please consider donating money to one of the WIN schools listed below with a letter designating that it is to be used for registration fees or past-due tuition. Any amount will help. It would show these families that we are not abandoning them in our efforts to keep our own schools open. In addition, it might force the Diocese to set up a financial aid endowment to continue this important mission of our Church.

Mrs. Susan Sax
Corpus Christi School
546 Oxford St.
Rochester, NY 14607-3297

Sister Mary Smith, SSND
St. Boniface School
15 Whalin St.
Rochester, NY 14620-1399

Mrs. Mary Ellen Wagner
Holy Family School
899 Jay St.
Rochester, NY 14611-1219

Mrs. Olena Lylak
St. Monica School
841 Genesee St.
Rochester, NY 14611-3838

Mrs. Tracy Nadler
St. Andrew School
901 Portland Ave.
Rochester, NY 14621-4194

Mrs. Kathleen Dougherty
Cathedral School @ Holy Rosary
420 Lexington Ave
Rochester, NY 14613-1997

Presentation by Good Shephard School

The presentation to the Diocese by Good Shephard School is included in the Important Files section for your information. Or follow the link here

New Compilation Site.

Check out this site.

It is a blog put together by Mike McDougall of Good Shepherd School as an an ongoing compilation of news reports, etc. from the schools debacle. Very nicely done!

**UPDATED** Rally organized in conjunction with many of the closed schools

Rally planned for Friday afternoon, 3:30pm or thereafter at SACRED HEART CATHEDRAL, at 296 Flower City Park

We were given the okay from the City and the Police Department. You can park across from the Cathedral, however, if you are asked to move, which they doubt, then just calmly move it. Car pool if possible.

Let's keep it prayerful and stay positive.

We certainly want to be heard and represent our view. Let's endeavor to do it in a Christian way. Remember we are bringing our children and should be role models for them.

Picket will continue through the dinner and news hours. Several news outlets have already picked up on this.

Make some VISIBLE, CLEVER signs - "Let us help ourselves", "We demand answers", etc.

There has been extremely enthusiastic agreement so far from all of the schools involved.

Can someone post a link to making a good picket sign??

BRING YOUR CHILDREN!!!!!! In uniform, of course - have older kids in Catholic Schools? BRING THEM TOO - invite anyone,everyone you know.

We have nothing to lose now, they already took away our schools!

Moving Forward... and a big THANK YOU!!!

As suggested in a comment below, people feel free to comment here on your impressions of schools you have visited. This may help other parents in selecting schools to visit, or be a sounding board for those who are undecided.

I would also like to personally thank all of you for the incredible work you have done over these short few weeks. Please also comment here and let all of the committee members and presenters know your thanks (please, name people!!!!!).

I think we all know that we put together the best presentation that we could have. The fact that NO changes were made shows that the effort was futile from the start, and no one needs to feel that we could have done better.

Bishop sticks with original plan. All 13 schools remain closed.

http://www.rochesterdandc.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080212/NEWS01/80212013

http://www.rnews.com/Story_2004.cfm?ID=58215&rnews_story_type=18&category=10

Is Today the Day????

It seems that today is the day that the Diocese will announce their decision.. I will post something as soon as I hear anything. E-mail me if you hear anything!!!!

Wham 1180 is also expecting the results today:
http://www.wham1180.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=122742&article=3266278

Another Report from the Meeting

From Bernadette Lynch, who was present at the meeting.

Marty Swenson, John Gantert, Fr. Tim Horan, Linda Pizzo, Terri Meechan, Joanne Knorr, Mary Santos and Bernadette Lynch from St. Margaret Mary School met with Diocesan representatives on Thursday at the school to present our plan -- an affiliated school which would create a partnership among the school, the parish, and the Diocese. Present from the Diocese were Sr. Janice Morgan, interim superintendent of Monroe County Catholic Schools, Fr. Joseph Hart, Vicar General and Moderator, Lisa Passero, Chief Financial Officer, Doug Mandelaro, Director of Stewardship and Communication, and Patricia Jones, Assistant Superintendent of Monroe County Catholic Schools.

Overall the general feeling of the group after the meeting was very positive. All Diocesan representatives listened attentively to our plan. There were few questions at the end; mostly points of clarification. We took this as a positive sign as well.

The Diocesan representatives told us that there were two remaining meetings on Friday (Holy Cross and St. John's in Spencerport). After those meetings, they were going to review all the plans, present the information to the Bishop (he has been kept informed all along) and plan to make a decision early next week. They are hoping to have a final decision on Tuesday as registration begins on Wednesday. Again, this was looked upon in a positive light as we believe the Diocese is seriously considering the plans. Sr. Janice stated that many ideas were presented that had never even been considered before.

Other schools meeting with Diocesan officials were St. John of Rochester (Fairport), Holy Trinity, Good Shepherd, and the city WIN schools (met as a group).

The St. Margaret Mary School representatives appreciated all the support and prayers that occurred during the meeting time. Whatever the Diocesan decision may be, we can all be proud of the extraordinary effort that went into our plan. We, without a doubt, put our best foot forward. Let's keep praying and hoping that we will hear something positive on Tuesday!

A Report on the Presentation to the Diocese

Linny Evans sent this along, so I thought I'd share it.

The meeting with the Diocese on Thursday went as well as we could have hoped for. Five representatives came from the Diocese; Father Hart, Sr. Janice Morgan (interim superintendent), Lisa Passero (CFO), Patricia Jones (assistant superintendent), and Doug Mandelaro (Diocesan spokesperson).

Our presentation focused on becoming an affiliate school and how we could be a benefit to the Diocese. The financial implications of this proposal were presented in a clear and thorough manner. The Diocesan representatives seemed to be listening in an open manner. The questions they asked at the end were thoughtful and showed that they heard what we had presented. They seemed to be impressed with our technology program and how it is integrated and applied on a daily basis by all children. Father Tim's piece of the presentation was very powerful and extremely supportive of our school. He made it very clear that St Margaret Mary school has the complete and full support from the parish, in all aspects, including financial. Sr. Janice said that we should hear by the early part of next week and that they were impressed with the many good ideas from several of the schools.

The presentation would not have happened without the many hours of hard work by so many people. Everyone in our community contributed to this presentation: phone calls, research, pledges, crunching numbers and prayer. And it showed. This was absolutely the best presentation we could have given.

Thank you, Linny, for providing us with this summary.. and a big thanks to everyone who worked to get this done.

Today is THE DAY!

Today at 3:00 PM our team will be presenting to the Diocese on keeping our school opened.

A note came home from Mr Swenson yesterday. Here is a part of that letter:

"There is a very important way, however, that you can help tomorrow afternoon. Many are planning to gathter at Church at 3:00 pm to pray together for our school. Please, if you can, join this prayer group or simply pause where you are - at work, at home, and offer a prayer for the success of our committee's presentation."

Meeting Tonight!

Tonight at 6:30 is the next meeting to collect and cosolidate ideas and thoughts from the subcommittees and get organized for the meeting with the Diocese on Thursday.

6:30 at SMM School

Can Catholic Schools Survive?

An article in the Rochester City Newspaper questions the long term viability of even the remaining 11 schools in the Diocesan school system. It's interesting reading.

Click here for the article

Our Documents Are Online...

Check out the "Important Documents" link on the left hand side of the page (below the "Blog Archive"). There are links to the meeting minutes from the two group meetings, along with the marketing PowerPoint presentation put together by the R.I.T. students. They are there in their native Microsoft formats. I hope to have them up in Adobe Acrobat format (PDF) soon, so those without the Microsoft Suite can view them also.

*** UPDATE: PDFs are now uploaded. Thanks to Jim Stack! ***

A Quick, Unscientific Poll.

I added a quick poll to the bottom of the page on the left. After reading the minutes from Tuesday's meeting I saw the idea of current students paying a higher tuition for a year or two to keep the school in the black while the student population is increasing. So I thought that I would throw that idea out and see what the masses think. Scroll down and give you opinion to our unscientific poll.

Meeting Tonight!

Tonight, Tuesday January 29th, there will be a School Advisory Committee (SAC) meeting in the teachers lounge. ALL are invited to attend. Please bring your ideas after digesting last weeks' meeting. Let's keep the momentum going!

Bishop's letter in the Rochester D&C...

Bishop Matthew Clark was a guest essayist in the Rochester D&C yesterday, with an article entitled "Closing 13 schools is the way to save the others, cut tuition".

Read the article here.

Monroe County Catholic Schools Open House Schedule..

The schedule for elementary school open houses is on the Diocesan web page.

No need to go looking, here is a link

Catholic Alternatives

Since most of the information we have and will continue to receive will be from the Diocese and about other Diocesan Schools, I thought I would try to collect up some information on the non-diocesan schools.

Archangel School: Open houses will be held at Archangel School, 95 Stanton Lane, Irondequoit, from 10 a.m. to noon, Tuesday 2/7 and Thursday 2/9, as well as from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Feb. 7. For more information, call the school at (585) 426-5990. I can't find a website for the school, but there is a D&C guest essay here.

Nazareth Hall Elementary: There are "prospective family" meetings February 7th (7:00 PM)and 12th (6:00 PM). For more information, see their website.

One Heart, One Voice

You may have seen Andrea Colaruotolo O'Neill, a parent from Saint John's of Rochester in Fairport, on the news over the last week. Well, Andrea is starting to organize a single protest place for all displaced families to work together. A website with a petition, a rally, a press conference, a vigil, a massive prayer service, a meeting at the convention center, etc.

Use the Comments link below to post any ideas you may have.

(By the way, click here for one of Andrea's interviews)

SMM Teachers featured in article about job loss

Channel 10 did a story about the 197 teachers who will be out of jobs come June. The article prominently features Saint Margaret Mary School Teachers Joanne Knorr and Tricia Sadler.

Click here for the story

What do you want here?

So far, I have been consolidating media reports and such that I can find from around the web into this blog.

What else do you want to do here? Do we want to use this as a sounding board for ideas for our plan to the Diocese? Want to post minutes from our meetings? In addition, I can add Google Ads down the right side of this blog to try to raise a little money. Click the Comments link below and let me know what you think. The more input and feedback we can get here, the better tool we can make this for everyone.

Bob Lonsberry's Video blog..

Bob Lonsberry, local conservative radio talk-show host, has a great Bobcast on the Wham 1180 website. Check out his Bobcast below.

Click here for the video

Vigil at Saint John's of Fairport

Video at Channel 13 Site, from Wednesday 11/23, 11:00 PM news :
Click here for the video

At the end of the vidoe, our Meeting at SMM School is also mentioned.

Doug Mandelaro, Diocese spokesman, wants to meet?

From the WHAM 1180 Article:
Click here for the article

The Rochester Catholic Diocese says it wants to hear from people who might be affected by the recent announcement that 13 Catholic schools in Monroe County will be closing. The Diocese is putting together a team of its top officials, and it hopes to meet with smaller groups like principals, pastors, and parish parent representatives. Diocese spokesman Doug Mandelaro says it's gotten a number of proposals from parishes about ways to save their school. He says, "whole purpose here is to hear them out, see if these plans are viable, no guarantees, but we obviously want to hear these proposals and ideas." Mandelaro says this has been an incredibly painful situation for people. He says Bishop Matthew Clark knows what they are going through. Meantime, it's not known, at this point, whether Bishop Clark will appear at any of these meetings.

Diocesan Press Release..

Here is the actual press release from the diocese on the task for findings. For what it's worth.

Click for Press Release at DOR Website

First 'Parents of SMM School' Meeting

Tonight, Mr. Marty Swenson, Principal, held a meeting for parents interested in submitting a plan to the Diocese of Rochester to keep Saint Margaret Mary School opened. There was a lot of emotion tonight, as it was one of the first times for many of us parents to really speak out. Ideas were taken for how to develop the plan (I hope to post them here, if anyone wants to e-mail them to me). Next meeting is the SAC Meeting, Tuesday, January 29th at 6:30 PM in the teachers lounge.

If anyone has items they would like to post here, or if you would like to be a blog author here, shoot me an e-mail. Let's get as much information as we can up here

Diocese Officials Speak..

Video and Article on the Channel 10 website:
Click here for the article and video

"I feel it's the best we could do," said Vicar General Joseph Hart while sitting in the Bishop's office at the Diocese.

"We took the data and made the best choices we could," said Hart.

Father Hart and Chief Financial Officer for the Diocese Lisa Passero spoke out Wednesday after five days of major criticism from the community.

It's the first time the Diocese took questions after Bishop Matthew Clark announced the closure of 13 Catholic schools in Monroe County.

"The decision on the specific schools involved a huge amount of detail," said Passero.

She says the Task Force considered the cost per student, enrollment, facility and location.

"It was not an easy process they struggled with these decisions," said Passero. "It was really a balancing act of these factors."

Here's a breakdown of the savings to the Diocese: It will save $11 million in expenses, but $8 million in revenue will be lost. That amounts to a net savings of $3 million. Passero says some of that money will be used to help displaced faculty and staff.

"We will do everything we can to help faculty and staff find positions," said Passero. The Diocese is also offering continued health coverage.

And we confirmed the decision to close the 13 schools is final.

They will not be run by the Monroe County Catholic Schools again.

However, there is a 'but.'

"If people have a plan that seems viable we'll be more than willing both to listen and to explore that," said Hart.