ARCHDIOCESE POSTPONES CHANGES TO CATHOLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS UNTIL 2024-25 SCHOOL YEAR St. Louis, Missouri –
The Most Reverend Mitchell T. Rozanski, Archbishop of St. Louis, today released this statement regarding a change in the All Things New timeline regarding Catholic Elementary Schools:
“During this season of Thanksgiving and gratitude, I remain thankful to all of the administrators, teachers, and staff who have chosen to share their gifts to help raise our children in our Catholic faith and to the parents of our students for their commitment to Catholic education. Our goal has always been to create an educational model that is strong in Catholic identity, accessible, affordable and more equitable towards our teachers.
From the outset of All Things New, Pentecost of 2023 (Sunday, May 28, 2023) has been the planned date for the announcement of the revised Archdiocesan parish footprint, along with goals for evangelization and social outreach that will be implemented over the next several years. Obviously, as ministries of our parishes, our grade schools will be affected by any changes to the parish landscape.
Families, teachers, administrators and pastors quickly informed us that a May timeframe for school announcements would not be feasible for several reasons; principal, teacher and administrative contracts, student enrollment, scholarship opportunities and parish budgets all need to be in place earlier in the calendar year. In light of this, All Things New has been striving to stabilize the school footprint by January of 2023 in the midst of a dynamic parish planning process.
However, in response to the feedback we have received from school families, pastors, principals, teachers and staff, through surveys, listening sessions and ongoing dialogue, along with the recommendation of the school planning committee, it has been recommended that we adjust our implementation timeline for the parish elementary schools. Therefore, in order to best serve the needs of our students and their families, I have decided to postpone implementation of any changes to our parish elementary schools until the 2024-25 school year.
We are not delaying our response to the need for more equitable teacher compensation. We have received overwhelming support from families and archdiocesan leadership that teacher compensation needs to be evaluated in the near term, so we are looking at a new compensation model for our teachers to take effect for the 2023-24 academic year.
Once the new parish landscape is announced in May of 2023, the Archdiocese of St. Louis will work with our parish and school communities to discern what our parish schools should look like since they rely heavily on parish support. As we prepare to implement changes in the 2024-25 school year, we will also address immediate needs as they arise, and this could include school closures that are unrelated to All Things New.
Please continue to pray that our efforts will promote the greater glory and honor of God and spread the good news to His people in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.”
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The Archdiocese of St. Louis is entrusted with educating approximately 19,000 students within 85 parochial elementary schools throughout the City of St. Louis and 10 surrounding counties. Our schools allow our children to grow deeper in our Catholic faith, develop a sense of purpose, receive a quality education, join a welcoming community, and feel secure in a dynamic future.