The Diocese of Camden and the International Education Foundation (IEF)/CSDP on Nov. 19 announced a major initiative that will call on the expertise of top education, management, finance and advancement executives in order to strengthen Catholic elementary schools in the Camden city area.
Under the new “Catholic School Partnership,” five inner-city Catholic elementary schools — Holy Name, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Cecilia (Pennsauken), Sacred Heart, and St. Joseph Pro-Cathedral, which together serve more than 1,000 students — will be brought under the direction of the new five-person management team and a 12 person board of directors, even as they retain their current parish connections.
At a noon press conference at Holy Name School in North Camden, the diocese and IEF announced that Christine Healey deVaull, executive director of IEF, will spearhead the program as Chair of the Board of Directors and Dr. Robert Palestini, Graduate Dean Emeritus and professor of Educational Leadership at Saint Joseph University, has been tapped to head a management team that will oversee the five Catholic elementary schools that serve the Camden city area.
“This new, collaborative model of governance will bring intensive, focused and professional support to these schools, which have had such great results serving the most disadvantaged children in Camden,” said board chair Christine Healey deVaull.
The IEF was founded by Robert T. Healey, an alumnus of Camden Catholic High School and St. Joseph’s University. IEF, which recruited Dr. Palestini and other members of the management team, and worked to develop the Partnership model over the last year, also is supporting the Partnership through a major funding grant and consulting services. The International Education Foundation launched the Catholic School Development Program (CSDP) in 2004 to impact long- term sustainability of Catholic schools throughout the Diocese.
“I am pleased that Dr. Palestini and IEF have agreed to collaborate with a first-rate team of education and management professionals to ensure that Catholic schools, which are vital to the Church’s mission of forming young people in the faith, are able to thrive in an area of the diocese where the needs of children are especially great,” said Bishop Joseph A. Galante.
Bishop Galante said, “Camden City has known greatness. It now struggles, profoundly. We see the height of the obstacles and the depth of the despair and may want to turn away or give up. But, we cannot give up. We will not give up on Camden.”
According to IEF and the Partnership founding executive director Dr. Robert Palestini, the innovative partnership model will bring educational leadership, executive experience and best practices to bear on schools that might otherwise struggle on their own in this challenging urban environment.
“I am delighted to partner with IEF and the diocese, school pastors and principals, faculties and administrations, school children and their families, and the community in Camden we serve to support the exceptional work that already is being done by these schools. We also will work to enhance school performance, student outcomes and school funding so that Camden children have continued access to an excellent, affordable Catholic education that will equip them for the challenges ahead and ready them to be the leaders of our communities in the future,” said Dr. Palestini.
“I thank Bishop Galante for his vision, leadership and commitment to Catholic schools. I thank Robert T. Healey and IEF for their pioneering efforts to improve Catholic schools and generous support of this initiative. I thank also the skilled management team that has agreed to serve with me, as well as our dedicated board of directors who will help guide us in this great endeavor on behalf of children in Camden city,” said Dr. Palestini.
Macario A. Sarreal, a former executive for Rohm and Haas, Co., will join Dr. Palestini on the management team as business analyst. Anne Marie Borneman, Ed.D, a certified school psychologist who served at Bryn Mawr College Child Study Institute, the Chichester School District and the Episcopal Academy, and who now is a consultant to the Gesu Institute in Philadelphia, will be consultant to the executive director. Harry D. Bell, who served more than 37 years in education in the Sayerville Public School District, is assistant to the executive director. The management team will be rounded out with a full time development director.
The Partnership Board is composed of Founding Board Chair, Christine Healey deVaull, Vice Chair, Charles Saile, retired Information Technology executive, Rohm & Haas, and board members Letitia Biddle, executive director, Churchill Institute on Leadership and Development (CHILD); Anne Marie Borneman, Ed. D., educational consultant; Jerry Buckley, senior vice president of public affairs, Campbell’s Soup; Judyann Gillespie, director of Adolescent Services, Center for Family Services; Monsignor Robert McDermott, Vicar General, Diocese of Camden; Maria Meier, principal, Dewey Square Group; Robert Palestini, Ph.D., founding executive director, Catholic School Partnership and dean emeritus of graduate studies, Saint Joseph’s University (ex-officio); Adolfo (“Pepe”) Piperno, president, Sbar Inc., and founder of the Domenica Foundation and the Heal Camden initiative; Father Dan Joyce, S.J., assistant to the Vice President in the Office of Mission at Saint Joseph’s University; and Nicholas Regina, executive director of Catholic Schools, Diocese of Camden (ex-officio).
In addition to infusing the schools with proven education strategies, the Partnership will ensure that a strong business model will engage a broad base of support for the schools. The IEF has retained the services of a New York based consulting firm to establish an independent foundation, the “Foundation for Camden’s Children,” to create an endowment fund establishing long term financial sustainability for Catholic and other private schools serving Camden’s children. . The Partnership will fund scholarships to ensure that low-income students will be able to attend the schools.
The Partnership will focus not only on donor support, but also on securing available public funds. For example, the Partnership is urging the New Jersey legislature and the public to support the Urban Enterprise Zone Jobs Scholarship Act (UEZJSA), a pilot scholarship bill that will fund scholarships for low-income students in eight New Jersey school districts. The scholarships would enable students to attend participating public schools out of district, or non-public schools anywhere in the state.
Studies continue to show that Catholic elementary schools in urban environments are particularly effective in educating students from diverse economic and social backgrounds. Strong academics, a safe and nurturing environment, a stress on mutual respect, parental involvement and student achievement all contribute to positive outcomes for Catholic school students in urban settings.
Camden City is the poorest in the nation. More than 35 percent of the city population is children under the age of 18. More than 57 percent of these children are living in poverty, five times higher than the average in the state of New Jersey. These children face poor housing, inadequate healthcare, neighborhoods of high crime and other challenges. Despite the difficult socio-economic conditions in Camden, 90 percent of students in the five Catholic schools in the Camden city area go on to earn their high school diplomas, compared with less than 50 percent of their public school peers.
For board member Msgr. Robert T. McDermott, pastor of St. Joseph Pro-Cathedral and Vicar General for the Diocese of Camden, the initiative fulfills the Church’s social mission and the gospel mandate to care for the vulnerable and disadvantaged. “When you realize the condition of life for children in the city of Camden, it is clear that education must play an important role in their future. If they are able to receive a good education in a safe and nurturing environment, they will more than likely be successful. If not, another child is lost to poverty. Our faith calls us to be present to the poor as our first choice and not once we have taken care of ourselves. However, this is not only a concern of the Church. It is in the best interests of society to raise the quality of life for the poor, especially through education,” he said.
For more information please see the website: www.catholicschoolpartnership.org
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