06 March 2010

A punch to the gut.

*points above* That's what it felt like when they announced the closing of the 7th and 8th grades at Mother of Sorrows today at Mass. I was serving today, subbing in for someone who was kind enough to step in for me last week. The server next to me was a sixth grader at Mother of Sorrows... she'll be going public next year, she says. She was almost in tears.

There must be something we can do to save our schools. Closing them is obviously NOT the answer.

11 comments:

Mike Shea said...

My MegaMillions ticket didn't pay off. Neither did my PowerBall ticket. Sorry.

Seriously, though, I'm afraid it's going to take changes at the upper levels of DOR management - and I don't mean just the bishop - to stop our corporate decline.

That whole Buffalo Rd. crowd only knows how to manage failure (and they don't even do that well). We need a completely new team that will only accept success.

Mike Shea said...

Ink,

Did the announcement you heard include the actual registration numbers for next year's 7th and 8th grades?

I'm wondering just what DOR feels is too small a number.

The Well Done Review said...

Job opening! "Director of Liturgy for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, NY – assist the Bishop to work with clergy and parishes in fostering sound liturgical practice throughout the 12county Diocese. Responsible for overseeing all diocesan liturgies and conducting liturgical formation on diocesan and parish levels. Successful candidate will be a faith-filled person who believes in the values of the Second Vatican Council and have proven leadership, administrative and communication skills. Background should include a Master degree in Liturgical studies or Theology and a minimum of 3-5 years parish experience, diocesan experience desirable. "

makes me laugh

The DOR "Curia" is just filled with incompetent schleps--Is it any surprise that we have hardly any young men entering the priesthood when our coordinator of priestly vocational awareness is a laywoman?

The Well Done Review said...

read "values of the Second Vatican Council" as "Spirit of Vatican II"

Ink said...

Mike,

They had 11 registered for 7th grade and 8 registered for 8th grade. The agreement was that, if each grade had 20 enrolled students, the junior high would not close.

In my not-so-humble opinion, I think you can run a class quite well with eleven students. And as for eight? I'm sure more would register once they saw how close-knit a MoS class becomes.

Mike Shea said...

Ink,

I suppose if one is just concerned with the dollars and cents, then MOS' 7th and 8th grades were about to become losing propositions.

When I was at Kodak the management would frequently remind us that, due to such things as employer share of FICA, unemployment insurance and fringe benefits, each employee actually cost the company about 1.5 times his/her actual salary.

Assuming that ratio applies to DOR and that the average teacher makes $30K, then teachers for two grades would cost DOR $90K. At $3,300 tuition per student the break-even point wound be ~27 students.

The bookkeepers got you.

philosopher said...

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~Philosopher

In the choir loft said...

Mike, For what it's worth. You wrote the word bookkeeper above....well, that is the only word in English that has three sets of consecutive double letters. weird.

Mike Shea said...

Choir,

I remember Sr. Georgiana telling us that in 7th grade 50+ years ago.

She also maintained that vacuum was the only English word with a double u.

I don't know if she was right on either point, but I've never come across any word that would have proved her wrong.

Anonymous said...

Does this mean Princess and the other one (sorry, I honestly can't remember her designated blog nickname right now) are going to Aquazareth JH?

Also, that struck a chord with me. I myself went to MOS for the whole shot. Graduated in '07.


Love,

You Know Who This Is :)

Ink said...

I most certainly hope that Grace and Princess do not end up going to Aquinas Junior High. The children there are simply beastly! Out of 100+ students, I can count five who I tolerate on a regular basis.