St. Joseph, Missouri – As Catholic schools prepare to reopen across the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, a new plan to revitalize Catholic education in St. Joseph, Missouri has been officially approved.

Following a 12-month process involving a 50-person steering committee, more than two dozen listening sessions and input from more than 300 stakeholders in the St. Joseph community, St. Joseph Catholic Schools is today officially kicking off its Vitality in Catholic Education plan with the start of the 2020-21 school year.

A team of parish pastors, school principals, and other lay leaders, will continue meeting to discuss the recommendations from the plan with the intent to establish a full roll out in the 2021-2022 school year.

“Our Catholic schools are treasures which offer a unique partnership with our families, helping to raise happy, holy, healthy children that are wise and good and prepared to meet the challenges of life,” said Bishop James V. Johnston, Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. “Our schools are not only about educating the mind but also the heart, forming the whole person, helping our children to become who God wants them to be, and we do that in a wholesome, religious environment. We are obligated to do all we can to ensure the vitality of Catholic education in our diocese and I’m so proud to see this renewed focus in the St. Joseph area.”

The Vitality in Catholic Education plan emphasizes the development of the whole student in Catholic teachings and values and seeks to stabilize, and eventually increase, enrollment to reach more students across the St. Joseph area.

“I am grateful for the many members of the committee who put a lot of time and effort into forming a workable plan. Collaboration is truly messy work involving a wide variety of people who are passionate about their ideals and hopes, and I am so proud that even with all the challenges and setbacks, they persevered,” said Fr. Christian Malewski, pastor at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in St. Joseph. “I am most passionate about the possibility of forming a unified vision and mission among our Catholic schools.  It’s vitally important that we all know what we’re about and what our ultimate goal is – to help form young people to be true disciples of Jesus who will continue to live their faith out in the world and continue to build up the Church as a whole.”

The plan presents six values and operational recommendations for implementation beginning with the 2021-22 school year and into the next several years:
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1. Focus on our mission to create disciples in Jesus Christ by educating the whole person, mind and heart, to become who God wants them to be in a wholesome, religious environment and by aligning school culture to this mission.
2. Improve academic performance through best practice and innovative teaching, including incorporating Classical Education practices.
3. Inspire our students into a living relationship with Jesus, feeling loved, safe, and with a sense of belonging in God's family, with a focus on what is true, good, and beautiful.
4. Implement an innovative and ambitious marketing and enrollment growth plan to inspire parents and students to become partners in our mission of helping our students to be disciples of Jesus Christ and become the person God wants them to be.
5. Operate our schools as a system that ensures long term viability and collaboration including establishment of a system board and President.
6. Align our resources, including our teachers and staff, our facilities, and finances, to ensure the most effective and long-term achievement of our mission.

Pat Modlin, implementation director for St. Joseph Catholic Schools Vitality Plan, said, "St. Joseph has had Catholic schools for over 120 years. This plan, endorsed by Bishop Johnston and the Pastors of our schools, is innovative and will transform how Catholic education is delivered, ensuring we'll have Catholic schools here for another 100 years. Having a vibrant and exceptional educational choice available to the St. Joseph community is important for our Catholic families and also non-Catholics who want more options for their children."

Modlin will lead the ongoing work of the Implementation Steering Committee, made up of the Diocesan Schools Office plus the pastors and principals of the Cathedral of St. Joseph, St Francis Xavier Church, and St. James Catholic Church, along with these members of the core team:

• Mission & Catholic Identity - Fr Christian Malewski
• Governance - Sally Sanders
• Academic Excellence - Ann Lachowitzer
• Operational Vitality - Tom Roetto
• Student Experience - Michelle Conard
• Facilities - Todd Meierhoffer
• Marketing - Kristi Bailey
• Communications - Mary Ann Didde

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Learn more, including how to enroll, at stjosephcatholicschools.com or St. Joseph Catholic Schools on Facebook.

Vital to the mission of the Catholic Church, the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic School System works in partnership with our communities and especially our parents, who are the primary educators of their children, to educate the whole person through unique attention to academic, human and spiritual formation based on Jesus Christ and His Gospel. 
 
The COVID-19 pandemic presents the most serious public health crisis the world has experienced in generations. Looking forward to the 2020-21 school year and beyond, the Kansas City-St. Joseph (KCSJ) Diocesan schools/centers are resolved to do everything we can to reopen our campuses safely with the health and well-being of our entire community in mind. 
 
Kansas City-St. Joseph (KCSJ) Diocesan schools/centers will re-open with in-person instruction in August.
 
Recommended start date: Week of August 24
 
The following recommendations are based on the assumption that a vaccine will not be available for 12-18 months, which means each KCSJ Diocesan school/center needs to be able to respond quickly to circumstances in its own school/center community as well as to conditions in surrounding municipalities.  Individual schools/centers will follow the direction of the local health department and/or civil authorities. Even as we plan to reopen our campuses in August, we know we may need to close them again with very little advance warning. This means the KCSJ schools/centers will be prepared to toggle between different learning models designed to fit a variety of circumstances and drivers.  This plan is based on the following principles:

1. Whenever safe, we prefer in-person learning over remote learning.
2. The health, safety, and well being of the students and faculty are our highest priority.
3. We will promote practices and policies to reduce risk of virus transmission and support our capacity to be responsive and agile when facing changing health circumstances. 

 
The principal and pastor of each KCSJ Diocesan school/center will base the selection of a learning model on their assessment of health risk based on local health departments and local civil authorities’ recommendations.
 
Three Models for Learning 
In anticipation of ongoing and changing challenges associated with the coronavirus pandemic, the KCSJ Diocesan school/centers have developed three learning models.

• In-Person Learning Model: a traditional school/center experience where students attend school/center five days a week.
• Distance Learning Model: our campuses are closed and the school/center remains open through remote learning experiences.
• Hybrid Learning Model: combines in-person learning with coordinated online experiences.

 
Daily Routine Recommendations
The following routines are based on current CDC recommendations and local pediatricians.

• In general, students should be kept in small cohort groups, not making contact with other groups within the school,
• maintain physical distancing,
• and wear masks when physical distancing is not possible or when transitioning back into school, between classrooms, in large areas, or in the hallway.

 
Pediatricians discourage gathering a large number of students in a large room and recommend maintaining cohort groups within schools to minimize exposure to others and limit the spread of COVID-19.  Exposure is defined by the Centers for Disease Control as contact that lasts more than 15 minutes with less than 6 feet of distance, whether masked or unmasked.  
 
There is not much evidence that masking alone is effective without physical distancing. It is also important that students and teachers not touch their own faces as this can assist the transmission of the virus. When masks are required, students with special medical, sensory or other conditions are not required to wear masks, but must take extra precautions to prevent transmission of COVID-19 by physical distancing or other means. 
 
Visit our School Locations page for available individual school learning plans.