St. Elizabeth School’s critical year
Supporters of St. Elizabeth School say it is one of the best-kept secrets on the south side of San Francisco.
But now administrators, teachers, parents and alumni are joining forces to make sure the secret gets out - and not a moment too soon.
The trigger for the double-time burst of organizing at the K-8 parish school is a report card by a consultant to the Archdiocese of San Francisco's schools department. Catholic Education Consulting Services, brought on by the archdiocesan Council of Priests, ranked all 54 Catholic K-8 schools in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties on a numerical scale that measured "Catholic spirit," leadership, educational excellence, business operations and overall viability.
St. Elizabeth ranked low to middling in each category and was singled out for a pointed one-paragraph summary in the consultant's report. The building needs work, the finances are under stress, parish demographics are not promising for enrollment growth and leadership is "weak," the consultant said.
The school is not well positioned for the future, according to the consultant, and "its negative position is so profound that it would need considerable resources and at least five to seven years to recover."
It is fair to say that advocates of St. Elizabeth differed with the assessment and questioned how some of the subjective scores, such as spirit and leadership, were reached. The school scored between 300 and 360 on the consultant's 600-point scale, which assigned up to 100 for spirit and 130 for leadership.
"You can't dwell on it," long-time Principal Gene Dabdoub said. "Otherwise it would do you in."
Instead of contesting the study, the St. Elizabeth community, including elders who go back to the school's founding by the Presentation Sisters in 1949, has decided to use it as an opportunity to prove their school has a sustainable future. They have informed Archbishop George H. Niederauer of their efforts and their intent to have a progress report on his desk by the end of March. Similar remedial planning has begun at other schools, each of which has received a report detailing trouble spots.
Can St. Elizabeth adjust in time to win the Archbishop's long-term confidence and quiet critics who say the Archdiocese must do something about schools that are running deeply below financial break-even? Or will the parish school face unwanted changes as early as the 2009-10 school year?
No doubt adding to that concern is recent notification from the Schools Department that tuition-assistance monies available for the upcoming school year will be dramatically reduced because of the economic free-fall. An increasing number of families will be hard pressed to afford Catholic elementary school tuitions and fees which average $6,300 in the Archdiocese. (See commentary on Page CS2 of January 23, Catholic San Francisco.)
Dabdoub said she does not feel the Archdiocese plans to close the school, but there is concern that financially weak schools could be forced to combine classes to save money.
Archdiocesan schools Superintendent Maureen Huntington stressed that none of the lowest-scoring schools are slated for closure.
"That's not a recommendation anywhere," she told Catholic San Francisco. "But there are several schools that are fragile and they need to take some strong intervention steps to turn themselves around."
The first such step would be to combine grade levels at two schools while keeping the schools independent. The cost savings could help the schools improve their prospects and ease the stress on parish finances.
"I think there are things we can do in the interim to buy the schools some time and give time for the economy to turn around," Huntington said.
The consultant's draft report is blunt about closures as a possible long-term outcome for a handful of schools whose strengths are not enough to overcome their weaknesses. The Archbishop and superintendent should evaluate the six lowest-ranking schools and plan for closure at the end of a school year -- the report does not specify a year -- "if it is determined that a school cannot be moved into a positive position."
Eleven schools, including seven in San Francisco, are in the "tipping point" category and should be monitored, according to the consultant's report card. Nineteen are listed as stable and 18 as good.
No schools earned the 540-point minimum needed to be classified as strong.
The St. Elizabeth community is not dwelling on the consultant's numbers. Its focus is on a different figure: 161. That is the school's enrollment, a dramatically low number against the 225-pupil enrollment that is the usual yardstick for a school's ability to generate enough revenue to cover costs.
Such disparities have reached the critical stage, Msgr. Bruce Dreier, pastor of St. Robert Parish in San Bruno, wrote in a recent letter to Catholic San Francisco. "We need a plan to help stabilize enrollment, especially in the city," he wrote. "Something needs to be done."
The Council of Priests sought a study with concrete recommendations so that action could be taken to bring the school system in line with economic reality. That reality reflects changes in the demographics of many parishes, as Asian, Hispanic and other ethnic groups are not enrolling their children in Catholic schools.
"A great concern for all schools is the declining presence of the middle class, heretofore the ‘backbone' of the Catholic School," the consultant's draft report states.
Can St. Elizabeth rise from a 40 percent enrollment deficit? Not immediately, but advocates believe they can rebuild if given the chance.
The goal for September is 180, the first step toward an ideal 270 by 2015, Dabdoub said. "We want to be able to show a clear path to next year and what it will take to get it above the tipping point of 225," said parishioner Alan Maffei, whose two daughters are St. Elizabeth graduates.
The enrollment campaign is one of the tasks the St. Elizabeth community has assigned to a task force made up of administrators, faculty, alumni and families. Already teachers have fanned out to neighboring parishes that do not have schools of their own. The goal is to recruit from the Catholic community throughout the southern end of San Francisco.
A "bigger and better" open house is scheduled for Jan. 25 from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30, opening with a family Mass for the student body at 9:30.
Another committee is focusing on the school building. The west wall needs resurfacing and painting. The boiler, flagged in the consultant's report, is old but volunteers have determined that it is serviceable.Both Dabdoub and Maffei stressed the commitment and longevity of St. Elizabeth's administration and faculty.
"The love that we have for what we do for our families, the nurturing environment that we provide and the honor that we share among us - these values are palpable and continue to grow," Dabdoub said. Maffei said the education his daughters enjoyed in grades six through eight at St. Elizabeth has been a factor in their current success at a Catholic high school.
"If you talk to any of the educators you are going to find without exception individuals who are passionate about what they do," he said. "You can't find that dedication everywhere, but the skill sets some of these educators are lacking are as administrators. They don't necessarily have the resources available to market the school. They don't necessarily have the resources to manage the school.
"It probably doesn't paint the best picture from a financial standpoint, but when you're dealing with individual schools you have to look beyond that," he said. "I don't think you can attach a monetary value to that. Closure would be a tragedy."
St. Elizabeth may be one of the best-kept secrets on the south side. But, Maffei said, "I don't want it to be a secret anymore."
(By Rick DelVecchio)
Catholic San Francisco, January 23, 2009
