ADVANCEMENT UPDATE
January 23, 2020
CHARTING A NEW COURSE
St. Joseph C-STEM School will begin to chart a new course for our future. School leaders are focusing on the need to plan on how we can develop more resources; attract and retain more families; communicate better; and, invite, involve and engage more people into our Faith Community. During the next 6-10 months, we will be inviting hundreds of people to help us create a Strategic Plan for Development.
Working with us on this important process are local and national experts in school advancement, CSCOE (Catholic Schools Center of Excellence), Healey Education Foundation and the Institute for School and Parish Development (ISPD). ISPD, headquartered in the Greater New Orleans Area, is a national development consulting firm that works exclusively with Catholic schools, parishes, and dioceses throughout the country. CSCOE and ISPD have partnered with St. Joseph C-STEM School and will guide us through our planning and people engagement processes.
As we begin this new chapter in our history, the theme that we will follow is: in order to create the plans and strategic initiatives for the future of our Catholic school, we will reach out to our entire community and invite your input and best wisdom. Your recommendations will certainly be considered as we chart a new course for the future.
Beginning with this Update, you will be kept informed about various activities, programs and opportunities geared toward your input and people engagement. There will be many opportunities available for everyone to help us create a dynamic new way to better develop and advance our Catholic school.
GETTING STARTED
The process has already begun. CSCOE, Healey and ISPD are working with the school leadership to assess our present situation in six areas: communication, marketing, fund-raising, alumni involvement, enrollment management, and people engagement. We will be conducting a school-wide survey in the near future and will invite parents, faculty/staff, student leaders, alumni, parishioners and others to offer their input.
THE CORE TEAM
We will be forming a Development Core Team to lead this process. These volunteers will represent many areas and interests of our Catholic school. The Core Team will be committing themselves to help give their best direction and guidance to St. Joseph C-STEM School and will work closely with CSCOE, Healey and ISPD, and school leaders to facilitate our process.
Goals of the Core Team are:
Understand Catholic School Advancement
Help introduce the process to key leaders in the school.
Understand the “Ultimate Question Survey” results and assess advancement efforts.
Identify and create the top 6-8 challenges our school faces in creating a Strategic Plan for Development for the future.
Identify 75+ people to invite to a two-meeting process to solve the above challenges.
Help conduct two workshops to solve the identified challenges.
Based upon meetings and discussion of solutions, create the Strategic Plan for Development and Stewardship for the future.
Begin implementation of Strategic Plan for Development and Stewardship.
Give input into the communication of the above processes.
SCHOOL SURVEYS
By now, you have probably been invited to fill in The Ultimate Question survey. This survey can be taken on-line, and it has questions that pertain to the school. This survey is seeking opinions and input about how well St. Joseph C-STEM School is promoted and thought of. There is a rating process between 1-10 and also the opportunity to share ideas for improvement as well as share ideas on what is working well. Your input is needed and greatly appreciated. The results of the survey will be reported later in the spring; the information will be helpful in the planning process as the Core Team and a Development Advisory Council create Challenges that they will invite members of the Catholic school community to help solve.
As this process unfolds, everyone will be invited to share input in various ways.
For any questions about this update, contact Mr. Rob Bell (Advancement Director) at rbell@stjosephwaconia.org or call 952-442-4500 x230.
