News

The Quincy Catholic Elementary School Leadership Team appreciated the opportunity to share our proposal of a shared vision for the future of our Catholic Schools, and the feedback we received will be extremely beneficial as we continue through this journey. Two of the themes we heard during these sessions were the request for stronger communication and greater transparency into the process and to share the data gathered that led us to this proposal. We are committed to meet both of these requests, and we hope this information along with the video and additional information linked below serves as a first step.

The Quincy Catholic Elementary Schools Leadership team consists of more than 20 members of Quincy’s four parishes and five schools, including our pastors and principals. Originally formed in 2011, the purpose of this team is to “seek and help implement collaborative activities that serve to address the shared challenges faced by our elementary schools and Quincy Notre Dame.” In 2019, the committee was asked to look at the long range outlook of Catholic education in Quincy and to develop a proposal for how we could all work together to ensure our rich, 150-year tradition of Catholic education remains strong for the next 150 years. Since 2019, with a few long pauses due to COVID, the committee has assessed the status of our schools’ and parishes’ finances, enrollment, buildings, and the anticipated needs of our schools. Through this process, many ideas and proposals were reviewed and discussed. Some of those discussions made it out of the meeting room and into the community. Because of that, we realize there are many rumors and speculations about the next steps for our Catholic schools. However, it is important to reiterate that the proposal shared at these sessions is not a final plan but a starting point for discussion. 

The leadership team’s current proposal is to join together as a Catholic community to create unity as an elementary school system with a new governance board and a new administrative model. The first step would be to establish a new governing board and hire an administrative leader who can engage in the process to form the system. By coming together as one system, we will work to eliminate redundancies in our business operations which will allow us to free up fiscal and human resources. This system approach will also enable us to provide greater consistency in the offerings at each of the grade schools to ensure all our students receive the best possible educational experience we, as a faith community, can provide. It is important to note there is no proposal to change the current structure of our four buildings or the current grade structure for Preschool through 8th grade. Any future proposals will be researched and introduced by the new governance board guided by the needs of the system and the community’s input and feedback.

The leadership team’s next steps are to:

• review feedback gathered from the listening sessions and received via email. If you would like to share your thoughts, suggestions, or pose questions for the team to consider, please email us at feedback@quincycatholicschools.org.
• compile the research done the past two years and share that data with the community. This feedback was heard at most of the listening sessions. Be on the lookout for further communication surrounding this information in the coming weeks.
• incorporate community feedback into a final recommendation regarding the next steps for our Catholic schools. This plan will be presented to the Bishop for his review and approval. 

As we shared at each of the sessions, this is not the presentation of a final plan but the first step in a conversation with you, our community, on where we go from here. As you watch/re-watch the video or review the accompanying documents, please share your thoughts with us. We look forward to working together as we move forward in this process. 

Sincerely,

The Quincy Catholic Elementary Schools Leadership Team

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