Springfield Dominican Sister M. Paul McCaughey has been superintendent of Catholic schools since the summer of 2008. Since she was named, the economy has nosedived and unemployment has skyrocketed, making tuition payments more difficult for thousands of school families. Schools in the archdiocese have lost enrollment overall, but many are holding their own. In the meantime, Sister Paul and her staff are working to find ways to continue providing a faith-filled education to all students who want one. She discussed the state of the schools with assistant editor Michelle Martin.

Catholic New World: You’ve been superintendent for about a year and a half. What’s it been like?

Sister M. Paul Mc- Caughey: It’s been very eventful. Who’d know we’d have the biggest economic downturn in this century so far, or who could predict the impact that a school board was going to have once it got its arms wrapped around it, which is just about now, who was to know the challenges that are really facing us nationally, and the political shifts and the different variances of funding?

The constants remain the goodness of the people in the schools, the parents, the teachers, the kids, the administrators, the faith life where it’s nourished by parishes, the social justice of the schools that are really hope for the inner city.

CNW: Did the changing circumstances change your plans?

Sister M. Paul: I had initially thought I’d like to dig in and work real hard for three years and see what shook up, and it surprises me to wake up and see that I’m halfway through that now.

It’s like, all right, we’re getting serious now about some of the efforts and some of the pilots. I’m excited about the new middle school at Wauconda (Frassatti Academy, opening next fall). I think it has a lot of potential and it will be a source of strength to the three schools that are feeding it, as well as be an exemplary math-science-faith place.

We have a lot of things that are growth-filled. We have a lot of great administrators that are positioning themselves to serve wherever they are, whether it’s a suburb with more resources or an inner-city school.

So there are these pockets of life. We know we still have to do some things systemically, with the way we fund and looking at the way we govern. Those things move a little more slowly just because of the many, many people who have to be brought to the table — the vicars, the pastors, the general public, the parents, the board. It’s very complex, so we would want to have some general agreement on some directions. Right now, it’s just gotten terrific support. Where there have been bumps or misunderstandings, people have been very good about forgiving me.

I think we’re better to make a few mistakes along the way than just to sit passively because this is too important a project and we already know that if we don’t do strategic things, it’s not going to be very good. Strategic for an already very healthy school might mean something as simple as having a terrific, engaging five-year plan that they are all going to put together for different ways to reach out and different ways to improve their educational program. For others, it’s like saying, OK, none of the kids in this school can afford to be there, but all of their parents want them there for what it offers. What are we going to do now?

CNW: How important is the Annual Catholic Appeal?

Sister M. Paul: It’s huge, and I don’t think our principals or maybe the general public, our Catholics, understood. To say very honestly, these funds are going to the schools, directly to the schools, and we need to figure out with very strategic planning whether they go as scholarships for students or as direct grants for operating expenses for schools. We’re having those meetings coming up, but we will promise that every single dollar will be spent so that students can have the very best Catholic education they can have.

Some of our appeal money has never gone to what I would call the “collar schools,” where everyone is paying their tuition by having a second job, or by not going on vacation, or grandma’s helping to pay for it.

That’s really your Catholic community, and they haven’t really in the past benefited directly from the annual Catholic appeal, and I think there’s a general feeling this year that innovative programs and things that really strengthen a school should be things that come out of the appeal. The Office for Stewardship has been terrific about helping us support some of those schools where there are not the resources, and Big Shoulders has been very helpful as well in Chicago and the inner city.

We also have a lot of schools where it would be a real boon for the teachers to be able to do some professional development or for the kids to have a state-of-the-art whiteboard, which most schools have, but maybe to get more of them and integrate the technology, so there are things that each place can identify. Maybe it is some type of marketing for the school, maybe it’s programmatic. Maybe it’s to fund a service project for the eighth graders who would love to hop on a bus and participate in some kind of practical thing. I think we need to look at that very hard for folks who have been squeezing every penny.

CNW: What would the schools do with more money?

Sister M. Paul: They (Financial Services) were very surprised when they did a questionnaire and sent it out separately to the parishes and the schools because the schools’ responses were pretty solid in how many came in because there was an invitation to say, if you could dream, what would you do? Everything that came in was purely kiddie-centered: we’d expand the playground, we’d put in this special program for our teachers, we just need more scholarship money targeted to families who have lost jobs. Everybody was different, but it was very cool.

CNW: What are the signs of hope?

Sister M. Paul: We’re going to be piloting some kind of shared governance with some of the schools, there’s the Notre Dame study which could help in reaching out to the Latino community, I see a growing understanding on the part of principals and pastors of just how important the individual leadership is on the local level. I see some openness to exploring new ways of funding, both internally, within the Catholic community and to be a little bit more politically active as Catholics to say these are everybody’s children. I’m seeing those signs of hope, and appreciating the help I have keeping all the balls in the air.

If you think about it, yes, we did lose enrollment, but there were many schools that did not, or stabilized, and you have to ask yourself what was the difference? What allowed that in a state with 11 percent unemployment? To lose 4 percent in the schools was tragic, but it could have been worse. To turn that around, to stabilize that … we have a terrific brand. Some people don’t know about it. They still don’t get it. That’s very, very frustrating.