Improving Salaries!

How can we pay our teachers better and at the same time, make our schools more affordable to  our families? I believe this is the central dilemma facing our schools just about everywhere.

But rather than viewing these as opposing tensions, I believe we can use one to help the other— if we structure our advancement program correctly. 

Here’s how I tried to do that when I was principal of St. Michael in Fairhope, AL:

Whatever our actual total financial aid gifts were each year—after all the dust settled— we listed it as a line item under expense. On the revenue side, we coded tuition as if everyone was paying full freight.

At St. Michael, that aid number was about $600,000, given to 30% of our 350 students.

I also had a line item under income for our annual fund appeal at $250,000. I considered this our "ordinary” philanthropic income and tasked our advancement director to raise this each year.  If we were successful with our annual fund, together with tuition, fees and subsidies, I could offer our teachers modest raises each year. That was our “baseline.” 

But if I wanted to make real headway on salaries—which I believe is THE challenge for our schools—I needed to spend my limited time as school principal on "extraordinary”  philanthropy.  What is the most powerful way to do that? 

I believe it's by asking wealthy Catholic families to give students "the gift of a Catholic education." I have found they're receptive to appeal that if they are convinced the money is going directly to families for this purpose.  

In other words, my aim was to begin to offset the 600K number listed as an expense for financial aid with gifts and scholarships. 

We did that in three ways:

First, we asked older Catholic parishioners to consider becoming  “Guardian Angels” for younger Catholic families, inviting them to “pay the gift of their Catholic education forward.” Every August we would take kids (in uniform) and talk at the end of masses to ask for pledges or a donation to help families. 

The money would go into a “Guardian Angel” fund available for the next year. If parents applied for financial aid, I would give them what I could through the school’s budget. But if they needed more, they went to their pastor, who could then ask me to withdraw GA funds and apply it to their student account. I didn’t spend that money—only the pastors did. 

The pastors appreciated it, because they were able to help their families directly, without tapping into parish money. They were the "good guys," and I was happy with that. It also opened them to us making that appeal each year in their churches. Pastors are rightfully hesitant to see donation dollars leave their parish for other causes! 

Older Catholics responded generously. I didn’t transfer money into a student’s account until I received a thank you from the student  to their anonymous guardian angel, and then I would send that letter to the donor. The donors thus knew their money wasn’t going to an administrative “black hole.” Each year we would receive about 150K in GA donations. When we withdrew money from this account, we would list that "income" in our operations. I never used all of it in a single year, figuring the appeal might become less successful down the line, perhaps with even a long term goal of morphing it into an endowment fund.  When I left the school in 2022, the number had grown to about 300K.  

The second way we offset the financial aid number was through recurring scholarships. For a minimum gift of 25K and a commitment to re-supply the gift to that level each year, we would offer a deserving student a half tuition scholarship named after a loved one (see here: https://stmichaelchs.org/scholarships-to-st-michael). These were roughly 5k each. I would ask the family to restore the fund that by 5K each year, minimum. Or, a family could “endow” a scholarship that paid a 5K scholarship if they made a gift for100K. I placed these gifts in a Catholic foundation account and anticipated a 5% yearly return.

In early May we would host a “scholarship breakfast,” inviting both the donor families, the student and the students’ parents to meet each other. I would say a few words about each scholarship and the person for whom it was named. Hearing those words about a loved one, and meeting the child they were helping in that loved one's name meant a lot to our donors. It also gave the recipient a chance to say thank you face to face!

Finally, we sought legacy gifts aimed at assisting students with financial aid. The largest came from a donor whom I met originally as a Guardian Angel donor. (I wasn't smart enough to understand this when we first started the GA program, but it turned out to give me fantastic “leads” on people who were supportive of our schools,  open to the idea of creating family scholarships and possibly open to a legacy gift.) His gift to us upon his death endowed ten half tuition scholarships each year

Sum total, after six years as a school, we were offsetting the 600k of financial aid with almost 250K of scholarship or GA income each year, which really allowed us to do more for our teachers. Alas, not all of that went to them, as other needs arose. But it helped a great deal!

I don’t presume this “template” works for every school. As the expression goes, “Once you know ONE Catholic school, you know…one Catholic school.” I do think the Guardian Angel appeal could  have traction elsewhere, as the piety of “guardian angels” appeals to an older generation of Catholics, and I believe connects to an altruistic instinct to pass on the gift they have received from their Catholic schooling. 

The fella who endowed the ten scholarships was an older man, in his 80’s, and had difficulty standing. When he called me to his home and told me of his intent to give St. Michael everything he possessed upon his death, I got choked up, and asked him why he was doing that.

I will never forget his response. He rose to his feet, a little wobbly, but with fire in his eyes, and said, “When I went to St. Joseph elementary school, my parents paid the sisters five dollars a month for tuition. When I went to the McGill Institute (high school), they paid the brothers one hundred dollars a year. Those schools changed my life! It’s PAYBACK time!”

In summary: Aim your efforts to raise extraordinary gifts at financial aid. It will give you the best means to pay your teachers more substantially.  

It works! 

Five Contrarian Views Regarding Catholic Schools

We have operated our schools with certain assumptions that I believe no longer help us—indeed, holding onto them may even be hurting us. 

Here are a five, with my brief comments:

“Our tuitions should be low, consistent with the gospel mandate to protect the least among us.”

A noble sentiment, but we have a competing obligation to pay our teachers a just wage, and if we don’t, we won’t be able to sustain their long term commitment, to the detriment of our mission and our competitiveness. Better to aim our tuitions at mid-market rates and then assist our most vulnerable families with financial aid. 

“Diocesan schools should be very similar, with the same calendar, roughly similar times, the same curriculum, teacher requirements, etc.”

Insisting so only makes our under-resourced schools less competitive—why wouldn’t parents drive a few extra minutes to the school offering the same program with better resources? Instead, we should give these schools a fighting chance by encouraging them to offer unique programs: Why not dual-language? Year round? Classical? Extended day? Diocesan central offices should view themselves as laboratories for innovation, not as regulatory agencies to protect diocesan liability. 

“We should pay our teachers according to a strict pay scale based on degrees and years of experience.”

This virtually guarantees we are under-paying our best teachers and overpaying others. I haven’t used a strict salary scale in twenty years. I use benchmark numbers—for example, I might say 45K for a first year teacher with a B.A., but consider a range of plus or minus five thousand off that benchmark depending on how difficult it is to fill that position and how competitive the candidate or important to the life of the school. 

“Principals should protect and defend our least gifted teachers from our most demanding parents.”

Principals should defend teachers when they are right, not when they’re wrong or because they’re mediocre and need us as advocates. Of course, even our best teachers can be off their game for a while due to difficult circumstances, like a death in the family, an issue in their marriage, or health issues. Those are temporary circumstances and the community will have to trust the principal. But our first obligation as principals is to our kids and families. Often, our parents are rightfully upset about a mediocre teacher. That doesn’t mean we take a public position against that teacher, but behind  the scenes we should give these teachers a specific improvement plan. If they can’t hit those marks, we must let them go, sooner than later. 

“Principals must do what they think best, independent of what parents think or want.”

While it is true that the mission of the school takes precedence over any one’s preferences, a principal who discounts parent preferences leads foolishly. Yes, I understand that parental love can skew objectivity. But I’m not talking here about specific situations involving someone’s child as much as what the parents hope and dream about the school more generally. Do they want us to invest more in our athletic programs? In a fence to protect their kids? Is there a general consensus on a coach or teacher? We must listen to our parents and deliver where we can. “Parents are the primary educators” isn’t just nice talk. It means they are partners with us. 

The Future of Our Schools

 

Imagine the following:

You’re a Corporate Turn-around Specialist, hired by a national company to save it from insolvency. Here’s what your looking at:

• In 1960, the company had approximately 13,000 franchises around the country and a customer base of 5.2 million.

• By 2000, those numbers had fallen off precipitously: 8600 franchises, with only 2.6 million customers.

• Today there are just less than 6,000 franchises and 1.7 million customers.

What’s driving the decline? You track four fundamental causes:

-In 1960, this company was one of the few privately held companies in its field. Over the last decades, many new privately supported ventures and new public initiatives have increased competition.

-Prior to 1960, the company was able to pull its best employees from a training center that didn’t charge the company for its training. Now the company must employ independent contractors who demand higher wages and who must be trained at company expense.

-Each franchise must invest heavily in buildings and infrastructure to deliver its product. Unfortunately, changing demographics now leave many stores in neighborhoods with those unable to afford their product.

-Most troubling of all, a cultural shift has pulled potential customers away from the company’s core product. 

So, Mr. or Mrs. Turnaround Specialist, what do you recommend?

——-

Ouch! Of course I am talking about Catholic schools. But I find it helpful to step back and pretend, for a moment, this was just any other business, facing these trends. What on earth would a turn around expert recommend?

One thing he or she would NOT recommend: tinkering! Marginal improvements (newer tech, better P.D., improved fundraising, etc.) won’t get to root causes.

The reality is our schools are run separately by dioceses, so there is no "CEO" at the top of the hierarchy than can issue directives for all our schools. But I believe a turn-around specialist would make these fundamental recommendations, applicable to all dioceses:

1. Schools serving our most disadvantaged students will continue to close. Rather than allow this kind of Darwinian evolution to continue without any planning, dioceses must make hard choices and decide which few of these schools it can truly support and then go “all in” with these few. The parish model will not work—they must be supported by the whole church as a measure of its historical commitment to the poor. 

2. The K-8, 9-12 model is not competitive vs. K-12 schools, except for the wealthiest parish schools. K12 privates leverage the strength of their athletic programs, facilities, lab facilities, advancement and admission offices, etc. to offer more value than our stand alone K8’s can provide. We will need to compete more often as K12’s.

3. Our schools will need to adopt a “college model” for funding, increasing  tuitions and financial aid considerably. We will not be able to sustain excellent teachers unless they can afford to support themselves and their families. They cannot do so at 40, 50 or 60K a year.

4. Principal and leadership salaries must increase dramatically. We will not have strong schools without smart, creative and confident leaders. Programs like Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education bring young teachers into our schools who fit this profile, but most leave within five years because they can’t afford to raise families. That kind of “talent bleed” will kill us! At minimum, if X = the  avg salary of teachers, principals should make 2X or even 2.5X. Heads of NAIS schools make an average of 4.5X!

5. Schools must be focused on their fundamental mission to create disciples, fully aligned with their Church, staffed by joyful, practicing people of faith, with aspirational goals for all of their students to become saints and scholars! Any “mission-drift” to be all things to all people or compromises in staffing or goal-setting due to expediency are cancerous to this vision.

Will these five recommendation reverse things? They'll help! In some situations, maybe not. But the old paradigms must change for us to have a chance. May God give us the creativity and courage to embrace the challenges ahead!

A No-Cost, High Impact School Makeover (Part II)

(This is a continuation of a three part series on how we can use language to "make-over" our school. It is from part of my talk at the NCEA Convention )

3. Our language should reflect the call and challenge of the gospel! Our culture panders to kids! It tells them they’re not capable of scholarship, so it inflates grades. It doesn’t believe they’re capable of chastity or virtue, so it preaches “safe sex.” It suggests they cannot handle being told they’re not as athletic or as talented as someone else, so everyone gets a trophy. And the result? Kids are utterly bored. And even worse?  They begin to believe these things about themselves. 

Truth is, kids want to be challenged. There was a sidewalk just outside my office at St. Michael. It was the middle of July, in Fairhope AL just off the Mobile Bay, and the temperature was 90 degrees, with 90 percent humidity—the usual! Our cross country team was out practicing, running laps, running by my window as I watched the. Kids ran by, two by two, dripping in sweat, red faced. And they were all….smiling. They knew they were doing something difficult that few people could do. And they were proud they were doing it. 

It seems to me this is the human condition. Despite our propensity for laziness, deep down, we want to do heroic things with our life. We want to conquer challenges. Our Catholic schools should call kids to do the same. 

Have you been paying attention to our military recruiting videos? They tap into this desire in young people to live nobly. My favorite video is the Navy's "Call to Serve" (see above). The appeal is powerful: Come be part of the unique group of men and women who are willing to live meaningful, important lives serving others. “The U.S. Navy—a Global Force for Good!”

Or how about the Peace Corps? “The toughest job you’ll ever love.” Or the Army? “Be all that you can be!” Become part of the “few, the proud (Marine Corps). 

Our last three popes understood this instinct in youth and spoke brilliantly to them: 

John Paul II: “(Young people) It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity… (World Youth Day, Rome, 2000

Pope Benedict: “The world promises you comfort. But you were not made for comfort, you were made for greatness!” (Source unknown)

Pope Francis: Jesus gives us the courage to swim against the tide.  Pay attention, my young friends: to go against the current; With him we can do great things… Commit yourselves to great ideals… Stake your lives on noble ideals.”    (Homily, Sacrament of Confirmation, 2013).

Or how about Jesus himself? “Whoever wants to be my disciple must take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)

What do the recruiting videos, the popes and Jesus understand about the human condition that we often forget? That we all have a deep desire to do noble things—hard things, even. Let’s not water down the gospel challenge by pandering! Let our school issue the gospel’s clarion call for our students to do great things with their lives! 

4) Our language should be welcoming of families from other faiths without watering down our own. When I was a young principal, because 35% of our students were not Catholic, I often tied myself up in knots when I tried to talk about our common mission, using clunky phrases such as “Catholic and Christian” in an attempt to be ecumenically sensitive (as if being Catholic were not Christian?). But this is entirely unnecessary. When our non-Catholic families enroll their children in “Pope John Paul II Catholic High School” or "St. Mary Immaculate" they know what they’re signing up for! And what I believe they want, in addition to a strong academic program, is a school that immerses their child in a lively, authentic community of faith. 

We shouldn’t water things down. It’s often the quirky, even “weird” stuff that makes our faith so attractive. If we strip it down to a”lowest common denominator,” our faith becomes much less interesting, much less compelling to our students. I grew up in Mobile, AL, the birthplace of Mardi Gras (sorry New Orleans!). In my first year as head of JPII in Nashville, Mardi Gras came and went without notice or fanfare. Unacceptable! So the next year, I went to Walmart and bought almost all the candy in the store, filled five pillow sacks, gave one to each member of our administrative team, and we went to every classroom at 2 p.m., showering students with candy and shouting “Happy Mardi Gras!” The students, of course, loved it. The teachers were a little less enthusiastic at first, but they were good sports and came around! 

I believe we should embrace the full tradition of our faith, from Marian devotion, Eucharistic adoration and celebration of the saints, all the way to our progressive social justice teachings, and invite our non-Catholic students to join in! 

Here’s how I phrase all this today: 

“We welcome the participation of students and families of all Christian faiths, united in service to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

(Part III to follow)

A No-Cost, High Impact School Makeover (part I)

(This is a summary of a portion of a talk I gave at the NCEA Conference in Dallas, April 12, 2023)

A good friend of mine is in the restaurant business, which is brutally competitive. The average new restaurant lasts only three years before it folds, but my friend has been in the business over 25 years and runs five delis, partly a testament to how hard he works, but also a testament to his wisdom. Every 4-5 years, he reinvests significant monies in his restaurants to give them a complete makeover. He changes the menu, the color schemes, the storefront, and even remodels the interior. It must cost him quite a bit.  I was curious this last cycle, so I asked him:  “You have great brand recognition around town. Your food is good, your service is top notch. Business is booming. Is it really necessary to spend all this money sprucing the place up, when it’s not “broken?”

His answer? “Absolutely. “In the restaurant business,” he explained,  “everyone likes NEW, fresh, clean. If I didn’t re-present us to our customers every few years, we’d lose them quickly.” 

I’ve  been thinking about our Catholic schools this way lately. We are inclined to talk about the “tradition” of our school and how we’ve served our communities for decades or even centuries, but we’re not too good at re-inventing and re-presenting ourselves to our communities. And perhaps that’s why, in addition to demographic changes outside of our control, our schools are declining in enrollment and even closing. We could learn a lot from my friend! 

Realizing, however, that we don’t have the money to do major capital improvements, I am proposing we can do “make-overs” to our school with very little money.

What’s the key? How we talk about ourselves! 

Our language is critical.  As a young principal, if you had suggested to me I needed to be more reflective of the language I used, I would have responded with some sarcasm: “Language? What planet are you living on? I don’t have time to waste time! I am putting out fires, solving problems, implementing programs.”  In other words, I understood my job as principal almost purely in functional terms—what I did, not what I said. 

But as I’ve become older, I’ve realized that language, if used carefully and consistently, helps build a school culture. 

And what’s the importance of a school culture? EVERYTHING! It shapes the kind of teachers we attract, the kind of families that apply, and the student’s self-understanding of who they are and what they should be doing. It determines how hard people work, whether they hold each other accountable and whether the community supports the direction of the school. In the words of Peter Drucker, author of 39 books and the guru of modern management, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It doesn’t matter how clever the initiative, how advanced the training, how well we execute the plan. If the culture doesn’t support it, the initiative will fail. 

So how should we talk about ourselves to create a culture that is optimistic, confident and pushes kids and teachers to excel? I’ve worked the last ten years or so to upgrade how I talk about our schools in this way, and I offer perhaps my best 25 iterations here. Feel free to use whatever works for you. Summarizing,   I have six general points of emphasis:

1) We should focus on our “why” and not so much our “what.” I recommend Simon Sinek’s video, “Start with the Why" which has over 20 million views on YouTube.

 

"How did Apple become a multi-billion dollar corporation?" he asks. Not by telling us what great computers they make. Not, he contends,  by explaining how their computers were different from their competition. Rather, Apple makes this striking claim, "Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently.” And the implicit appeal? If you also “Think Different,” then you’ll want to invest in our products—not just computers, but iPods, IPads, IPhones, watches, etc.

I think Sinek is spot on. People are not moved by our eloquent descriptions of how we operate or what we do—our test scores, our 1:1 technology program, our curricular requirements. What resonates most is the “why!” And here’s the most powerful way I’ve found to talk about our why, from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity: 

“Imagine we are a living house, and God comes in to make repairs. At first, we understand what he is doing—fixing the leaky faucet, cleaning out gutters. We knew those things needed doing, and we appreciate it. But presently he starts knocking about the house in a way that hurts abominably: tearing down walls, putting out gardens, erecting towers. And we say, “What on earth is he up to?” The answer is we thought we were building a nice little cottage. But he’s building a palace! He intends to come live there himself.”

Lewis is not talking about Catholic schools specifically, but he could be. We believe that our schools help build palaces in the life of our kids—cathedrals, even!--places where God will reside. If we start talking about this vision that we have for students, that we believe in the power of God's grace to elevate and transform our students' lives, then like a string that resonates when it is matched with a musical note of the same frequency, so too will our “why” resonate within the hearts of our prospective parents. 

At Prince of Peace, I’ve asked our choral director to sing one stanza of “Lord Prepare Me" every week as the last song at communion time during our school mass. The lyrics are simple: “Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary. Pure and holy, tried and true. With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living, sanctuary for you.” Hearing 770 kids sing that each week reminds everyone present of the essence of our mission: to become sanctuaries for Jesus. I get choked up almost every week it's so beautiful. 

2) Be simple and direct. I was told the story of two high school principals who were invited by a large diocesan elementary school to “pitch” their school to parents of 8th graders. The principals were given 15 minutes to speak, with a question/answer session would follow. The first principal used all of his time, talking about the school’s spiritual, academic, athletic, and artistic offerings. Parents listened, but began to fidget toward the end. They were going to have to listen to this all over again!  But the second principal stood up and simply said, “The purpose of our high school is to work with you to form disciples of Jesus Christ. I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have.“ Then he sat down. Were it not for politeness, the parents would have cheered. Which principal do you think was asked more questions?

People like simple. They like “white space.” If a paragraph is too long, they may scan it, but they won’t read it closely. Alas, it’s a twitter world! Every day, marketers estimate we see between 4,000 and 10,000 advertisements! They’re all noisily clamoring for our attention, and if anything calls us to focus and concentrate, we’re likely to gloss over it. So getting to the point is crucial. 

Let me apply this insight to school mission statements. When I first arrived at Prince of Peace in Dallas, this was our mission statement: 

Prince of Peace Catholic School is devoted to instilling strong Catholic values, fostering a life of faith and servant leadership, providing a challenging academic environment, and inspiring each student to shine to the fullest extent of his or her God-given potential.

I contend there is no part of this mission statement which is wrong. But, no one can remember it! I also contend, about half way through reading it, the average person begins drifting away from thinking about what they’re reading.  As a result, it lacked any practical utility in the life of our school. 

 

I am a big believer in the power of “three.” School House Rock from the 1970’s used to have a song called "Three is a Magic Number" (see clip). Marketers agree that people can remember three things in their mind—the shortest number of things required to establish a pattern. I believe that school mission statements should focus on three words or phrases as the “essence” of what the school is trying to do. Here are few examples of what I consider effective mission statements using this principle:

Montgomery Catholic High (Montgomery, AL) aims to create “students of faith, virtue and wisdom.”

St. Michael Catholic High (Fairhope, AL) seeks to form “scholars, leaders and disciples of Jesus Christ.” 

Moeller High School (Cincinnati) says simply: Catholic. Marianist. Forming our students into remarkable men.” 

Montgomery Bell Academy (Nashville) aims to create “gentlemen, scholars and athletes.”

I worked with the teachers and Council at Prince of Peace to rewrite our mission statement according to this principle. Here’s our new one:

The mission of Prince of Peace Catholic School is to form students who are faithful, prepared,  and confident that they can do great things through Christ who strengthens them.

The words “faithful, prepared and confident” are now everywhere in our school and school materials.