The Crazy Life We Expect of our Student-Athletes—How High Schools Can Help Them Balance

At 6 a.m. every weekday, the lights to the nearby high school stadium turn on so that basketball players can begin their weightlifting and conditioning. Inquiring, I learned that access to the gym is too precious to waste time on conditioning—there they must run plays and hone their shooting and passing skills.  So on a typical day, a player wakes up at 5 a.m., conditions and weight-trains from 6-7:30, showers up, eats breakfast, attends school from 8:30 to 3:30, goes to practice from 4-6 p.m, comes home, showers, eats, does homework from 7:30 p.m to 9 or 10, then goes to sleep in time to be rested enough for the 5 am —9:30 p.m. gauntlet the next day. 

That’s the “new normal” for high school athletes in big time athletic programs. And on one level, it’s a beautiful, disciplined life for a kid, which keeps him out or her out of trouble. And look, I think there is tremendous value to high school athletics! Students learn to delay gratification, sacrifice for the good of the team, put themselves second, win and lose with grace, and build virtue in so doing. As my football coach in a former school once quipped: “My most important ‘trophies’ are letters from former players, thanking me for their experience, the memories they have, the brotherhood they formed with teammates, the values they learned that made them better husbands, fathers, and employees.” Summarizing, he said. “It’s a lot more important than football.” 

I agree with that!

But on another level, expecting this much from high school kids is greatly worrisome to me, for it demands such allegiance and sacrifice that kids have very little time for anything else.  

I want our student athletes to be competitive. I want our coaches to feel like they have the means to build programs that can win state championships. But I also want our schools to help our kids live balanced lives, where they can branch out into other areas, such as music, or student government, or service clubs, or participate in religious initiatives. I want them to have room in their schedules to take classes that are demanding if they are capable, without ramping down because of their athletic commitments.  I believe students flourish when they are encouraged to become “Renaissance” young men and women, active in many things, the more different, the better.

But am I just adding to their stress by asking them to juggle even more? Possibly! But here’s how I tried to help things stay balanced when I was a high school principal:

1. First, an 8-period schedule was essential. This gave athletes a chance to take weight-lifting and conditioning during the school day as part of their normal schedule. They met in multiple periods. Our coaches would have preferred having them all at once in an “Athletic P.E.,”  but the schedule wouldn’t allow it. However, they realized they could be more efficient rotating through weights —less standing around—with smaller classes.
2. Because of this extra period, I would not allow pre-school practices. Sleep matters, especially over time!
3. I would not allow Sunday practices for any reason. We “Kept holy the Sabbath” which allowed everyone, including our families, a chance to recharge.
4. All students were required to take two years of the Arts. Most of our athletes were in choir—some opted for a third and fourth year because they enjoyed it. Some even took band (see pic). This requirement helped bring some healthy variety to their lives.
5. We built “club time” into our weekly schedule, 25 minutes every Thursday, so that participation in other clubs was possible for our athletes and others with after school commitments.
6. Tutorials for classes were everyday after school, Monday through Thursday, 3:15-3:45. The teachers went from 7:30-4 p.m.  No practices could begin until 4 p.m. so that student-athletes could attend them. No tutorials on Fridays. 
7. The school day was a bit longer to fit everything in: 7:45 to 3:10 M—Th and  7:45-2:45 on Fridays.  Everyone, including teachers,  could leave 30 minutes earlier on Friday.  It felt like a “bonus” each week!
8. For students taking three or more A.P. classes in their senior year,  I assigned them one period a day, no more than two students at a time, to another teacher, where they could work quietly in the back of the class, while the teacher taught other students. This “study period” incentivized A.P. enrollments, gave our kids extra  time for homework, and didn’t cost us another teaching unit to host a study hall. (It also helped me create a working master schedule, as these periods could land anywhere on a student’s schedule, which helped since seniors taking A.P, classes had so many singletons in their schedule.)

These practices helped our student-athletes live less crazy lives. I’m including our bell schedule to show how it all fit together. Was it perfect? No! But it helped. 

Must the Head of a Catholic School Be a Practicing Catholic?

“Perhaps not.”

So suggests Bob Regan, then a senior search consultant for Carney-Sandoe, who wrote on the subject a few years back (“The 22% Factor: Hard Choices for Catholic Schools”).

 

Regan’s argument was both practical and philosophical. Practically, he pointed out that only 22% of the country considered themselves “practicing Catholics.“ Precisely at a time when so many Catholic schools needed entrepreneurial, innovative leadership, did it make sense to eliminate 78% of the talent pool? Could a faith-filled, serious minded ecumenical candidate do the job?

 

Philosophically, Regan raised the intriguing metaphor of “the ship of Theseus.” Theseus was the mythical king and founder of Athens, who rescued the children of Athens from  King Minos after slaying the minotaur, and escaped onto a ship going to Delos. Each year, the Athenians commemorated this victory by taking that ship on a pilgrimage to Delos to honor Apollo.  But as the ship aged and the wood rotted, as it harbored in the Athenian port over the ages,  planks had to be replaced, one at a time, to keep the vessel seaworthy. Ancient philosophers asked: After centuries of maintenance, if each individual part of the ship had been replaced, was it still the ship of Theseus?

 

Regan asked, what are the “planks” of our schools that make us “Catholic?” Was it the sisters, who are no longer with us? Was it lay Catholic ministers? But now we have many non-Catholic teachers in our schools. Is it the students we serve? But now we have a broad ecumenical outreach; there Catholic schools today that are less than 50% Catholic.  Despite these tectonic changes, we are still “Catholic schools.” Perhaps, Regan suggested, the faith of the head of school is another “plank” that could be replaced without changing the essence of our institutions. 

 

Though he wrote this article in 2016, let’s give Regan his due: His arguments are even more poignant today! Few people would better understand the landscape of independent and Catholic school leadership than him, as he was head of the “Catholic practice” for Carney-Sandoe for many years.   I met him when my school hired him to search for my successor at Pope John Paul II in Nashville. I found him to be a thoughtful, committed advocate for our schools. 

 

And indeed, good leaders for our schools are hard to find! Perhaps it is the post-Covid effect, but I cannot remember a time when there were so many open school leader positions as there have been these last few years.  It doesn’t help that Catholic schools pay dramatically less for its leaders than some of our private school counterparts. According to the National Association of Independent Schools, the median salary of school “heads” in their schools was $288,000 in 2022-23! Some make more than $700,000 in the Dallas area!

 

I also find Regan’s philosophical argument intriguing. There’s no question that shifting the leadership in our schools from the nuns to the laity has jolted us in fundamental ways—but do we claim that we are no longer “Catholic” as a consequence? I suppose some might get snarky and  shout “Yes!” but I don’t believe that’s what most people believe. We work hard to carry on the heroic work the sisters began.  

 

In the end, however, I disagree with Regan!   

 

I think it is wrong to understand the Catholicity of the school as a "component part” of the operation that can be outsourced by the leader to another person, such as a "Director of Mission Effectiveness," or made the responsibility of the principal if the school uses the president-principal model. Building a joyful, authentic Catholic culture is the very essence of creating a Catholic school, the whole “kit and caboodle” that makes us distinctive from other schools. To be the architect in building such a culture requires someone who understands the Catholic faith--its idiosyncrasies, rituals, feast days, sacramental practices, songs, and common prayers--from the “inside-out” --that is to say, someone who has lived it and who has been formed by it. 

 

There are hundreds of decisions a school leader makes which tell the tale: how that person evaluates a prospective teacher or coach, what that person talks about in school assemblies, what is prioritized in professional development, how that person leads his or her school through a tragedy, what that person chooses to celebrate as a school, what he or she prioritizes in spending, whether the leader builds a partnership with priests or bishops, how actively the school leader supports the efforts of the parish or the diocese. All of these “tributary” decisions flow into a larger “river” that becomes the culture of the school and the air that students breathe. 

 

Tasking a person to lead our schools without this lived experience would be like hiring a GM of a baseball team who had corporate leadership experience but didn’t know anything about baseball. He may have executive skills, but ultimately, he wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to evaluate talent, or fathom what ignites the passions of its fans, or understand baseball’s reverence for its history. 

Could he task his manager with all of those “baseball specific” things? No, the manager is too preoccupied with handling players and strategizing for games—in other words, the day to day.

 

If Catholic schools were just about what occurs in the classroom like any other school, then perhaps an ecumenical leader might have the technical skills to lead it well.  But Catholic education is fundamentally about formation as the end goal. The classroom teaching and what occurs in the daily life of the school is a means to this end. 

Let me add this comment, too, at least for diocesan schools:  We don’t lead our schools apart from the bishop or pastors! We are institutions of the Church, not Boards of Trustees. We must communicate well with the Church and try to speak in one voice. It strikes me that trying to do this as a non-Catholic would be analogous to having a native speaker and non native person trying to communicate, with the non native person having only a rudimentary vocabulary and little comprehension for the nuances of the dialect. 

It would be quite hard for an ecclesial leader to hand over the “keys” to such an important “vehicle” for raising kids in the faith to someone who isn’t of that same faith! Frankly, I don’t know of any pastor or bishop who would do so. I don’t think it’s a good idea for independent Catholic schools, either, but whatever theoretical argument one may make for them, it’s a non-negotiable from the diocesan side. 

 

And what of the ship of Theseus? My response to the conundrum is this:  It ceases to be the ship of Theseus when it is no longer commanded by Theseus.  Without its leader, it becomes a relic, a museum piece, a part of Athenian history. 

 

Still, we would do well to pay heed to what Regan has told us. There is burning need for good Catholic leaders. Dioceses would do well to think through innovative means to improve the pipeline, perhaps by incentivizing assistant principals with better pay and on-the-job certification, requiring only a minimum of classwork.  Moving toward the president-principal governance model, even for elementary schools, is also a great way to onboard new principals, if the president has principal experience. 

 

Whatever works!  But we cannot let supply and demand issues change the fundamental nature of our schools. If we’re willing to do that, we may as well close up shop now. 

Improving School Enrollments

(This was the final portion of my "No Cost, High Impact School Makeover" workshop that I hosted at the national NCEA Conference in April of 2023.)

What is the first priority in a good admissions program?

1. Masking sure all admissions brochures and flyers look professional. Hiring a graphics designer to give them a polished look.
2. Getting prospective families on campus as often as possible.
3. Personalizing all the interactions with prospective families. Emphasizing relationships over efficiency. 
4. Lowering the attrition rates of current students by being responsive to their needs and their families’ concerns.

I asked this question in preparation for my workshop and about a third responded. I personally believe all of these are good practices. 18/27 said personalizing was most important. 6/27 said getting families on campus. 3/27 said lowering the attrition rates. So there was divided opinion in the room! 

Even so, I believe lowering attrition rates (or the flip: improving retention rates) is the first priority!  And often, that’s the one we forget about, probably because it doesn’t fit neatly into one person’s job description. Indeed, it must be the emphasis of every person in the school—principal, teachers and all staff members. The admissions office can keep track of who leaves, but it has very little influence upon those who do. 

Why should improving retention be the #1 priority? 

When families choose our schools, they re-orient their life to that school. A student’s friendships are formed there. Parents begin to associate with other parents, developing friendships of their own. We are familiar to them, especially compared to the unknown alternative. It ought to be far easier to retain a family than to persuade a new one to join us! So to begin with, it’s good tactics! But it’s much more important than that, as I will explain in this article.

But how do we retain families? By going above and beyond. 

When my daughter got married, she thought it would be a great idea if the entire wedding party—groomsmen, bridesmaids and immediate family members—all decided to stay in the same hotel for the few days leading up to the wedding. She picked a very nice hotel in downtown Mobile, called the “Battle House Hotel,” with an antebellum theme: furniture, a ballroom, and the like, playing into Mobile’s pre-Civil war heritage. The first morning I was there, I went to the hotel lobby, looking for a newspaper. “Is there a copy of the New York Times I can purchase in the hotel?,” I asked the clerk. “No,” he said apologetically, “but there’s a  news stand just around the corner. ” “Thanks,” I said, and happily went there to purchase one. But the next morning, folded neatly against my hotel room door, was the new day’s copy of the New York Times. Ever since, when someone asks me about the Battle House, I say instantly, “Oh, that’s a REALLY good hotel” without much thought. Why? Because some clerk had gone “above and beyond” to make me happy over a decade ago. 

We need to start thinking this way in our schools. I have a few ideas how:

1. As principals, we’re often required to meet with parents about something they’re unhappy about. Parents come into our meetings worried that we’ll regard them as “Karens,” but they also know that it’s our job to meet them. But what they do NOT expect is what I call the “Two Week Follow-up.” When I have a meeting, I mark my calendar two weeks from the meeting to call the parents back and ask if the “situation is getting any better.” Or more often, I just ask the kid. Rest assured, that one minute interaction with the child gets back to the parents! And it does three things:  First, it assures the parent I have taken them seriously and I  don’t regard them poorly. Second, the parent and child know I care for them. Third, it helps me as the school’s leader—follow up is an important leadership trait—and the looping back improves accountability for whatever arrangements were made.
2. Offer to meet face to face when you get the ugly email. Don’t argue over email! It just gets worse. Instead, ask parents to meet you. It’s disarming, and often, the parents have calmed down a bit and can have a rational discussion. My go to line is “Let’s see if we can meet to resolve this issue.“ Even if we can’t fully agree, they appreciate that we’ve taken them seriously and are willing to invest our personal time to resolve the matter. My wife once wrote the mayor to complain about the widening of a road near our home. To her astonishment, he called her on the phone and explained why he disagreed with her and thought the widening was good for the neighborhood. She voted for him in every subsequent election. 
3. Do the unexpected. A mother called an 8th grade teacher whom the girls greatly admired, expressing worry about her daughter’s social relationships with the other girls. The teacher said, “I’ve noticed that Susie seems a bit down lately. I will ask her to sit with me at lunch today and ask her to tell me what’s going on.” The mother, in telling me about this teacher’s kind response, was nearly in tears. I guarantee you this family will not be transferring their younger children anywhere else!

And that raises an important point about “above and beyond.” When TEACHERS develop this mindset, special things happen! When we started St. Michael in Fairhope in 2016, all 12 of the first teachers were fully bought into this notion, and we increased enrollment by almost 100 students each of the next two years! 

If teachers balk on going the extra mile, because "that’s not in his or her contract," challenge that attitude! And if they don’t respond to the challenge, find a way to let them go. We can do better.

Do we remember the three most important things about real estate? Location, location and location, right? Well the three most important things about retention are similar: Relationships, relationships, relationships. 

Another important way to improve retention rates is to focus on the student to student relationships. A class is a lot like a spinning top. Those students on the outer edges—the kids who are not the “ insiders”— feel the centrifugal forces most powerfully when it spins, and as the class matriculates  year to year, they’re the ones most likely to be spun off and withdraw. That’s especially true if the “insider” students (and their parents) are inclined to be  “cliquish.” So as principal, I go right to the core students and challenge them to bring the outsiders into the center with them. They know exactly what I mean. 

Another idea: Every other year I do a “school activities audit,” asking this simple question: Is there a place for everyone here? If kids can join up with other kids and participate in something they enjoy, it pulls them into the life of the school.  A good place to begin that audit? Go out to the parking lot at dismissal and pay close attention to who leaves campus first. They’re the ones most likely to withdraw. Look at our offerings through their eyes: is there something for them? That’s why we started our bowling team at St. Michael. We realized it would appeal to a completely different type of kid than our other athletic programs. We were right!  They had so much fun together, even though most of them weren’t very good bowlers, but who cares? 

Another: Consider starting a peer ministry program. About 4 years ago, we assembled a group of kids whose sole mission was to look out for their peers—particularly freshmen and transfers. In the first few weeks of school especially, they were trained to watch out for students eating alone at lunch, for example, and if they saw someone, they’d go sit next to him or her and begin a conversation. They’d invite him or her to eat with them the next day, to come to the ball games with them, and to sit with them at school events. It was absolutely beautiful to watch them in action. Eventually, slowly, even the most timid of the new students would get over the “hump” and begin feeling like they belonged. 

Finally, consider imposing a substantial penalty for early withdrawals. Put it in the enrollment contract. Many schools say “100% of tuition due,” but I never felt good about demanding that, especially for early year withdrawals. So we settled on the phrase “$2,000 penalty for early withdrawal or the remainder of the tuition, whichever is less.” The truth is, it isn’t really about the school collecting lost revenue! It’s about creating a disincentive for parents to yank their kids out whenever they’re having social problems or struggling academically! Too often, the parents cripple their children with  “the grass is always greener” syndrome.Kids need to learn some grittiness by working through it!

The results of these and other retention initiatives were rather dramatic at St. Michael. The National Association of Independent Schools reports their retention rates average 88% to 90%. I consider 92-95% to be good to very good. In a 2 year period, with the changes I’ve discussed, we went from 88% retention (or 12% attrition) to 95% retention—a difference of about 22 kids a year.  (*)

And that isn’t  just a financial success.  If we have happier kids, we have happier parents. And if we have happier parents, we then have ambassadors who speak well of us to prospective families, just like I speak well of the Battle House. 

So in a real way, focusing on retention isn’t just the basis of a good admissions program. It’s the first priority for a school's marketing program as well! More  importantly, it's the basis for a school with healthier, happier kids! 

(* ) To calculate annual retention rates, pick a fixed date somewhere near the beginning of the year. For us, I pick September 15 because there’s a lot of incoming and outgoing students early on, and by mid September, most of that has settled. Then count the number of students you have on that date, minus your 8th graders or seniors who will naturally move on at the end of the year. Write down that number. Then keep a tally of any kid who leaves for any reason in those grades, up until (September 15) of next year. It doesn’t matter when or why—over Christmas, during the summer, whether they voluntarily left or were expelled. All the reasons count. Then, total those who have left, and divide that number by your total students (not counting seniors or 8th) from last September 15. That’s your retention rate. The flip of that (100% -your retention rate) is your annual attrition. Some attrition, of course, is unavoidable. Jobs require families to move. A child simply cannot handle the academic program. A divorce changes a family’s economic equation. But I try not to let changing economic situations factor in, if that’s truly the reason a family is contemplating withdrawing, by offering additional aid. 

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

(This is part III of a talk I gave at the NCEA Convention on using language to re-invent our schools.)

5) Our language should communicate our joyfulness!  Perhaps because we unconsciously associate the idea of “carrying one’s cross” with suffering and pain,  we’ve convinced ourselves that Christianity is only for the miserable. But the most authentic Christians I’ve known are people of great joy! We need to communicate that to our students and families! Our web pages should be filled with happy children and stunning HD video of our kids enjoying their classmates and teachers! 

We should also make time in our school schedules for “fun” things. In my two previous schools, we were structured with “Houses” ala the British boarding schools, and the school calendar was punctuated by mini-competitions between the Houses, culminating in the “House Games” at the end of April, where we suspended classes to have academic and athletic competitions in the afternoon.  At the end of the Games, we’d award the “House Cup” to the House with the most total points for the year. I encouraged kids to dress up in their house colors, in whatever crazy (but modest) way they wanted, to show their House Spirit. It was a gloriously fun, joyful day, with a lot of cheering and smiles! 

It’s good to celebrate every now and then! 

6) Our language needs to communicate our confidence! Our schools change lives! Do we really believe that? Then let’s communicate it! 

Is that being cocky? Not at all! Here's why:

In the story of blind Bartemaeus from the gospels, Bartemaues shouts out from a distance:  “Jesus, have pity on me!” Jesus hears him, but doesn’t go to him. Instead, he tells the apostles, “Go bring him to me.” So the apostles go to him and say, “Take courage, get up, Jesus is calling you.” And they bring him to Jesus, who heals him.

We are “ministers, not messiahs,” as the Bishop Hunthausen prayer reminds us. We are not the ones who heal.  Instead, we are the ones who say to our students, “Take courage! Get up, Jesus is calling you!” Our mission is to bring students to the Lord. Our confidence in our schools to is not based on some egotistical, arrogant belief in ourselves, but in the faith we have in Christ to heal those we bring to him. 

So let us boldly proclaim: Our schools change lives! 

Too often pessimism creeps into our language.  Especially if we’re struggling for enrollment or if our financial margins are thin, we might say, “Our hands are tied.” Or “We would if we could, but we don’t have the money." Because of scarcity, we stop dreaming. When we do that, we communicate to families that we are puny, and don’t have the "power" to fulfill our mission. 

One of the mistakes we make, in this regard, is we set our tuitions too low. I know we do that out of our concern for our poorest families, and it's partly our legacy from the sisters, who worked heroically for very little pay.  But if we present ourselves as the Kmart of educational choices, people will regard us as that way! In a free market economy, people equate price with quality. People say, “I wonder why they can't  charge as much as everyone else?" Even our own parents think, unreflectively, that we should charge less (but offer the same or better programs as those who charge more!). We have to wean our families and communities of this notion! I believe we should aim our tuitions to the middle of the market, step-laddering them higher over a 3-5 year period,  and give appropriate financial aid to help our most vulnerable families. Not only will it provide us more income to pay our teachers better and do new things, it'll reposition us in the marketplace as a school of greater value. 

Can we quit thanking parents, please, for “sacrificing” to send their children to us? Literally, to “sacrifice” means to give something up and expect little in return! We don’t praise parents for “sacrificing” to purchase a new car, or to go on vacation, or to buy a new home. Why not? Because we see these things as necessary or important  Paying tuition for our schools is not charity work! It’s the best investment parents can ever make in their children's future! 

Do we know that small schools generally out-perform larger ones? The data is clear. At St. Michael, a school of just 350 students, I linked those research studies to our web site.  Also, small schools know the students in a personal way that is nearly impossible for larger schools. When we give tours to prospective families, for example, as we go down the hallways, we should be deliberate in interacting with students:  “Good hit yesterday, Johnny.” “Nice point you made in class this morning, Bill.” “I was so excited to watch you at the ballet last weekend, Susie.” Let parents understand if they send their children to our schools, we will know them personally. 

I am not an expert in the martial arts, but my understanding is that “jujitsu” teaches people to use their smaller, more nimble size as an advantage against larger, stronger opponents—showing them, for example, how to “throw” aggressors when they attack, by using their momentum against them. 

As smaller schools, we need to practice jujitsu! Let’s project our confidence--maybe even a little swagger! 

“Clothes make the man.” There is great truth in that, which is why the military insists its soldiers wear uniforms, and why it pays such careful attention to keeping those uniforms properly washed, pressed and worn correctly. The military understands that careful attention to the exterior garb begins to make a profound difference to the soldier’s interior self-understanding and attitude. 

We in Catholic schools need to “cloak” ourselves in language which reminds our teachers and families of our fundamental “why,” a language which is simple and direct, that reflects the challenge of the gospel, which welcomes families from other faiths, and that is both joyful and confident!  If we do, it’ll change us from the inside out, thus “re-presenting” ourselves to our communities and towns! 

May God give us the wisdom, eloquence and conviction to do so! 

Happy Catholic Schools Week!

This week we celebrate the tremendous blessing that our Catholic schools have been to generations of families.  I know of no ministry within our Church that has been as effective in bringing young people and their families to the Lord.  Catholic schools change lives!

Part of our challenge is to find ways to powerfully communicate this message within our schools and to our communities. We've had some unexpected snow days in Dallas this week, which has given me some time to assemble notes from various talks I've given and things I've written about the importance of our schools. I invite you to peruse through them here. If you're a leader or advocate of Catholic schools, feel free to use any of it. 

May God bless our pastors, principals, teachers, students and families this week, and in the years to come! 

Essentials

I leave St. Michael Catholic High School on Friday, and I think my leaving presents an opportunity for the school. Every institution must be open to change. Heads of school come and go, and with each new leader, the school has the chance to rethink its assumptions. This is part of the natural cycle of a school and the chance for each school to “begin again.” 

New leaders, however, are wise to make distinctions between the “essence” of the school they are inheriting, and the changeable elements that can be improved to better fit the needs of their communities. I’ve had the privilege to lead three Catholic high schools (Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School in Montgomery, AL, Pope John Paul II High School in Nashville, TN and St. Michael Catholic High School in Fairhope, AL), which has given me a chance to reflect on what I believe to be the “essentials” of Catholic high schools.  Here are my top four: 

We Cannot Allow Students to “Settle”— Every student in a school, regardless of aptitude, should feel a bit of “angst” about the classes they’re taking! I don’t mean they should feel hopeless, but that they should have a tinge of worry that if they don’t work hard, they won’t succeed. Nothing kills the academic culture of a school faster than putting kids in classes that allow them to float, without a lot of paddling! This is why I am generally against dividing students into more than two academic tracks. The capable kids should be encouraged to take the highest level courses available  as they move up the ladder, and not be allowed to “settle” with something in between A.P. and “regular” classes in their junior or senior year ( often misnamed “honors” courses) that give them an excuse not to work harder. And kids on the other end of the spectrum should not be allowed to “settle” on remedial courses that don’t prepare them for the world ahead. In three schools and 34 years as principal, I’ve never presided over the “third track,” whatever the school may call it.  No, it is not prudent for even the most capable students to take 7 A.P. classes at a time—they can mix and match  A.P. classes and electives to create a reasonable schedule. And no, taking regular classes is not an easy path for kids who struggle, but if we are being honest with them, life is hard, and they must develop the work ethic to face it.  If teachers are available to help them after school, if the school puts in place thoughtful policies such as “50” as the lowest test grade, and if teachers are inclined to give kids who work hard the opportunity for  retests and second chances, these kids will succeed and become our proudest graduates, having achieved a real milestone. 

Relationships. Relationships. Relationships—Just as the three most important characteristics of real estate are “location, location and location,” so too does the quality of the relationships in a school determine its success. Those relationships go in every direction: from teachers to parents, from teachers to each other, from teachers to students, and between the students themselves. 

While that may seem obvious, it’s easily forgotten as schools age, and job descriptions, policies and duties begin to settle. As tempting as it is to set policies for reasons of efficiency and to “pre-solve” the many issues which are likely to come a principal’s way, the danger is if these policies remove the human element and the pastoral judgment required to handle the particular needs of a child in a particular circumstance. That’s why I’ve always resisted spelling out “X” disciplinary consequences for “Y” offenses. Our handbook says something like “Disciplinary consequences include after school detentions, Saturday detentions, in-school and out of school suspensions and expulsions. The school administration will decide which is appropriate, based on their judgment and the interest of the student and school.” Even for the super serious stuff, like drug and alcohol use at school or a school function, our handbook says the student is liable for expulsion.   

Of course, handling each matter pastorally, rather than bureaucratically, is becoming increasingly difficult. Dioceses face the reality of lawsuits, and our parents are much more inclined to immediately call the police to report issues at the school, even if the principal has already taken steps to protect the safety of students. It would great if principals had time to gather all the data and prayerfully consider how to handle the tough cases!  But I don’t believe we should simply resign ourself to these new realities and give up! Families in difficult circumstances need us to handle their child with care and love. That’s the message of the gospels; it’s the message of the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the wheats and the tares. Bureaucratic policies and the threat of lawsuits can wipe out the human element to the detriment of everyone! 

Both-And— I once knew a girl who was a softball phenom. For the age of 7 through her senior year, she was the best player on whatever team she played on. Largely due to her abilities, her youth teams usually played all the way to the end of the summer in national championship games, just in time for “fall ball” and then onto the high school season in the spring. As she neared graduation, she was offered scholarships to several well known D-1 programs. I noticed she was unhappy, and called her into my office to talk with her about what was wrong.  She began weeping: “Mr. Weber, all I’ve done with my life is play softball. I’m sick of it. I haven’t done fun things like my classmates have, and here I am at graduation, without any close friends. I don’t want to play  softball in college. I want to be a regular student. ” And so she declined the scholarships and attended the college like every other student. I was proud of her. Last time I saw here, she was doing quite well. 

There’s a clear lesson here: Children flourish when they’re encouraged to engage in many things—and the more different, the better. That was a big reason we wanted to have 8 periods per semester. Taking 8 allows them to take a band or choral class, for example, even while they take weights and conditioning as required by their sport. It isn’t Chamber Choir OR football, but “both-and.” I believe this is good for the teenager’s soul—that they are happier and healthier.  I heard a comedian say his wife was in labor with their first child for 30 hours. His punchline was “I don’t even want to do something that feels GOOD for 30 hours!” And yet we end up doing this to kids all the time, convinced that unless they play (insert sport here) year round, they won’t have the skills for a college scholarship. Our children’s happiness and health aren’t worth it. And if they’re some of the truly rare kids who are athletic enough to make a living playing professional sports, then they have the ability to play a lot of other sports along the way in high school—witness the fact that most players in the NFL or NBA starred in multiple sports.

A Vibrant, Ecumenical and Confident Faith— When I was a younger principal, I feared if we came on “too strong” about our Catholic faith, it would offend our Protestant families. But I have come to understand that our Protestant families know exactly what they’re signing up for when they place their children in our schools, and they expect us to build a dynamic Catholic culture here. They want their children to be exposed to adults who give joyful witness to their faith! Yes, of course we should be ecumenically sensitive.  I was once given a gift of a large Marian statue for our athletic fields, and told I could put whatever I wanted on the plaque. I didn’t choose the title “The Mediatrix!” Instead the plaque simply said “Be it Done Unto Me According to Thy Word.” (Luke 1:38). Better to appeal to what we share in common, Scripture, than to emphasize our differences. 

Even so, I also believe it’s a dreadful mistake to water down our witness to some sort of “lowest common denominator” with our other Christian families. It’s the sometimes unusual, often fun celebrations that make our Catholic faith so interesting to our students!  In my first year as principal at John Paul II in Nashville, Mardi Gras came and went, without fanfare. This was totally unacceptable to me, borne and raised in the city that began Mardi Gras parades (that’s right New Orleans folks, it began here), so the following year, I loaded up 5 pillow sacks of candy, and told the administrative team to go into live classrooms, shower the kids with candy, and say “Happy Mardi Gras!” The students, of course, loved it.  Our kids need to see that our faith enlivens us!   That’s why I believe the “critical mass” of our faculty must be Catholic, but it’s also why ALL of our faculty and staff need to be practicing, joyful Christians. 

And confident ones! I am not persuaded that we should give “room” in our school for Christian adults who are struggling in conscience with the fundamental teachings of our faith. Yes, of course we should give people space, to the extent they are individuals!  But I am not hiring people to work in a factory or a retail store. I am hiring ministers of the faith, who themselves must be authentic, living witnesses of that faith to our students, so that their faith is ignited! Catholic schools should be  “furnaces for formation,” I heard someone say recently. Amen! 

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I am convinced that Catholic high schools can develop many personalities, and no two schools are the same. But the most impactful Catholic high schools, the ones that truly advance the trajectory of teenagers’ lives, both as students and as people of faith—are those, I believe, who incarnate these four essential beliefs into their policies and practices. In the end, we are building a culture, and the culture will determine the school’s success more so than any program or strategy.

May God bless St. Michael Catholic High, and all those who work in Catholic high schools across the country.  Ours is noble work! 

Kit and Caboodle

When they say it, I know they don’t mean it as I hear it. 

But words shape our thinking, and I find that development professionals use this phrase often. In advising us how to set up a successful campaign, for example, they might say: “We need to get the ‘Catholic piece’’ just right.”

Let me suggest the first step in getting the “Catholic piece” just right is to forever ban that phrase in discussing our schools. Unwittingly, the phrase suggests that the Catholic faith is a component part of our operations, a box to be checked, literally, a “piece” we must attend to. In fact, creating a dynamic, creative Catholic culture that leads our students to become disciples of Jesus Christ is our essential mission, our raison d'être, the whole ‘kit and caboodle.’ Yes, I believe we also have other obligations: to be excellent academically, to offer good athletic and fine arts programs, to help kids become physically and mentally healthy, etc. But if we aren’t not building a vibrant Catholic culture as the context within which all these other things are happening, we may as well simply call ourselves another private school.

I have the same objection to characterizing the faith as one of the “pillars” of the school, alongside the other “pillars” such as academics, the arts, athletics or fill-in-the-blank. Again, this implies that faith is one of the component pieces, albeit an important one. But if we’re using metaphors, faith is not one of the pillars; it’s the very foundation upon which all other pillars stand. 

What a vibrant Catholic school offers its students and families is an alternative culture wherein the faith is practiced in a way that is “normalized” for its students. Through the authentic witness of its teachers, coaches and staff, students are invited to participate in this alt-culture— praying, worshipping, learning and serving —practices that become so integral to their daily lives that they almost don’t notice. This is the great blessing of our schools: that the life of faith is NOT an extraordinary add-on, not a retreat nor just a Sunday thing, but something natural, everyday, the air that we breathe. That “air” then elevates everything else, creating an optimism for excellence, buoyed by the transforming power of God’s grace active in the life of our students.