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QUESTION: How many members does Assumption currently have?
ANSWER: As of December 13, 2006, there are 847 families registered at Assumption; with 2323 members in total.
QUESTION:
I
have been hearing the school year 2006-2007 will be the last at Assumption.
My daughter, who attends Assumption, is friends with many students at
ANSWER:
Unfortunately
this is not true and we’re not sure where these rumors come from.
Assumption enrollment is up. As you know communication is the best medicine there is for rumors, and
as of now there is no bad news. If
you still need to ask questions please call me at the rectory and I will be
happy to talk or meet with you to discuss any gossip.
We have been updating our website and now that the six committees are
finally beginning to meet there will more to come. Learn
more here.
Question: Public schools have report cards on their academic performance. How do we know what our Catholic schools are doing? We are told, Catholic schools are renowned for academic excellence. Do we have guidelines or report cards stating how Assumption is doing?
Answer: The simplest way to track Assumption school’s academic performance is to use the standardized tests given annually to each of the classes. Each child’s grade reflects their relative performance to al the other children taking this test in the same grade. Scores are reflected as performing at a grade level (e.g., 7th grade 3rd month, ect.). When these scores are averaged for the class, all grades perform above the standard grade level. According to the Archdiocesan web site, “Students in the archdiocese score in the top 1/3 on nationally standardized tests.”
Catholic elementary schools are not part of the “No child left behind effort, where math and reading achievement tests are administered annually. Students in Catholic High school, however, are required to pass the Ohio Graduation Test to graduate. and 98% of Catholic High School students graduate.
Question: In the Jan. 6th, 2006 issue of the Catholic Telegraph, Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk said in his 'state of the archdiocese' address, that we are making new efforts to collect $28 million in unpaid debts from our parishes. How much does Assumption owe the archdiocese?
Answer: We’re pleased to say that Assumption Parish doesn’t owe anything … we’re paid up.
Question: A couple Sunday’s ago; we received an insert in the bulletin talking about the StMM deanery elementary school
effort, updating us on what has happened as of the middle of November. In that update, they mentioned that Assumption was “talking & exploring Area Education Centers” with St. Ann, St. Clare, St. Margaret Mary and Little Flower. Who’s talking to who? And what have they explored so far?
Answer:
So far, the talking has been among the parish pastors involved and the principals of these schools.
They have met 4-5 times over the past two months. Most of the discussion has been to talk about
the regional concept itself (referred to as Area Education Centers in the handout) and to allow all to voice their concerns and hopes for the future. As of today, the concept of regional Area Education Centers has been agreed to by all five of the elementary schools, but there is a lot of work to be done to determine how best to move towards this objective.
At the last meeting, it was decided that each parish/school would look for representatives from
their parish to participate on one of the six new committees being formed. The following
parishioners have been asked to represent Assumption School & Parish as participants on these
committees.
- Communications
Bill Rocklin
- Technology & Facilities
Rick Reder
- Finance
Jim Schultz
- Governance
Kathy Lorenz
- Religious Education & Parish Life
Clare Stentz
- Personnel
Annette Braun
Representatives from the five parishes will gather for the first time in January to meet each other, to hear what has transpired in the discussions so far, and to be briefed on what is expected of them in the coming months. We will have more to report on this effort after the January meeting.
This effort should not be viewed as a “consolidation” effort, but rather as a Catholic community
united … united with a common goal of insuring continued Catholic Elementary education in the St.
Margaret Mary Deanery for many years to come.
If you have any ideas that may help our effort or questions/concerns in a particular area, please
contact Fr. Bill, any member of the pastoral council, or use the feedback form on the web site at
http://assumptionmthealthy.org/StMMDSchoolUpdate/index.htm; where you will find this report and all
previous and future communications on this effort.
I’m really getting confused about the Pastoral Regions being formed in our deanery. In last week’s bulletin, there were 10 groups listed and we
were combined with St. Margaret Mary. Does that mean we’re combining schools with St. Margaret Mary? Also, somebody told me that
Assumption school was closing down next year! Please help me understand what’s going on and what to believe.
To answer your last question first … Rest assured, Assumption School is NOT closing down
next year. We’ll talk more about the school effort, but first let’s take a closer look at all the
notices that have been coming about the deanery, the regions, the school and such.
To begin with, there are two major efforts underway:
1. Plans that will help us address the shortage of priests in the archdiocese.
2. Plans to insure that Catholic Elementary education will continue to be an option
for years to come.
The 1st Effort – To address the shortage of priests
First let’s look at the structure in the archdiocese. The archdiocese is divided into 11
subgroups called deaneries. Our deanery is called the St. Margaret Mary deanery (nothing
to do with the parish). The number of parishes in our deanery has been in somewhat of a
state of flux, but as of today, there are 15 parishes in our deanery that are staffed by
archdiocesan priests.
It is estimated that by 2010, we will have only 100 priests in the archdiocese (we have 170
active today). After many meetings over the past several years, and discussions with the
archbishop, it’s been decided our deanery needs to develop plans to be able to run these 15
parishes with 9 priests by the year 2010. To accomplish that, the deanery has recently been
divided into 9 “PASTORAL REGIONS” to match the projected 9 priests we’ll have. These
pastoral regions were selected by combining some parishes that will work together to make
this doable. This was posted in last week’s bulletin (still available online at the website).
Note: There were actually 10 pastoral regions listed, but “St. Clement & St. Bernard” are not
staffed by archdiocesan priests.
One of these pastoral region combines Assumption with St. Margaret Mary. So what does this mean? Well, it means that Fr. Bill & Deacon Rick will be meeting with the
priest at St. MM to talk about how we can work together as a parish. They will be starting
that process in the next couple of weeks. It also means that ministries and organizations in
both parishes will be encouraged to look for ways they can work together.
This combination does NOT mean that we will be combining parishes. But, by the year
2010, there may only be one priest to minister to both parishes. Obviously, that means a lot
of the duties of this priest will need to be offloaded to others in both parishes.
The 2nd effort - Catholic Elementary Schools
There is another effort underway to insure the future of Catholic elementary education in the
archdiocese. Several of you attended a meeting in June where the findings and recommendations of an archdiocesan committee were presented. More recently, there was
an article by Fr. Bill in AssumptioNews talking about progress on this front since the
meeting in July. Both of these documents are available on the website. Simply follow the
link on the School Office page.
The approach recommended by those attending the June meeting and in subsequent feedback was a “regional” approach … phased in over time. ** Importantly … these are NOT
the same “regions” as the pastoral regions mentioned above. The parishes in the “school
region” that will be working together are St. Margaret Mary, St. Clair, Little Flower, St. Ann’s
and Assumption.
Given the projected decline in student population in our area, the goal is to gradually move
towards a “regional” school … as needed by declining enrollment … over the coming years.
A move to a “regional” school structure will insure that Catholic parents will always have the
option of sending their children to a Catholic Elementary school. When and how this will happen has NOT been decided. Indeed, when and how this will
happen has NOT even been discussed. We do know that these efforts will consist of a
committee of several representatives from each parish … and we know that these
committees have not yet been formed.
We hope this has helped answer your questions and addressed your concerns. We will
continue to keep everyone informed of all progress on both fronts. If anyone has any
questions or concerns, you can continue to use the Q&A site (link in the What’s New box on
the web home page), the Suggestion box at church, or the feedback form on the web page
discussing the school efforts mentioned above.
Change isn’t comfortable because the unknown is a scary place … but together, with God’s
grace, we can do this. And, when we get to the other side, we’ll see that it wasn’t really that
scary after all. But more importantly, we’ll see it was the right thing to do for the future of our
parish and our children.
Assumption Pastoral Council
10/2005
Why does the bible have so much information about
altars and garments and how they looked back then? Is all this information
really important?
We need to remember that the authors of the books of the Bible lived and
wrote in cultures much different from our own today. For example, the Jewish
tradition placed a great deal of emphasis on the ritual and the articles used
associated with worship, such as garments and altars. Therefore, it is not
surprising that some Biblical authors write about these things in detail.
I went to Mass at Corpus Christi (our daughter’s
church) during the holidays and noted that they sit down after receiving
Communion. Has Assumption ever considered promoting this practice?
It is common for parishes to develop practices over time that become
part of their liturgies. However, in terms of liturgical correctness, the
latest directive regarding sitting after Communion is that the congregation
should wait to be seated until after the Blessed Sacrament is reposed.
Has Assumption ever considered promoting the practice
of holding hands during the Our Father? This is done every year at the Mass at
the Men’s Conference and I have heard that it is done at some neighboring
parishes.
Congregations deal with this practice in varying ways. In some
parishes, holding hands is just an automatic reaction when the congregation
begins reciting the Our Father. In other parishes, the invitation to hold hands
is made and individuals make their own choice. At Assumption, people seem most
comfortable with being able to decide for themselves how they pray the Our
Father and whether holding hands enhances their prayerful experience.
I keep reading about Fr. Earl in Rome, and that we can send him something.
Could you refresh my memory? Tell me why he is there, and how long will he be
there?
Fr. Earl Fernandes was ordained in May 2002. He was assigned to Sydney Lehman
Catholic High School. Normally, a first time associate is assigned for three
years. In light of Fr. Earl’s background and talents and the large 2004
ordination class of eight, Fr. Earl was specially selected for advanced study in
Moral Theology and sent to Rome. In two years he is scheduled to receive the
Church’s equivalent of a Master’s Degree and complete most of his classroom
work. He then will write a doctoral dissertation on a selected topic. This
normally takes two years to complete by passing oral tests and having his
dissertation approved. He will then return to teach Moral Theology and Medical
Ethics at the Seminary in Cincinnati and serve as special consultant to the
Archbishop during his teaching years; he would normally be assigned for
part-time Sunday help in a parish.
What happens to the money we made from the
festival? I don’t see the deficit going down, and there has been no mention of
the funds?
The proceeds from our annual Festival go directly to the operation of our
Parish school and church. Each year in our bulletin, we communicate what the new
proceeds are from our Festival after paying expenses. While the Festival is a
significant fund-raiser for our Parish, we also rely on regular contributions
from parishioners, the collection of tuition in our contributions from
parishioners, the collection of tuition in our schools, and gifts to help pay
our expenses throughout the year.
What was the amount of the one time only collection to reduce the deficit?
I don’t remember seeing that either.
The total was $11,937.00. We had several parishioners who gave most
generously.
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