NO FALCON LEFT BEHIND

While the news that North is closing (for now) is disturbing and short sighted, one of the responsibilities is to provide options for the parents of our boys and this responsibility is shared by the Archdiocese, the school and the stakeholders of the school (Alumni, Coaches, Friends of North Catholic).

While the school’s leadership is struggling with this, these stakeholders are taking this responsibility seriously and are hard at work trying to develop options and solutions for our boys. As previously reported by Mike Ferris last week, the Jesuit model called “Cristo Rey” appears to provide the largest opportunity for our community, our parents and their children. I urge to you take another look at what Mike reported because it does provide some much needed “hope” in what many would advise is a hopeless situation.

This model is a regimented, college prep program that focuses it resources on providing educational opportunities to those who cannot afford the traditional Catholic school education. With tuition and fees approaching $6,000 per year, the middle class and poor and being forced to find alternatives, namely the charter schools or the public schools. The problem here is that most have chosen the charter school road and what they are facing are waiting lists, long waiting lists.

Here are some things that we need to keep in front of us. First of all, while the focus of this program is to assist those who cannot afford Catholic education, there is a cost for it. It roughly runs anywhere from $7 to $10,000 per student. This model however leverages a co-op approach whereby each student works one day a week. In researching the web sites of various Cristo Rey schools, these work opportunities are with colleges, law firms, accounting firms, etc. The pay for these boys is directly received by the school to underwrite some of the cost of the program.

This program however will not remove the necessity of North to fund raise and honestly, fund raise like it never has before. In the past, North has been fractured by the number of hands reaching out to a small pool of donors. It has been the school, it has been the Friends of North Catholic (FONECHS), it has been the Alumni Association and it has been the sports teams.

If North is to get a second chance, its fund raising needs to be more focused, more intense and more effective in reaching the tens of thousands graduates, not just the thousands. There have been a lot of good things happening behind the scenes, for example, FONECHS has offered to merge its non-profit into the Alumni Association allowing for the Alumni Association to be the primary fund raising arm. FONECHS is also willing to provide additional lists of candidates to the Alumni and to work with them on a more intense “calling” effort. The point here is that in this next chapter (if there is one); please expect that you will be called upon to help.

We had a great Soccer Alumni event yesterday. Close to 80 people attended at one point or another, in weather that was pretty nasty. In most of our conversations, we reminded them that they will be asked to help monetarily and it was well received. The Alumni and FONECHS are sensitive to the economy and its impact on all households and their pocketbook. You can say what you want about our current President (Obama), but how he funded his campaign is the new paradigm. Most of his war chest was amassed from individuals that gave $50 to $100. Now let’s use North under this scenario. If we can get 10,000 North graduates to contribute $100, by my math this would bring $1,000,000 annually. If we can now get our Alums to bring others into the fold, this number gets exponentially bigger.

One reason that Cristo Rey is a good thing for the Archdiocese to consider besides the continuation of Catholic education in the inner city, is the collateral benefit to the parish. Since these boys will possibly go to North under this Cristo Rey designation, North will not be part of the Archdiocesan system. By not being part, the parishes will not be assessed for high school tuition. These funds can now be diverted to more direct programs that each parish needs to provide its parishioners.

Remember, NO SURRENDER, the stakeholders of North believe this to insure that NO FALCONS LEFT BEHIND!

FABLIO!