Comment from LutherQuest (sic) - "Notice that all three are feeders for Fox Valley Lutheran High School. Fox Valley has been hurting for students as a result of the decline and closure of local elementary schools from the surrounding region. This decline is unescapable (sic), since baptism figures from while back tend to make each succeeding class size smaller than the previous. Fox Valley has made up for the loss in part by attracting foreign students, about 50-60 at any given time. Although they don't have a dormatory (sic), they've used the congregational support networks to find enough host families to take them in."
GREEN BAY — Several local Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod congregations may close their elementary schools to open a regional building.
The churches — Trinity Lutheran in Kaukauna, St. John's in Wrightstown, St. Paul's in Green Bay and St. Mark in De Pere— have met with members to discuss the possibility of closing their church schools to open one that would serve pre-kindergarten to grade 8.
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If the plan gets the go-ahead, Bock expects fundraising to take about a year with another year or so for engineering and construction. A new school could be open for the 2013-14 school year, he said, and the other schools would close.
"We want it to come across as a positive thing," said St. Mark Principal Jeremy Bock. "We can combine our resources to create a better school."
Combining resources could allow the school to hire a special education teacher or start music programs or programming for gifted and talented students, he said.
"Church schools are just too small to do some of those things, but that's what parents are looking for," Bock said.
The new regional school would sit on an independent campus and would not be tied to any congregation, nor would it be limited to just Wisconsin Synod, or WELS, families. Busing would be available.
A planning committee has pinpointed five potential sites: one along U.S. 41 and Brown County S, one along 41 near the Wrightstown exit, and three on a southern stretch of Lawrence Drive.
About a year ago, a group of pastors, teachers, laypeople and representatives of the Fox Valley Lutheran federation began meeting to discuss new ways to provide Christian education, Bock said. Fox Valley Lutheran High School in Appleton serves as the WELS secondary school for elementary schools in the Fox Valley and Green Bay areas.
"We're really looking for a new way to provide Christian education," Bock said.
Patti Zarling writes for the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
Read more: http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20101025/APC0903/310250130/Plan-focuses-on-regional-Lutheran-elementary-school-for-three-existing-church-schools-Trinity-Lutheran-in-Kaukauna-St-John-s-in-Wrightstown-and-St-Paul-s-and-St-Mark-in-Green-Bay#ixzz15scwKVJc
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If the plan gets the go-ahead, Bock expects fundraising to take about a year with another year or so for engineering and construction. A new school could be open for the 2013-14 school year, he said, and the other schools would close.
"We want it to come across as a positive thing," said St. Mark Principal Jeremy Bock. "We can combine our resources to create a better school."
Combining resources could allow the school to hire a special education teacher or start music programs or programming for gifted and talented students, he said.
"Church schools are just too small to do some of those things, but that's what parents are looking for," Bock said.
The new regional school would sit on an independent campus and would not be tied to any congregation, nor would it be limited to just Wisconsin Synod, or WELS, families. Busing would be available.
A planning committee has pinpointed five potential sites: one along U.S. 41 and Brown County S, one along 41 near the Wrightstown exit, and three on a southern stretch of Lawrence Drive.
About a year ago, a group of pastors, teachers, laypeople and representatives of the Fox Valley Lutheran federation began meeting to discuss new ways to provide Christian education, Bock said. Fox Valley Lutheran High School in Appleton serves as the WELS secondary school for elementary schools in the Fox Valley and Green Bay areas.
"We're really looking for a new way to provide Christian education," Bock said.
Patti Zarling writes for the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
Read more: http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20101025/APC0903/310250130/Plan-focuses-on-regional-Lutheran-elementary-school-for-three-existing-church-schools-Trinity-Lutheran-in-Kaukauna-St-John-s-in-Wrightstown-and-St-Paul-s-and-St-Mark-in-Green-Bay#ixzz15scwKVJc
4 comments:
About baptisms being down, and grade school attendance being down, take a look at the kids they have to work with. The latest Time Mage says half the country is involved in serial marriages and/or cohabitations, and many kids see two or three adult male figures come into their lives even before they turn 16:
Who Needs Marriage? A Changing Institution, by Time Mag:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2031962,00.html
Back then, two-thirds of 20-somethings were married; in 2008 just 26% were. And college graduates are now far more likely to marry (64%) than those with no higher education (48%).
Most of those unwed mothers said their chances of marrying the baby's father were 50% or greater, but after five years, only 16% of them had done so and only about 20% of the couples were still cohabiting. This didn't mean that the children didn't live with a man, however, since about a quarter of their moms were now living with or married to a new partner. That doesn't always work out as well as it seems to in Modern Family or Phineas & Ferb. Offspring from earlier relationships put pressure on new ones. For the least wealthy children, Mom's new boyfriend often means their biological father is less likely to visit and less likely to support their mother. Many stepparents are wonderful and committed, but a series of live-in lovers is not at all the same thing. "About 21% of American children will see at least two live-in partners of their mothers by the time they're 15," says Cherlin. "And an additional 8% will see three or more." (See 10 TV moms June Cleaver would hate.)
Would marriage really stop the conveyor belt of parent figures?
http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,680216267001_2032159,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,2031965,00.html
Dream on! This scheme hinges on reorganization and distraction coupled with faith in what new buildings will do. Even before the school opens it will become apparent that they cannot afford to provide a better education.
This ill-fated potential construction project is a variation of masonry evangelism. This also could be stated as the Field of Dreams model - if you build it, they will come. In a simpler time, I was on the General Board of an ALHS. One time at a meeting, the principal was asked how they obtained their prediction for future class sizes. His reply was to simply look at the combined total number at each grade level for all of the schools in the HS federation. Then, calculate 80% of that. This calculation was fairly accurate, based upon its historical success. That was in a simpler time, when congregations and schools were there to serve the members, first and foremost.
Since then, the WELS has become missional. They are reaching out to the community. Like any growth model that does not rely upon past efforts, the results can be varied and unpredictable.
"take a look at the kids they have to work with"
This comment is spot on. When the above mentioned ALHS brought on a development director, their aim was to purposely reach out to non-
federation families. When I found out about the starry-eyed outreach methods, I said to my beloved wife,
"there goes the quality control program". I guess that it would be unloving to say that children from blended families do not deserve better than government school education.
I thought that I would never say this. But, I wonder if the congregation sponsored school, in its present form, is an idea whose day has come and gone.
Please take note where this proposed amalgamation is to take place. It is in the armpit of the WELS, the Fox Valley region. Pardon my crassness, but this armpit could use a little deodor ant. It sure has been stinkin' lately.
Let me guess. Like Westside Christian School, this new school will leave out the word Lutheran in its title. After all, we do not want the general public to think that we are "those other Lutherans".
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