Four town hall meetings are scheduled throughout southern Madison County to discuss the recent Catholic high school feasibility study commissioned by Catholic School For Me (CS4Me), a group of parents from the area.
The first meeting was held March 6 at St. Boniface Church, in Edwardsville. The three remaining town hall meetings will be: Sunday, March 9, at 7 p.m. at the St. John Neumann School, in Maryville; Tuesday, April 1, at 7 p.m. at St. Elizabeth Church, in Granite City, and Thursday, April 10, at 7 p.m. at St. Paul's Parish Center, in Highland.
Members of the CS4Me board will conduct the meetings, using the same format at each: present feasibility study findings; vision for a new high school; overview of committees that are forming; next steps in the process; and take questions from the audience.
Doug Villhard, CS4Me president, said the board is hoping for a strong turnout.
"We continue to be blessed with the positive feedback we're hearing about the results of the study," he said. "We're expecting an energized crowd at these town hall meetings. Even just the idea of the school is really bringing together Catholics in our part of the county. We're praying this format allows us to both get the word out as well as solicit feedback from the community."
The group's next steps are to conduct the town hall meetings, grow membership for key committees, and complete a final proposal for the exact location, cost, and fundraising plan for the school to be presented to the Diocese of Springfield as well as to major donors in the upcoming months.
The independent study was conducted over the summer and fall of 2007 by Partners in Stewardship for Life, a firm based in St. Lucie, Fla. Over 80 community leaders, clergy, educators, elected officials, potential donors, parishioners, and parents were interviewed as part of the process, and over 1,000 families were surveyed regarding a new school.
The study suggests a school should be centrally located near Maryville, would cost between $12 and $15 million to build, and could serve 400-600 students primarily from the communities of Bethalto, Edwardsville, Collinsville, Glen Carbon, Granite City, Highland, Maryville, and Troy. Tuition of $6,000 per year would be comparable to area schools in the region. Surveyed parents indicated academics, location, and strong Catholic identity were the three features of a new school that most interest them. The study found local economic demographics and Sunday collections suggest it would be feasible through donations to build a school, which would have the potential to have a first enrollment as early as 2011 or 2012.
Information about joining a committee, making a donation, and downloading a summary of the feasibility study can be found on the group's website at http://www.CatholicSchoolForMe.com .