HISTORY AND CALENDAR OF
THE NORTH CENTRAL COMMITTEE TO STUDY OUR
FOUNDATIONAL DOCUMENTS


Wednesday, May 5 Full committee Meeting. Rich reported on the meeting witht he School Educational Policies committee meeting and we worked to a final proposal in light of all the input we had received. After an hour, Rich made a motion that the Mission Statement we had arrived at be sent to the School Ed. policies. Matt said he would inform the faculty of our progress.
Brian Christopher proposed an amended Grad at Grad. Copies were given and the members were asked to read this carefully and we would hopefully arrive at a recommendation at a meeting to be held soon.
Tuesday, May 4 Rich Moran presented his amended Mission statement to the School Educational Policies Committee. He took their responses and reworked the Mission Statement and broguht it the full committee meeting the next day.

Mid-March 31 Matt Sciuto and Rich Moran addressed a general faculty meeting about the progress of the Mission statement, the input received, and asked that any other ideas to be offerd before Easter. We listened to the faculty response the the first proposal. Rich Moran then created an amended Mission Statement.

Mid-March Proposed changes on the Mission statement were given to all faculty. A copy was put in everyone's mail box. Their advice was requested.

March 8 Committee met and approved the proposed version of the Mission Statement. It was decided that a hard copy would be made available to everyone with a request for their response. There needs to be a meeting of the next steps of Rich Moran, Dr. Schenkenberg, Chuck Hussung and Matt Sciuto to decide where to go from here. Some suggestions about how to get the faculty behind this included: make this part of the coming Faculty Prayer Day (ask Terry Quinn what he thinks) and to ask the Department Chairs to bring this to their members for response.
We began to look at the Grad at Grad proposal. We suggested changes in the openning paragraphs. We asked members to do some homework and really go over the five categories and changes. We will meet during the first week of April to discuss changes; then the subcommittee will revise and offer a final proposal.

February 27 Information packets about the group's progress were sent to various people in the SLUH community asking directly for their advice and input: Peggy Pride (Technology), Steve Aylward (Social Studies), Mary Lee McConaghy and Dick Keefe (Languages), Dick Wehner (Athletics), Libby Moore (Library), Charlie Busenhart (Science), Fr. Jeff Harrison (Senior Project). A packet was sent to our pastoral staff (Tim Chik, Matt Stewart and Sue Walsh) and another packet to our computer specialists Bob Overkamp, Steve Nicollerat and Tim Rittenhouse. James Erler and his student group also received a packet. Packets alos went to Eric Clark, Chuch Hussung and Mary Schenkenberg. Karen Tichey was emailed this information.

February 26 after school Committee met to discuss the Mission statement. We began with the student input and the Committee liked the advice. Rich and Fr. Tom will go back and rewrite this with these considerations
  • Pledge will probably be changed to STRIVE.
  • We will look to incorporate "We CHALLENGE our students and ourselves to life-long discovery" into the new proposal.
We also discussed whether we should change "rigourous program of academic excellence," how important it was to have "geographic" in the second paragraph, and whether "make our school a model" should be broadened. We said we would give this Mission statement our best shot and offer it to the school, but would not be upset if the community wanted to stay with the preious Mission Statement.

The Grad at Grad proposal needs to be finished. We hope to meet before the end othe quarter and discuss the Grad at Grad lke we did the Mission statement.

February 26 activity period M. Sciuto met with students James Erler, John Berosky, Nate Hilliard and Pay Lyons. Students offferd these views on the Mission statement.

Mission Statement Students liked the new proposal with these comments:
  • they liked "We CHALLENGE our students and ourselves to life-long discovery" and wondered why it was removed.
  • they really liked the addition of "who are willing to go beyond academic excellence to the vison and values of Jesus Christ."
  • they wondered if there were a better word than PLEDGE in the first paragraph.
Students had views on the Grad at Grad and were asked to offer them when a later first draft comes out of the subcommittee. Students were assured that these views on the Mission Statement would be part of our meeting later that day.

January into February Subcommittees met. Student group was formed via Student Council and Religious Chair James Erler.

December 16 full committee meeting 12:45 till 1:40. Subcommittess reported back to the the group.
Grad at Grad subcommittee believes our document is solid but does need updating and is too wordy. Group also is consideriing adding something about tolerance/respect . Brian brought up the idea of students geetting support while rich asked if the Grad at Grad is clear enough about students assuming responbility for their own work. Fr. Cummings asked about our students learning the value of aloneness. We discussed the idea of academic competence versus academic excellence.
The Mission statement trio believed that our present Mission statement is good and solid but not inspiring. Rich asked the group if changing this would be worth the effort that would have to be made to let the faculty own it. the group asked this committeee to try to come up with waht they thought might be a better Mission statement and then decide if it is worth fighting for.
Fr. Cummings asked about having student input. Dr. Schnenkenberg had asked about this. there is a student committee formed under james Erler. We will consider adding a student to the committee, or perhaps a student to each subcommittee, in the near future.

Mid December Student committee formed through James Erler and Student Council. They will be meeting and discussing the Mission stattement and the Grad at Grad and will offer their suggestions to the committee early in 2004. Students involved ar seniors Tim Beishir, Pat Lyons, Dan Heard, Nate hilliard, Tom Mudd, Joe Germanese, Sam Weller, John Berosky and juniors Joe Eggleston and Dan Queatham.

December 5 First Mission subcommitte meeting

December 3 First Grad at Grad subcommitte meeting

November 19 Committee met and set a process for our work. This committee will work both as a group and as two distinct subcommittees. A Mission subcommittee will consist of Rich Moran (facilitator), Tom Cummings and Thom Digman. Brian Christopher (facilitator), Rosemary Queatham, George Mills, Kathryn Whitaker, Eric Clark will comprise the The Grad at Grad subcommittee. The chair will be part of both groups and serve each as needed. Each subgoup will post their meeting and committee members will be welcome to join each.

November 10 SLUH's Student Government was asked to form an ad hoc committee to offer student voice on these documents. Vice-President Tom Mudd and Relgious Chair James Erler responded with interest. A letter was written wit this request November 17 and to StuCo President, Vice-President, Moderator and Religous Chair.

November 7 Prep News ran an article about the Committee and its work; readers were told of the web page and invited to add their thoughts.

November 6 Joe Patke added links to our web site on the Parents page and on the alumni page of the SLUH web site.

November 3 M. Sciuto met with the School Educational Policies Committee of the Board. Committee members were shown the web site and invited to add their thoguhts dn ideas.

Early October Each member of the Committee was given a binder and asked to meet with the chairperson to talk about the task at hand. Members were asked to read and study the key documents (Mission statemtent, Grad at Grad, Vision 2020, What Makes a Jesuit High School Jesuit) by the first mid-November. Mambers were also asked for their ideas and suggestions about the process this committee will follow toward the completion of its task.

End of September Foundational Documents Committee web site created. Web site included e-mai llinks to committe members, links to JSEA and JSEA forum and key documents the committee may want to study.
Binders created for each committee member. Included in the binder are the St. Louis U. High Mission statement and Grad at Grad, the Vision 2020 document, What Makes a Jesuit High School Jesuit?, schematic outline of the Cahracteristics of jesuit Education, Preamble to the JSEA, Monika Hellwig's finding God in All things: A Spirituality for Today, and Vincent Duminuco's Ignatian Pedagogy: A Practical Approach. Committee members were asked to read over these documents in preparation for our task. bot he site and the three ring binder will were continually updated. Both were made available to the SLUH Community.

Late September : Principal Schenkenberg and North Central Chair Chuck Hussung formulated a draft of member for this committe and asked Matt Sciuto to chair it. Two faculty asked declined, six accepted. Eric Clark was asked to be part of the committee for an Adminstration voice and Thom Digman was asked to represent the President's Office.

Mid September: At a faculty meeting, Principal Mary Schenkenberg anounced that a committe woudl be formed to study our foundational documents, i.e. our Mission Statement and our Graduate at Graduation document. She asked for any volunteers to serve on this committee.

Wednesday, May 5
Committee meeting to finalize Mission proposal and to decide what to do with Grad at Grad.

Wednesday, March 31
Matt and Rich address a general faculty meeting.

Mid-March
Mission proposal given to every facutly member and their ideas are solicited.

Tuesday, March 9 12:45 till 1:30.
Can we finish the misson statement and begin to discuss the Grad at Grad?

Thursday,February 26
Meeting to discuss recommendations from both subcommittees

Subcommittee report
due by February 20

Subcommittees meet to revise and recommend

Tuesday, December 16, 12:45-2 pm
Probable agenda:
  • Student report
  • subcommittee vision
  • needs and discussion.


Mission group
Friday, 12/5 at 3 in J128

Grad at Grad group
Wednesday, 12/3 at 4

Meetings in J128

November 19, 8-8:30 am
Setting the process

The Origins of the Mission Statement (as I remember it)
The mission statement was created in about 1995 by a Committee of community members headed by Art Zinselmeyer. The Committee asked for input from the community. People were shown drafts and feedback was sought. Art has been asked to give us a better summary. That will come soon.

The Origins of SLUH's Grad at Grad
(as I remember it)
The original Grad at Grad was created and proposed by the JSEA (Jesuit Secondary Education Asociation) in the early 1980s. It was offered to every Jesuit high school for their consideration. We took their document and made it ours during the North Central process of the midy 1980s (?). Art Zinselmeyer chaired the Self-study. Art has been asked to give us a better summary. That will come soon.



ST. LOUIS U. HIGH SCHOOL
COMMITTEE TO LOOK AT OUR FOUNDATIONAL DOCUMENTS




MEMBERS (with e-mail links): Brian Christopher, S. J. | Eric Clark | Thom Digman | Tom Cummings, S. J. | George Mills | Rich Moran | Rosemary Queathem | Matt Sciuto, chairperson | Kathryn Whitaker

Please send any comments, suggestions
or corrections to Matthew Sciuto
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