At last week’s principal meeting, the underlying theme was anxiety. Principals are nervous about enrollment, anxious about budgets and finances, worried about the Diocesan settlement and the implications for their enrollments and budgets. Sometimes the questions were direct (“How much will our parish have to pay?”) and other times they were implied (“Do you think any of our schools will have to close?”). Add to that the demands of accreditation, the typical burdens of student behavior and parent relations and it’s not surprising that anxiety was in the air.

Then I read Maggie Jackson’s essay in the New York Times. In it, Jackson explores the value of recognizing uncertainty and the value of managing it. “A growing body of evidence and a range of new interventions suggest that skillfully managing uncertainty in the face of what’s murky, new or unexpected is an effective treatment for anxiety, a likely path to building resilience and a mark of astute problem-solving ability,” she writes.

As mentioned above, there are a lot of reasons to have anxiety in our schools. The future is murky and we might feel powerless to influence the decisions. This is where framing and choosing the proper mindset is essential. Jackson points out that adults who have a high “intolerance for uncertainty” struggle with stress and anxiety and “yearn for predictability and engage in binary thinking.” We certainly have high levels of cultural yearnings for predictability, justice, and binary thinking.

I’m reading some Richard Rohr and he suggests that our generalized fears of terrorism, school shootings, and bad actors have given rise to our quest for justice. Look no farther than the prevalent law and order and police TV shows. Religion becomes retribution and our God becomes a judge meting out punishment. “An eye for an eye” becomes attractive to give us certainty in what Resilient Leadership coaches call a “VUCA” world (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous).

Jackson cites research that illustrated that if subjects were given progressively uncertain conditions, their anxiety was reduced. In other words, they started with small uncertainties first. This has implications for our daily practice of leadership. How much time are we spending on the larger issues we cannot control? Also, are we okay with not controlling everything in our lives? Giving up control in smaller matters might reduce the anxiety. Or simply acknowledging our anxiety might allow for solutions to emerge.

Previous blogs can be found here. Want to keep up with the conversations surrounding Catholic education? Set up your own Google Alert, subscribe to this newsletter by clicking "follow," or subscribe to the Catholic School Matters podcast.

Dr. Tim Uhl

• • Chess Tournament at Cardinal O’Hara on Feb. 3rd, 10am start. Sign up HERE Please sign up before January 31. Contact Laurie Wojtaszczyk for more information or see the flyer HERE. Directions for students and parents can be found HERE.

  • We are going ahead with the speech tournament this year and will be accepting late participants through Jan. 17th. Here is a flyer with more information for those schools participating.

  • The Diocesan Spelling Bee will be held on January 31st at 6pm at Mount St. Mary’s High School. Please register your top 3 spellers HERE after you have held your own school-wide spelling bee. You can find resources and practice spelling words HERE along with some tips for your in-school spelling bees.

  • Here is the Catholic Schools Week schedule.

  • STAR Testing window is Jan. 8-29. PLEASE make sure you are doing all of your testing during this timeframe. Let me know if you have any issues that need to be worked out ASAP

  • The Character Virtue for January is Determination. Please use this link to submit your student by Fri. 2/2. You may use this same link for each month.

  
  

Here's the link to the Office Blog

• 1/18/24 Government Services Update for Board Chairs, Chaplains, Pastors, & Principals
• 1/19/24 Elementary Textbook Survey Due - Click Here for Survey Link
• 2/5/24 Last Day to Submit Buffalo Public Schools Textbook Requisitions
• 2/27/24 HS Scholarships for Academic Excellence (SAE) Nominations Due
• 3/15/24 Last Day to Submit Erie 1 BOCES Textbook Requisitions
• 3/18/24 Save Mandated Services Claim online for C. Riso Review
• 3/31/24 NYSED Nonpublic Safety Equipment (NPSE) Claims Due
• 3/31/24 NYSED Elementary School AIS Claims Due
• 4/1/24 Online 2021-22 Mandated Services Claim Due to NYSED

Principal Task List: Just a quick reminder to check the monthly principal task list found at Principal Task List Buffalo Catholic Schools - Google Sheets to stay on top of things. For January, you may want to consider beginning pre-registration, checking student attendance records, and implementing any Teacher Improvement Plans (TIPs) needed for teachers of concern. Be sure to look ahead to the February tasks since it is right around the corner.

Previous posts from Mr. Riso

This season's Catholic School Matters podcast season is on hiatus until February. Previous episodes:

• "Top 10 Lessons Learned as a Catholic High School President."
  
• Lauren May and Ron Matus from Step Up For Students
  
• Kelby Woodard
• In the fifth and final installment of the Leadership Series
  
• The fourth podcast
  
• The third podcast
  
• The second in the series includes a conversation with Greg Richmond
  
• The first podcast includes a conversation with Dr. Daniel McMahon
• John Kennedy of St. Joseph High School
  
• Fr. Jack Podsiadlo, SJ
  
• David Palmieri

Here is a link to the podcast on Apple Podcasts.

A weekly newsletter of resources to spur enrollment and excellence in our Catholic schools.

Email: catholicschoolmatters@gmail.com
Website: www.wnycatholicschools.org
Location: Buffalo, NY, USA
Phone: 716-847-5520
Twitter: @WNYCatholicEd

1. Living Your Strengths, Catholic Edition: Discover Your God-Given Talents and Inspire Your Community (2003) by Albert L Wiseman, Donald Clifton, Curt Liesveld, et al
   

2. Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America (2023) by Michael Harriot

3. Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America (2023) by Heather Cox Richardson

4. The Great Mental Models, Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry, and Biology (2023) by Farnam Street, Shane Parrish, and Rhiannon Beaubien.

5. People Get Ready: Ritual, Solidarity, and Lived Ecclesiology in Catholic Roxbury (2023) by Susan Bigelow Reynolds
   

Click this link for a full list of my professional reading

January 9, 2024 "Diocesan Scorecard"

January 2, 2024 "Principal Meeting"

December 5, 2023 "Accreditation Progress"

November 28, 2023 "Tuition Recommendations"

November 14, 2023 "Progress Report"

For previous newsletters, click this link

A few years ago I set out to write a book which would explore the challenges of Catholic school leadership. My premise that there are no easy answers and that we have to learn from our (and other's) mistakes in order to form a mindset appropriate for orchestrating conflict proved prescient as we all faced completely new and unexpected challenges in 2020. The book,Orchestrating Conflict: Case Studies in Catholic Leadership is now available on Amazon or on the Barnes & Noble site in print or e-book formats. The book explores issues in Catholic school leadership and the tensions between building community and following Church policies and introduces deliberate practice as a method for leadership formation. Most recently, I have completed a new book proposal so book #2 is underway!