In the spirit of the leper in Sunday’s Gospel who returns to thank Jesus for healing, I’d like to thank all the teachers and principals who traveled to St. Amelia for our Professional Development Day. Katie McIntytre and her staff at St. Amelia were gracious hosts the great day. I was grateful for the spirit of camaraderie and the eager participation in the sessions. As always, Bishop Fisher came through with a joyful message and it’s great to have a Bishop who prioritizes Catholic education.

Lisa Benzer, the Diocese’s Director of Faith Formation, has been working hard with a group of DREs to curate resources and best practices for religious education. The first product is something that can be useful for all religion teachers as they work to teach religious practices in unison with the Church’s liturgical calendar. This year’s Devotional Calendar is designed for religion teachers in parishes and Catholic schools with suggestions for prayers, saints, and practices. It's a week-by-week calendar with suggestions and resources.

In my session on sportsmanship, some of the participants weren’t aware of this month’s videos promoting sportsmanship. These videos make for great discussion points about sportsmanship. And our efforts were amplified at the Vatican's recent International Sport Summit. The videos are included below:

Strikeout Hug

Runners Helping

Softball Players

Comforting Pitcher

Picks Up Ref

Referees Quitting

Roncalli Baseball

Basketball Player

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," subscribe to the Catholic Schools Daily, or subscribe to the Catholic School Matters podcast.

Dr. Tim Uhl

This past Friday we were blessed to have Carissa Maddox from the University of Notre Dame join us as our keynote speaker for our 2022 PD Day. I hope you all were inspired by her words of wisdom around core instructional practices. She reminded us to ensure that every lesson, every day has

1. A clear purpose and relevance

2. Frequent and transparent formative assessments

3. Multiple scaffolded opportunities for students to master the lesson’s objective

These building blocks lay a foundation for a strong lesson and in turn increased student learning and achievement.

I also want to extend a thank you to our breakout presenters that helped us all walk away with some new tools to put in our instructional backpacks. It was a delight to see so many teachers learning in community with one another and we look forward to doing this again in the future. Many presenters were willing to share their presentation slides. These will be added to the teacher resource section of our website.

Please take a moment to share your thoughts via the survey here! School leaders, if your teachers do not receive Catholic School Matters updates please help them subscribe and be sure to pass along this link. We value their feedback and want to know how we can make our next event even better!

Math Competition!

Our first diocesan math competition will be held on November 18th! Click the link below for more information and to sign up your school’s team(s). Be sure to click the more information tab. Sign Up Here!

STAR Reminders:

• When logging into STAR please make sure you are using our updated link here!

• STAR is connected directly to eschool. Each night the systems sync. That means you do not have to add individual teachers or students to the STAR platform. That will happen after they are added to eschool. This certainly makes things easier but it is very important that you keep eschool up to date. If you run into any issues and need someone added to the STAR platform please send their name, email address, and what level of permission you would like them to have (teacher, school admin). If you add them manually their accounts will disappear each evening when STAR and eschool sync.

Previous "Academic Corner" posts from Kari

1. RSVP here for the Oct 27th principal meeting.

2. Reminder that the November 1st deadline for the required Safe Environment Training for youth in school is right around the corner.

3. When logging into STAR please make sure you are using our updated link here!

4. Here is the link for the Office Blog with the latest forms and information. This can be found on the website under "Blogs.

• 10/14/22 Last day to register to vote in NYS – Encourage all Families to Vote!
• 10/21/22 NCEA Updates/Corrections Due to our Office via Google Sheet
• 10/31/22 Deadline to Register for Albany RISE Conference to get Free Hotel Room
• 11/1/22 Title I Letters Sent to Each Public School District w/Poverty Students
• 11/18/22 BEDS Report Due to NYSED via Business Portal IRS-Data Exchange
• 12/1/22 Fire Safety Inspection Must be Completed; Report Due 12/16/2022

Mandated Child Abuse Reporter Training: Item 12 of the BEDS Report just released includes an attestation regarding the mandated Physical & Behavioral Indicators of Child Abuse and Maltreatment training for your staff. I just wanted to give you a reminder that NYS Education Law §100.2(hh) requires our teachers, administrators, teacher aides, and bus drivers to comply with Section (8) of Chapter 363 of the Laws of 2018; they must complete two hours of coursework or training regarding the identification and reporting of child abuse and maltreatment and/or the new yearly “Child Abuse in an Educational Setting Training”. The training requirements, separated by personnel categories, can be found at Child Abuse Prevention Training | New York State Education Department (nysed.gov). We recommend that your staff do this training via the BOCES or other approved providers and then save the receipts for NPSE (Non Public Safety Equipment) reimbursement.

You have two options for the one course which must be completed each year: “Child Abuse in an Educational Setting Training”: training provided by Erie 1 BOCES or training provided by the Capital Region BOCES.

1. Erie 1 BOCES online training - Erie 1 BOCES has created a 30-minute pre-recorded PowerPoint training that meets the requirements of Education Law Article 23-B and the accompanying regulations requiring “ongoing training” of various school employees on child abuse occurring in an educational setting. Once purchased, the training can be replayed as many times as you need and can even be used in future years to meet the yearly “Child Abuse in an Education Setting Training” requirement. The cost of this training is a one-time fee of $200 per school and can be shown to a group or watched by individual staff members. If new topics are required by NYS law in future years, Attorney Dermott will update the presentation and then recommend you purchase the updated version for a nominal fee ($75?). Questions about this program can go to Amanda Dermott at adermott@e1b.org. If you are ready to purchase the training, contact Ashley Sweeney at 716-821-7115 or asweeney@e1b.org.

2. Capital Region BOCES Online Training - NYSED continues its partnership with Capital Region BOCES and PowerSchool to offer an online version of the new trainings that will fulfill the requirements associated with the amendments to the reports of child abuse in an educational setting adopted by the Board of Regents at their October 2019 Board of Regents meeting. To learn more about the online course offerings, including how to easily register, complete, and access your completion certificate, please visit the website here. Each individual staff member will pay for the online course (which I think is still $10) because the school cannot pay directly with the way it is currently set up; you would then reimburse each staff member for the cost of the course and retain all the documents (proof of attendance, payment receipts, canceled checks from the school for payment to each employee) to submit with your next NPSE reimbursement request and as proof that your staff met the training requirement.

If you have anyone who still needs to take the once-in-a-lifetime training regarding the identification and reporting of child abuse and maltreatment, you may want to instead have them take the free online course so you don’t have to pay another $10. All certified teachers and administrators would have had to complete this course prior to becoming certified to teach in NYS.

Previous posts from Mr. Riso

First Aid & CPR Registration – Winter Sports , Oct 26th, 6-9 pm. Reminder that all coaches are encouraged to keep current their First Aid & CPR.

Please see the athletics/activities blog for the most up to date information.

1. Weekly principal Zooms at 9:00 am on Wednesdays
2. Principal Meeting, Oct 27th, St. Andrew's
3. Diocesan Education Summit, November 10th. This is for principals, pastors/canonical administrators, board chairs, and one other stakeholder (4 from each school). Click here to RSVP.

1. Devotional Calendar 2022-23.
2. October's Sportsmanship Videos
3. The Diocesan Health Scorecard.
4. School Pastor's Administrative Guide
5. "Principal Task List." This is organized as a living Google Doc by month.
6. New Policy Manual for all Catholic schools in the Diocese of Buffalo.
7. New Operations Manual for Diocesan Catholic schools.
8. Administrator Goal Sheet and the new Administrator evaluation form

This week on the Catholic School Matters podcast, I am joined by Dr. Kevin Baxter, the co-editor of Conscience & Catholic Education and the keynote for thi sfall's Diocesan Education Summit. We discuss the book and how it pertains to current issues in Catholic education. Here is the direct link to the podcast episode.

Previous episodes:

• I spoke to Shaka Rawls, the principal of Leo Catholic HS on Chicago's Southside. He is a dynamic leader of this predominantly African-American Catholic high school who describes the mission of the school as one which serves the community. Here is a direct link to the podcast.
  
• I talk with Greg Richmond, the Superintendent of the Archdiocese of Chicago. In his second year, Greg comes from the charter world and shares his unique perspective on this new position which he loves.
  
• This week's podcast gives us a chance to hear the perspective of a person fired from her position at a Catholic high school due to same-sex marriage.
• Season 7 kicked off with a great conversation with Rich Clark of Cleveland. He helped found a Cristo Rey High School and played a pivotal role in Partnership School's Expansion to Cleveland. Our interview was recorded on September 2nd and Rich passed away on September 20th.

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.wnycatholic.org
Location: Buffalo, NY, USA
Phone: 716-847-5520
Twitter: @drtimuhl

1. Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle (2022) by Shannen Dee Williams
   

2. Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing & Succeeding Under Any Conditions (2016) by John Kotter & Holger Rathgeber

3. The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self (2021) by Michael Easter

4. The Art of Happiness (2022) by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

5. Everything Belongs (2003) by Richard Rohr

Click this link for a full list of my professional reading

Oct 4, 2022 "Strategic Updates"

Sep 27, 2022 "Cloud of Witnesses"

Sep 20, 2022 "The Learning Platform"

Sep 13, 2022 "Diocesan Education Summit"

Sep 6, 2022 "Welcoming the Virtues"

For previous newsletters, click this link

A couple of 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.