In the interest of accountability, I thought I would offer a few updates on the progress of our strategic priorities this year. After all, it's October and time for a progress report!

It was important for us to support strategic planning for our elementary schools. Last week, the process began with Dr. Tad Dickel. Eleven schools joined the collaborative strategic planning effort.

It's also important that we devote time to improving the quality of our schools, which means professional development. Our Diocesan PD day is this Friday as all of our Diocesan Catholic schools will gather for a keynote address, Mass with Bishop Fisher, and breakout sessions. We've also seen the launch of a common formative assessment, a principal PLN focuses on academics, and the new Learning Platform, including three new courses focuses on Catholic identity and mission.

We are now on to our second month of Character (sportsmanship!) and have seen most schools nominate a student of the month. We have launched a new bowling league, the kickball tournament will kick off later this month as will the golf championship. Coming up soon are the math competition, spelling bees, and many more.

We had a very successful pair of Masses with 8th graders and 12th graders (pictured below) to celebrate the Diocese's 175th anniversary at St. Joseph's Cathedral. Plans are underway for the November 10th Diocesan Education Summit where we'll gather all concerned to look to the future.

It wasn't a perfect launch to the school year. We would have loved to see a school embrace the Virtual Math program, more teachers sign up for the Learning Labs, more students for bowling and kickball, etc. But we'll take it as we take steps to make our schools more vibrant and attractive.

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 Friday is our Diocesan PD Day! Thank you to those who have signed up for their afternoon breakout sessions. We have some incredible interest in so many of our sessions! Check out our registration numbers below.

• Breaking Down STAR Data Reports- 60
• Digesting the Ins and Outs of the Science of Reading- 50
• Supporting and Advocating for Students with Special Needs- 70
• SEL in the Early Childhood Classroom- 85
• STREAM/Mystery Science- 120
• Procedures and Routines- 96
• Differentiation- 88
• Getting the Best Out of Your Interactive TV- 66

Schedule for the Day:

• 8:45- Welcome
• 9:00- Keynote Speaker
• 10:30- Mass
• 11:45- Lunch
• 12:45- Breakout Session 1
• 1:45- Breakout Session 2
• 2:30- Departure

We will begin our day by gathering in the church. However, it is important to note there is an 8:00 am mass which ends at approximately 8:30. Please do not enter the church until their morning mass is over. Please finish all breakfast and beverages before entering the church.

Parking:

St. Amelia’s School has a large parking lot. But not large enough for all of us. Please do your best to carpool. Our friends at Augustana Lutheran Church located at 3143 Eggert Rd Tonawanda have offered their parking lot for our use as well. If you cannot find a space at St. please park at Augustana.

Are you a certified teacher in need of CTLE credit? If so, be sure to fill out the sign in sheet during your breakout sessions. Our offices will then provide the required documentation to ensure you receive credit.

I hope you are all excited to join in community to continue to grow in your instructional craft as we engage in new opportunities to learn and collaborate across our diocese. See you Friday!

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. Where can I Find the Training Materials? All materials are located on the Virtus.org website after you login. The materials are located under the “Educators” tab. Local Safe Environment Coordinators can grant access to this tab to anyone in their organization that needs access, providing they have an account in the Virtus system. To grant access for themselves or others, they can look up the individual who needs access in the Virtus system using “User Search”. Under the individual’s “General” tab, there is a “Special User Options” section and the checkbox next to “This individual has access to the educator tab” can be checked to grant access or unchecked to remove access.

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

• 10/5/22 BEDS Enrollment Anchor Date – Count All Staff & Students
• 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

BEDS Day is Oct. 5th – Complete Google Sheet before you submit to NYSED Online: Later today Laurie Wojtaszczyk will send you information and a link to your school-specific Google Sheet to help you prepare for the NYS BEDS report based on student and staff attendance from Wednesday, 10/5/2022. The actual online BEDS report is not due to NYSED until November 18th using the Business Portal (via “IRS Data Exchange” under “My Applications”, not “BEDS/IMF”). I would encourage you to use the Google Sheet we created and the associated instructions to help you organize your information prior to the online submission to NYSED using their Business Portal. My instructions include some tricks I have learned over the years to avoid data entry issues. I would be glad to assist you with any questions you might have while you are working on your BEDS report.

NCEA Report – Please Return Any Requested Changes as Soon as Possible: Thank you to everyone for taking the time needed to prepare and submit the NCEA reports. Now that we have them, Laurie and I will be reviewing the documents to look for any confusing or missing information. If we notice anything on your report we’ll drop you an email and request any needed clarification. Please try to respond to these requests in a timely manner as we have a quickly approaching deadline for the Diocesan Summary report.

Title I for 2022-23 - Please send Free/Reduced Lunch Lists to Public School Districts: If you have any students who qualify for free or reduced lunch (or would be based on their family income if you had a free/reduced lunch program), please be sure to send a list of these students to the each of the public school districts in which they live for the purpose of identifying those who qualify for 2023-2024 Title I funding. The number of qualified students on these lists who live in the Title I attendance areas will help determine your 2023-2024 Title I allocation from each district. Feel free to use this template when writing to the school districts.

I recommend you send these letters out to each affected school district by November 1st. If you are familiar with the school district, address this letter to the correct person or use the contact information in this Excel spreadsheet; if you are unsure you can always send it to the superintendent. Either way, you should follow up a week or so after you send it to make sure someone at the district received it. Be sure you keep copies of these letters for future reference.

Hardware, Software, and Library Materials – Order through School District of Location: If you have not already done so for this school year, please make arrangements to order hardware, software, and library materials through the Public School District in which your school is located using the state funds available for such items to be loaned to you.

Fire Safety Inspection Due by December 1; Fire Safety Report Due by December 16

If your Fire Safety Inspection has not yet been completed, you must arrange to complete one prior to December 1st and the inspection report must be filed with the Commissioner prior to December 16th. This year the Fire Safety Reports for all schools not located in the city of Buffalo must be submitted via the NYSED Business Portal. Information on the process and the required Non-Public forms can be found on the bottom of this webpage

Previous posts from Mr. Riso

First Aid & CPR Registration – Winter Sports https://forms.gle/AKmCcxhQpfQ5XBz3A, Oct 26th, 6-9 pm. Reminder that all coaches are encouraged to update 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. Diocesan Professional Development Day October 7, 2022 at St. Amelia's.
   
3. Principal Meeting, Oct 27th, St. Andrew's
4. 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. Academic Initiatives for 2022-23
   
2. The Diocesan Health Scorecard.
3. School Pastor's Administrative Guide
4. "Principal Task List." This is organized as a living Google Doc by month.
   
5. Here's a link to the forms on our website.
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 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.

Previous episodes:

• 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. Conscience & Catholic Education: Theology, Administration, and Teaching (2022) ed. Kevin C. Baxter & David E. DeCosse
   

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

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

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

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

Click this link for a full list of my professional reading

Sep 27, 2022 "Cloud of Witnesses"

Sep 20, 2022 "The Learning Platform"

Sep 13, 2022 "Diocesan Education Summit"

Sep 6, 2022 "Welcoming the Virtues"

Aug 30, 2022 "Bowling Together"

August 23, 2022 "Strategic Planning"

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.