Catholic Schools Week Supplement

Stewardship helps form students’ character and faith

Leah McCool, right, serves as a volunteer teacher’s aide in the first-grade classroom at St. Michael School in Brookville. In the background, St. Michael School first-grade teacher Melanie Back asks her students a question on Jan. 7. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)

By Sean Gallagher

BROOKVILLE—Running a Catholic school on the stewardship model—where tuition is not charged and the school is supported solely by its sponsoring parish—isn’t just about the financial bottom line.

It also serves as a means to form the character and faith of the school’s students, according to Kenneth Saxon, the principal of St. Michael School in Brookville, which is a stewardship school.

In the first semester of the 2008-09 academic year alone, parents of the students logged in nearly 6,000 hours of volunteer service at the school.

“They’re setting an example for the kids,” Saxon said. “It’s not just to provide the service in itself. It’s also that example and to tell those kids, by action, that we believe in this school and what this school stands for and that we support it.”

Leah McCool is one of the parents who sets such an example.

A member of St. Michael Parish and a mother of four children, three of whom are students at the parish school, McCool volunteers two and a half days a week as a teacher’s aide at the parish school.

“If people aren’t volunteering, things aren’t getting done,” she said. “If we don’t have parents on the playground, the kids aren’t being watched adequately. It’s a definite supplement that needs to be [here] year-round.”

In addition to aiding the school, McCool said that volunteering helps her to be more involved in her children’s education.

“It’s nice to get to know the kids that are in my children’s class,” she said. “I know their families. I know their parents.

“It [also] makes people more approachable. You know all the teachers on a first-name basis. If I have a question, if I have a problem, I can go to them. The communication is very open, back and forth.”

Before coming to St. Michael School two and a half years ago, Saxon had served for 35 years in the Franklin County Community School Corporation, in the same county where St. Michael School is located.

He said that one of the biggest differences between his two work environments is the amount of parental involvement and support at St. Michael School.

“That kind of support is priceless. You can’t put a price on that,” he said. “With the Franklin County schools, there wasn’t necessarily that closeness with the parents. There are probably a multitude of reasons for that.

“But here, there’s a real closeness. They’re vitally involved in the education of their kids.” †