January 26 – February 1 will mark “Celebrate Catholic Schools Week,” a nationwide celebration and recognition of Catholic education. The Diocese of Birmingham Catholic Schools has a long and rich history of educating youth in Northern Alabama.

A Strategic Vision for Catholic Education in Northern Alabama

In our Catholic schools, our main priority is the formation of our students. Clearly, this is a mission that cannot be taken lightly, and the Diocese of Birmingham is blessed with committed and talented administrators, teachers, and staff who live this charge daily with our students. In addition, to guide the continued renewal of our Catholic schools, the Catholic Schools Office has developed a strategic plan for the schools in our Diocese that not only unifies us in a common mission that will impact our students each day, spiritually and academically, but also fulfills our hope that they will become future leaders of our faith. 

During the 2018-2019 school year, the Catholic Schools Office worked with a dedicated planning team under the direction of Dr. Erik Goldschmidt of the Institute for School and Parish Development. The team consisted of school leaders, pastors, members of religious orders, community stakeholders, parents, and field experts and utilized data representing input from thousands of voices from our school and diocesan communities. The goal for this process was to revitalize and to strengthen the schools in the Diocese of Birmingham. 

The result of this concerted effort is a Strategic Plan for Catholic Education in the Diocese of Birmingham consisting of 13 goals and 82 objectives that will be implemented over 5 years, but even more so, the result is an articulated vision that outlines actionable steps that build upon and guide the excellence that is already present in our schools and provides an avenue to create a collective impact in the academic and spiritual formation of our current and our future students. We are now beginning the implementation phase of the Strategic Plan. The prioritized plan of which objectives will be implemented in this first year consists of a series of specific, measurable action plans that will bring the goals to life in each school.  

Having such a wide level of engagement from so many stakeholders at each stage of the strategic plan process creates a culture of stewardship that will lead to a deep impact on our students, academically and spiritually, and will work to maintain, to support, to grow, and to celebrate Catholic education in the Diocese of Birmingham. Pope Saint John Paul II says, “Today, in particular, the pressing pastoral task of the new evangelization calls for the involvement of the entire people of God, and requires a new fervor, new methods, and a new expression for the announcing and witnessing of the Gospel.” The unified mission within the strategic plan certainly requires new fervor, new methods, and a new expression for announcing and witnessing of the Gospel within and through the students in our schools, and does so in an actionable way that will result in schools, in staff, and in students who are boldly Catholic, academically excellent, and rooted in truth.

To read the strategic plan for Catholic education, please visit https://schools.bhmcatholic.com/strategic-plan.