“Back to school” is a special time for students, their parents and teachers, school leaders and staff. It also brings important efforts for the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
That’s when the OMCE staff serves as “a cheerleader” for archdiocesan schools, “encouraging them, and some of them still have hiring to do, trying to connect them with resources of where they could potentially find that last teacher that they need to hire to get their building fully staffed,” said Alison Dahlman, associate director of educational quality and excellence.
Alison Dahlman
Dahlman recently joined “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley to describe ways her office supports Catholic schools, including helping them improve in quality and excellence.
“We’re really focused on the life of the school, and ensuring that the life of our Catholic schools is one of excellence and one of quality in all the ways that it should be,” she said, doing so in “a collaborative and partnering sort of way.”
One new event this school year to rally archdiocesan schools is the first Catholic School Leadership Banquet Sept. 9. Dahlman called it “a great moment” to bring together pastors, principals and school presidents for Mass celebrated by Archbishop Bernard Hebda and the chance to share dinner, camaraderie “and just really celebrate the momentous work that has happened over the last number of years, in particular, in our Catholic schools.”
She called it “a great inaugural event to bring everyone together and remind us why we’re doing this really important, sacred work.”
Dahlman said her office fosters relationships between and within all 90 schools in the archdiocese, which span 12 counties. The pandemic provided a type of entry point in an unexpected way, she said, “because we needed to think together” and “kind of work as a system.”
Dahlman described the “great enrollment growth” experienced by Catholic schools in the archdiocese, calling it one barometer for success. But she said the barometer for excellence and success to rally around is, “how are we doing this fundamental work of bringing a child into one of our schools, and acknowledging that this child before us is called to such great things by God?”
Archdiocesan schools have the enormous task of human formation, seeing children as both body and soul, and forming them in virtue, Dahlman said.
“We want to start pivoting toward and having real conversations with our schools about, like how are we bringing in this child and accompanying them on that journey of human formation in a way that’s so distinct from any other school that that family could have selected,” she said.
Dahlman also previewed an upcoming conference her office is sponsoring for school leaders and pastors. This year’s topic pertains to technology, focusing on children’s independent use of devices. It will address impact on the family, the child’s brain and how that “rolls into the classroom,” Dahlman said. “It’s a huge concern and question that our schools and our parents have right now.”
During the interview, Conley asked Dahlman how listeners could support their schools, teachers and staff. To hear her response and to hear the full interview, tune in to the 9 p.m. Sept. 2 “Practicing Catholic” show, which airs again at 1 p.m. Sept. 3 and 2 p.m. Sept. 4 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
To learn more about the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education, visit archspm.org/omce.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Father Leonard Andrie, pastor of St. Therese in Deephaven, who provides guidance on offering time and talents to local parishes; and Madeline Olson, assistant marriage preparation and youth ministry coordinator for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who describes an upcoming event providing training and inspiration for catechists, core team members, small group leaders and parents.
Listen to their interviews after they have aired at:
Practicing Catholic on Spotify
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