All Saints hits 10 years of multi-parish sponsorship
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published January 26, 2007
Catholic Schools Supplement
Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
Using one of the computers in the library at All Saints
Catholic School in Canton Township are (from left) Samantha Manchesky (fifth grade), Emily Budlong (fourth grade) and Robbie Vance (third grade) | Canton Twp. – As Roger Dooley looks back at the nine years he has had children in All Saints Catholic School, he has no regrets about all that tuition or the initial payment to help retire the school's mortgage.
"When you see how the kids turn out, that's what makes you feel really good about the investment," says Dooley, a member of St. John Neumann Parish in Canton Township.
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"It's really easy to learn here. It's fun, and the teachers are nice. I play basketball, baseball, and soccer, and I'm in the National Junior Honor Society."
Nick Posh
Grade 8 | He and his wife, Kathy, have had three children at All Saints — daughter Brittany graduated last year and is now in her first year at Mercy High School in Farmington Hills. Twin sons John and Eric are in the seventh grade at All Saints.
"The kids at All Saints are polite, respectful, motivated. They actually like school," Dooley says.
Plus he likes it that All Saints students are not only taught Christian values, but also taught to live them. "You don't see the teasing and belittling, or the roughness on the playground, that you have at some schools. It's more of a family," he adds.
The Dooleys' parish is one of four that sponsor All Saints School; the others are Resurrection and St. Thomas à Becket, also in Canton Township, and St. Kenneth Parish in Plymouth Township.
As it celebrates its first 10 years of existence, All Saints School shows both that a new Catholic elementary/middle school can be successfully launched in a suburban area, and also that it requires multi-parish sponsorship and substantial funding from parents.
The four parishes cooperated to start the first new archdiocesan elementary school to be formed in several decades, and each put up $250,000 to help get it going. (Resurrection Parish fulfilled its contribution by donating the land for the school.)
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"We have religion in our school, and most everybody believes in God and Jesus."
Madeline Manns
Grade 3 | But it cost $12.5 million to build and equip the school, and every family must make a one-time payment – now at $4,000 per family – to help retire the mortgage, besides paying the tuition for their children.
Even after 10 years of such contributions, there is still about $8 million left to pay off.
Operating expenses must be met by tuition and from proceeds from an annual auction fundraiser — there is no ongoing subsidy from the parishes or archdiocese.
"I'm convinced that, in the future, new Catholic schools will have to be regional like this one," says Jacci Brown, principal at All Saints for eight of its 10 years.
The sponsoring parishes do promote parishioners' interest in the school, and they support it spiritually through their prayers, Brown continues.
They also contribute the services of their pastors. The four pastors rotate for one-year terms as president of the school board, and they take turns coming to the school to hear confessions or to celebrate the weekly Mass.
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"Now, there are more 'recess moms' to make sure everybody is respected, and there's no more fighting on the playground."
Josh Gandy
Grade 6 | The school has an enrollment of 630 pupils, all of them Catholics, and the teachers and staff are all Catholics as well. "If we're going to talk about passing on a tradition, then the teachers must be people who live that faith," Brown says.
And assistant principal Joan Dudley adds that, with almost all of the students coming from the four sponsoring parishes, the school and the parishes reinforce what is being taught in both church and classroom.
Besides Mass on Tuesdays, there are prayers every morning, and frequent opportunities for the children to support charitable agencies by bringing in food or items such as blankets, or by making monetary donations whenever there is a "jeans day" (when children can take a break from wearing school uniforms for payment of small fee).
"We average raising about $7,000 a year for various charities," Brown says.
The school's Christian atmosphere is reinforced through "a very aggressive non-bullying program" that was instituted several years ago, Brown explains, adding, "We want to make sure that no one is made fun of or diminished in any way."
Dudley adds, "The goal is for every child to feel safe, secure and respected."
All Saints Catholic School is at 48735 Warren Road in Canton Township. For information, call (734) 459-2490 or e-mail ascs9@hotmail.com.
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