Catholics in Arkansas can support the state’s parochial schools through the annual Arkansas Catholic Schools Appeal.
Created in 2013 to provide scholarships to families who qualified for financial assistance, the annual Arkansas Catholic Schools Appeal has helped families who could not otherwise afford to offer a Catholic education for their children.
Now the fund helps schools with scholarships and other essential needs.
But this year’s appeal campaign, which will officially kick off Nov. 15-16, is different from previous years.
“Because we have the Educational Freedom Accounts now, we are switching it a little bit,” Catholic schools superintendent Theresa Hall said. “… We’ve done it for scholarships for years, and we’re still giving scholarships, but that’s not where our greatest need is now.”
According to the appeal letter from the Catholic Schools Office, “Recent events have reminded us that even our Catholic schools are not immune to threats. While some campuses have adequate safety protections in place, others need urgent upgrades to meet today’s safety standards.”
Public and private schools in the state have been assessing their safety measures, especially over the past few years. A tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School and Church in Minneapolis Aug. 27, leaving two students and two parishioners dead, solidified for dioceses everywhere that safety was paramount.
Bill Hollenbeck, former Fort Smith Public Schools’ police chief who is now the security officer of Trinity Catholic School in Fort Smith, gave a safety presentation to all parochial school principals Sept. 17.
“He talked about some safety measures, telling us what we should do if we haven’t yet and gave us a long list of things that would be helpful,” Hall said.
Some of the precautions on that list include:
- Electronic access on doors. During an emergency, you’re more likely to fumble with your keys in a manual lock, wasting precious time.
- Two-way radio systems. Many educators just use their cellphones, but this can be more complicated with passcodes than pressing a button on a walkie-talkie or simple radio system.
- Protective window covers. Should glass shatter during an emergency, these covers keep the broken glass contained.
- Visible classroom entry numbering systems. A visible number inside and corresponding outside of windows and entries helps individuals inside pinpoint where danger is during an emergency and makes it easier for first responders to reach the classroom in question.
- Building a relationship with the local police force. In the event of an emergency — or even when there is suspicion of a possible threat — having close law enforcement relationships can be key.
- Having a monitoring platform. Cameras in the hallways aren’t the only way educators should keep an eye on students. Students who use school technology, such as Chromebooks and other laptops, should have computer monitoring software in place, such as GoGuardian or Dyno.
These security enhancements are expensive, and other safety grants aren’t necessarily filling in gaps, Hall noticed.
Some schools “got a safety grant last year, and it was based on the number of students,” she said. “So the bigger schools got the most money, whereas probably, to me, in my eyes, some of our small schools need more money.”
Hall spoke with the Diocesan School Board, and it agreed that safety was the primary issue.
“When you ask people, ‘Why do you send your kids to Catholic schools?’ Not only is it because you’re Catholic, but also because they feel safe. And with that, we decided, OK, let’s look at what safety measures we really have in place, and what do we need to make sure that we have implemented? What are the really key things that we need within our schools?”
Hall said the funds raised through the appeal will be allocated to schools through grants.
“What we’ve done in the past is, the principals have told us … who has applied for scholarships, who is in the greatest need for that scholarship. .. For this, we’ll have different tiers set up. Schools will write a grant … asking for whatever amount they need. We will sit down with our board, share the different grant applications, and from those grant applications, we’ll award what we feel is the greatest need for the schools, based on what they’re asking for.”
Hall hopes that Catholics across the state will answer the call to help protect Catholic students.
“Hopefully (in a year), our schools will have more security measures in place,” she said. “I believe that every little layer will make a difference. And the more layers that we have in place, the safer our schools will be.”
For more information or to donate online, visit dolr.org/schools/scholarship-appeal.
