A successful Catholic school

For a hopeful start for your week, check out this column from the Boston Herald on a Catholic school that is doing well.

Pope John Paul II School has the latest technology, superior facilities, crucifixes on the walls–and it's seems not to be just for the rich. This column struck me because it seems to have followed the model, at least to an extent, that Father Joseph O'Keefe, S.J. of the Boston College Lynch School of Education proposes in System Update Required.

We asked O'Keefe to "blue sky" what he would like to see happen with Catholic schools in the near future, and when he turned this story in, we thought, "Sounds good, but how are we going to get there?" Pope John Paul II provides the example that business partnerships are possible, having raised $50 million in the past five years. It's possible that the school has worked with Boston College to develop its new model.

The school's unique pay raise system was also featured in a sidebar to a story about volunteer teachers in our September Education issue.