Latest news with #CatholicEducation
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
St. Dom's board ends effort to keep Auburn high school open for another year
May 31—AUBURN — Stymied by funding challenges and the cost of education, the board created to save St. Dominic Academy's high school from closure announced Friday evening it was ending its effort to keep the school open for the 2025-26 year. "This is not the end of the story, but it is the end of this chapter, unfortunately," reads a Facebook post made Friday night on the school's account. "(Saint Dominic Regional High School) will not be opening a private Catholic high school for the 2025-2026 school year. "While we had hoped early on that we could have been able to negotiate an affordable lease for the Auburn campus, the Board of Directors has spent significant time reviewing a budget to operate at Holy Family school with Prince of Peace Parish. We determined that the projected fundraising and tuition revenue presents too much of a risk to maintain solvency for the entire year, and we cannot do that to families or our beloved educators." The board was created soon after the Diocese of Portland announced in March that it was closing the high school at the end of the school year, citing low enrollment and operating losses going back several years. Members of the board and supporters first tried to work with the diocese to keep the high school campus in Auburn operating for a "bridge year" to allow the board the time to raise the funds and create the operating structure needed to take the school over as a private Catholic high school. When that effort failed, the board explored the possibility of opening the high school at a different location, with the Prince of Peace Parish in Lewiston agreeing to potentially accommodate St. Dom's at Holy Family School. "Everyone on the board understands and shares in the hurt and sadness that comes with this decision. The board will be taking the next week off to grieve with, and to be here, for the community. We will be reconvening to determine the next best steps to secure the future of Catholic secondary education and the Auburn campus. For the broader community, please join us in praying for peace for those impacted by the decisions of the last two months," the post read. The high school held graduation for its class of 2025 on May 23. This story will be updated. Copy the Story Link
CTV News
5 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Marking Catholic Education Week in Saskatchewan
Jeff Rogstad talks with John McGettigan, the Chief Development Officer of the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools Foundation about the legacy of Pope Francis.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Former Seminole Schools Superintendent Paul Hagerty dies at 86
Former Superintendent Paul Hagerty, who led Seminole County Public Schools for a decade and whose name graces one of its high schools, died May 20. He was 86. Hagerty ran SCPS from 1992 to 2002 and was the district's first superintendent hired by the school board rather than elected by voters. After his retirement, the Seminole County School Board named a new high school after him — Hagerty High School near Oviedo, which opened in 2004. During Hagerty's tenure in Seminole, he helped the school district pass a school sales tax, negotiate the end of the federal government's 1970 school desegregation order and open 14 new campuses. He called his time in Seminole the 'highlight' of his 42-year education career which he began as a high school math teacher in his hometown of Milwaukee. A devout Catholic, his sons said his faith motivated him to help others. He grew up in a poor family and watched his mother work multiple jobs to provide for him and his two sisters and pay for their schooling, which made him realize how important education was to upward economic mobility. Though educated in Catholic schools, he dedicated himself to public education. 'His mission in life is ensuring that everyone had free access to the best education,' his son Timothy Hagerty said. Hagerty was born July 25, 1939 in Milwaukee. During high school, he worked as a janitor to help his family out financially. He was accepted into Marquette University and received a basketball scholarship, but gave up basketball so he could work more and help put his sisters through school, his son Patrick Hagerty said. 'He knew how important education was for society and for himself,' he said. 'You're sort of born into your economic condition, and you're stuck there and seeing education as a means to to grow and succeed in life.' While at Marquette he met his wife, Nancy, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, at a dance held by a local church. Timothy said it took a while for his father to ask her out because he was embarrassed that he didn't have a car. 'The way my mother told it was almost like Cinderella, that when the dance was ending, he just disappeared every night,' he said. 'He ended up borrowing a friend's car and it bloomed from that.' The two married in 1961, the same year he graduated from Marquette. He would later earn two master's degrees from Marquette and a doctorate degree from Florida State University. His retirement from Seminole marked the end of his education career. He'd previously been a superintendent in Georgia and Missouri school districts. In Seminole, he told his family he was most proud of how he'd helped modernize the district's technology and negotiate the end to the federal government's desegregation order, which the U.S. Department of Justice imposed because the district was still running segregated schools in 1970. That effort involved rebuilding campuses and upgrading academics at schools in the Sanford area, which then lagged academically. 'That was something that he really had to engage lots of different communities to say 'This is the right thing to do, and this is why we're doing it',' Patrick Hagerty said. Hagerty received numerous awards over the years, including superintendent-of-the-year honors in Missouri and Florida. He was very involved in his church throughout his life, his sons said. He served as the first chairman of the pastoral council at Most Precious Blood Catholic Church in Oviedo and in 2018 was awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice papal honor for outstanding service to the Catholic Church. He was a voracious reader and he and Nancy loved to travel and to play duplicate bridge. A funeral Mass will take place Wednesday at the Basilica of the Assumption in Baltimore, where he had lived with his son Patrick since 2022. Nancy Hagerty died in 2020. Hagerty will then be interred at 2 p.m. Thursday beside Nancy at Queen of Angels Catholic Cemetery in Winter Park. He is also survived by his daughter Kathy Hagerty, his son Dan Hagerty, four grandchildren and his two sisters.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Former Seminole Schools Superintendent Paul Hagerty dies at 86
Former Superintendent Paul Hagerty, who led Seminole County Public Schools for a decade and whose name graces one of its high schools, died May 20. He was 86. Hagerty ran SCPS from 1992 to 2002 and was the district's first superintendent hired by the school board rather than elected by voters. After his retirement, the Seminole County School Board named a new high school after him — Hagerty High School near Oviedo, which opened in 2004. During Hagerty's tenure in Seminole, he helped the school district pass a school sales tax, negotiate the end of the federal government's 1970 school desegregation order and open 14 new campuses. He called his time in Seminole the 'highlight' of his 42-year education career which he began as a high school math teacher in his hometown of Milwaukee. A devout Catholic, his sons said his faith motivated him to help others. He grew up in a poor family and watched his mother work multiple jobs to provide for him and his two sisters and pay for their schooling, which made him realize how important education was to upward economic mobility. Though educated in Catholic schools, he dedicated himself to public education. 'His mission in life is ensuring that everyone had free access to the best education,' his son Timothy Hagerty said. Hagerty was born July 25, 1939 in Milwaukee. During high school, he worked as a janitor to help his family out financially. He was accepted into Marquette University and received a basketball scholarship, but gave up basketball so he could work more and help put his sisters through school, his son Patrick Hagerty said. 'He knew how important education was for society and for himself,' he said. 'You're sort of born into your economic condition, and you're stuck there and seeing education as a means to to grow and succeed in life.' While at Marquette he met his wife, Nancy, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, at a dance held by a local church. Timothy said it took a while for his father to ask her out because he was embarrassed that he didn't have a car. 'The way my mother told it was almost like Cinderella, that when the dance was ending, he just disappeared every night,' he said. 'He ended up borrowing a friend's car and it bloomed from that.' The two married in 1961, the same year he graduated from Marquette. He would later earn two master's degrees from Marquette and a doctorate degree from Florida State University. His retirement from Seminole marked the end of his education career. He'd previously been a superintendent in Georgia and Missouri school districts. In Seminole, he told his family he was most proud of how he'd helped modernize the district's technology and negotiate the end to the federal government's desegregation order, which the U.S. Department of Justice imposed because the district was still running segregated schools in 1970. That effort involved rebuilding campuses and upgrading academics at schools in the Sanford area, which then lagged academically. 'That was something that he really had to engage lots of different communities to say 'This is the right thing to do, and this is why we're doing it',' Patrick Hagerty said. Hagerty received numerous awards over the years, including superintendent-of-the-year honors in Missouri and Florida. He was very involved in his church throughout his life, his sons said. He served as the first chairman of the pastoral council at Most Precious Blood Catholic Church in Oviedo and in 2018 was awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice papal honor for outstanding service to the Catholic Church. He was a voracious reader and he and Nancy loved to travel and to play duplicate bridge. A funeral Mass will take place Wednesday at the Basilica of the Assumption in Baltimore, where he had lived with his son Patrick since 2022. Nancy Hagerty died in 2020. Hagerty will then be interred at 2 p.m. Thursday beside Nancy at Queen of Angels Catholic Cemetery in Winter Park. He is also survived by his daughter Kathy Hagerty, his son Dan Hagerty, four grandchildren and his two sisters.
ABC News
22-04-2025
- General
- ABC News
Canberra members of the Catholic Church mourn Pope Francis as a 'compassionate and great leader'
Pope Francis has been described as merciful and humble by members of the Catholic Church in Canberra following his death yesterday at the age of 88. The Pope was still recovering from double pneumonia when he died from a It came as a shock, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Canberra Christopher Prowse said, as the Pope had made an appearance at St Peter's Square to bless those gathered for Easter Sunday in Rome. "The passing of Pope Francis has been a bit of a shock, although we knew he was very very ill, but there he was on Easter Sunday, he gave his blessing to Rome and to the world," Archbishop Prowse said. An angelus was held at St Christopher's in Manuka today, to mourn the leader of the Catholic Church. A coach to the world Archbishop Prowse said the Pope was akin to the Holy Spirit in the way he "comforted and disrupted" the Catholic Church. In the same year, the Pope made a landmark ruling by allowing Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples. An angelus service was held at St Christopher's Cathedral in Manuka, with dozens of Canberra residents attending. ( ABC News Joel Wilson ) "Pope Francis in his leadership comforted especially for those on the periphery and with refugees," the Archbishop said. "But he also disrupted, he took us up and said 'no no no, we've got to go closer, to see the light from those who are on the periphery, the lost, the last and the least' and that's exactly what he taught us and will continue to teach us." The Archbishop also remembered the Pope's accessibility and closeness with Catholics across the world. "If I could use a football analogy, he wasn't so much a boundary umpire, he was more of a coach and the coach here is not just to the Catholic Church, but also to the world," he said. "He coached the world, onto deeper principles on what truly makes life dignified, and gives hope to the hopeless," he said. 'The church is a place for everyone' Canberra residents attended an angelus at St Christopher's to pray for the Pope. Aidan Pitt attended, he said Pope Francis had a resounding impact on his spirituality. "He encouraged me to reach out to the entire flock of the world… [he reminded us] that the church is a place for everyone," he said. Aidan Pitt attended St Christopher's today to remember and pray for Pope Francis. ( ABC News Jade Toomey ) Director at a Canberra Catholic Preschool, Beth Lehmenisch agreed. "He really lived the values of Jesus by reaching out to the outcasts, those who are on our margins, people in prison, women, the LGBTQI community as well and just making sure we're treating people as humans first," she said. Tony Bracken, Deputy Director of Catholic Education Canberra- Goulburn, said the Pope's joining in in Easter events demonstrated his dedication. Tony Bracken said he valued Pope Francis's presence and leadership. ( ABC News: Jade Toomey ) "Thinking about it, the fact that he actually attended the Easter services and then passed away is incredible, a last act of service from a very popular, very charitable, compassionate, great leader," he said.
