In six years as a Coordinator of the School Improvement Process for the Jefferson City diocese, Nancy Heberlie has visited nearly every Catholic school in these 38 counties.
At each, she interviews students about what they like about their school.
“It’s like a broken record,” she noted. “‘I get to learn about Jesus!’ ‘I get to study about God!’
“It sounds trite, but we get to hear it over and over and over,” she said.
Mrs. Heberlie will retire from her role as coordinator at the end of this school year, six years from when she began it.
“It’s time for me to step aside and let someone else take it to greater heights,” she said.
Mrs. Heberlie has thoroughly enjoyed her time as coordinator.
She marvels at how “beautifully different yet beautifully similar” each of the diocese’s 37 Catholic grade schools, three Catholic high schools and one child development center are.
“So many different little things,” she said. “They each have their own unique charism.”
She spoke of schools that place little electric candles on the headstones in the parish cemetery for All Souls Day.
There was the school where a child bundled up an outdoor statue of Jesus with a scarf and hat in frigid weather.
“It’s so beautiful,” she stated. “The kids love to tell me about these things.”
At one school, all the students shared not only the words and melody of a song of welcome, but also the Sign Language.
“One of their grandparents is hard of hearing, and her granddaughter wanted her to be able to enjoy it, too,” said Mrs. Heberlie. “So, the music teacher taught the whole school how to sign it.”
“It’s those little things that make it so worthwhile,” she said.
“No looking back”
Mrs. Heberlie went to a rural Catholic grade school in the St. Louis archdiocese.
“The Precious Blood Sisters who were my teachers instilled in me a love for learning,” she said. “It was a natural thing to go into education.”
She taught Title 1 classes and served as a librarian in a public school for five years.
“Those were really good experiences,” she said. “But God called me to this. There was no looking back once I started teaching in a Catholic school.”
She insisted that it’s a calling: “I wouldn’t be able to separate myself from God at work, it’s so ingrained in me.”
After 20 years in a classroom, God led her into school administration, where she served for another 20 years.
“Nuggets and gems”
Kenya Fuemmeler Thompson was serving as interim superintendent of Catholic schools in 2019 when Mrs. Heberlie retired as principal of St. Stanislaus School in Wardsville.
Mrs. Heberlie offered her services to Mrs. Thompson, who asked her to become the diocese’s coordinator of the School Improvement Process, working with the diocese’s School Improvement Process program.
The process includes a visiting team, made up of Catholic school educators and administrators from around the diocese, which makes an official visit to a handful of schools each year as part of the schools’ intensive self-study process.
Each school usually does a self-study every six years.
“There are standards that we look for,” Mrs. Heberlie noted. “We look at their philosophy and their mission statement and their administrative outlook, instruction, curriculum, finances, facilities — we look at all aspects of the school.”
They now also take specific note of the school’s Catholicity and its commitment to promoting stewardship as the Catholic way of life.
“That was one of my goals,” said Mrs. Heberlie, “to get the Catholicity piece and the stewardship piece into that, and we got it done. I’m excited about that.”
Having previously been a principal for 20 years, Mrs. Heberlie knows the self-study process, culminating with a visit from a delegation of fellow educators, can be stressful.
“But, the team really comes with a heart for helping you improve the school,” she said. “They also want to help you recognize those nuggets and gems, those unique things you do really well that you don’t recognize because they’re so ingrained in your school’s culture.
“Yes, we give recommendations for improving,” she noted, “but we also point out those talents, those charisms, those really good things that they often don’t even realize are special.”
She had a happy homecoming last spring when she led a visit to St. Stanislaus School, where she used to be principal.
“It was fun,” she said. “A real joy!”
“Dream job”
Erin Vader Ed.D., current diocesan superintendent of Catholic schools, asked Mrs. Heberlie to continue serving as coordinator.
Mrs. Heberlie gladly obliged.
“It’s a dream job for me — everything God wanted me to be!” she said. “I get to travel, and I love to explore Missouri. It’s kept me in contact with my colleagues, who are my friends, in the diocese.
“And it got me into every one of the schools,” she said.
The workload was heavy at times. Teams visited 11 schools in a year’s time after the COVID-19 pandemic subsided.
“I wasn’t home for over a month,” said Mrs. Heberlie. “It was tough. But, I always had a wonderful team. We knew what we were getting into, we did it, and it was a great experience.”
This school year, she’s leading visits to a much more manageable four schools.
Nonetheless, Jefferson City is about a three-hour drive from Perryville, where Mrs. Heberlie moved after retiring to help look out for her mother, who’s 94.
“It’s all worked out very well for the past six years, through God’s grace alone,” she said.
Hopeful signs
Mrs. Heberlie has enjoyed learning about the Jefferson City diocese, its schools, its parishes and its people.
“The diocese is so authentic and genuine and wonderful,” she said. “It’s a real gem. I don’t know if people realize that.”
She said it’s a joy to visit the schools here, “especially those little rural schools. They have a special place in my heart. And what they’re doing is simply amazing.”
Everywhere she goes, “in every school,” she sees students, teachers, staff members, parents, grandparents, volunteers and principals working “very, very hard.”
“They do a phenomenal job,” she said. “And each one of the schools has its own flavor, and the prayers are so beautiful.”
Visiting all of these schools has given her tremendous hope for the present and the future.
“The children are so alive in their faith,” she said. “It’s great to see how they respond to God, how they respond to their teachers, how great their teachers are.”
Mrs. Heberlie enjoys staying around after Mass while visiting a parish with a school and asking some of the older parishioners about it.
“They immediately light up like a Christmas tree,” she said. “They’re so proud of the school. They probably went there themselves. Maybe their parents went there, too. They sent their kids there, and now their grandchildren go there.”
“Alive and well”
Mrs. Heberlie said the biggest changes she’s seen in education through her career involve the explosion of technology, and the need for stronger safety protocols in the schools.
What hasn’t changed are the students and their prayers.
“Children still love to pray,” she said. “They see the power of prayer. They want prayer — going to Mass and saying the Rosary. They might not say that to anybody, but they like it. They like learning about God, learning about Jesus. It keeps them anchored.”
She has no doubt that God is present and very active in every Catholic school.
“They wouldn’t still exist if he were not there in them,” she said. “The power of God is alive and well.
“When you have a service project, the teachers and students show up,” she stated. “You see that all the time. They don’t do it because they have to. They do it because they want to. They’re living the Beatitudes.”
Every school has difficulties to overcome, “but I wish the people here could step back and see the growth and all the potential,” said Mrs. Heberlie.
The implementation of the Stewardship Model has strengthened the decades-old policy of Catholic schools in this diocese not charging tuition to families who actively and materially support and participate in their parish.
“It works because people are so committed and devoted to their faith,” said Mrs. Heberlie.
Marks of excellence
She believes courage is what makes a Catholic school excellent, and student-led evangelization makes an excellent school Catholic.
“Being courageous enough to know to do the right thing,” she stated. “To talk the hard talks that go with instructing children, to help them develop a good moral compass in the schools.
“When you see that children have that moral compass, who are naturally living the Beatitudes and naturally going to prayer in a time of difficulty ... how they relate to the other people in the school — student to student, teacher to student, administrator to student — you know you have an excellent school,” she said.
“When the students themselves direct or lead the rest of the school in the faith, when they say, ‘let’s pray about it,’ when a student knows they need to forgive someone, when they know they need the Sacrament of Reconciliation, that’s excellent,” she continued.
She said graduates of such schools are easy to identify.
“They’re grounded in their faith, know the tenets of their faith, have a good moral compass, and when they’re in situations that would be tempting or of the world, they know inside, through their moral compass, through their relationship with Jesus, right from wrong.”
They don’t just live their faith; they actively lead others to Christ.
“We can’t keep it to ourselves,” she insisted. “We have to be sharing our faith, to be taking Christ out into the world.”
For it to “stick”
For parents and fellow parishioners who want to keep their Catholic schools excellent, Mrs. Heberlie advises staying involved; being supportive of teachers and administrators, especially when they make difficult decisions; praying ceaselessly; and being present to their children.
Toward that end, during Catholic schools week, her prayer will be simply “that it sticks.”
“These are good kids, and Catholic schools help put that good in them,” she said. “So, we pray that down the path, wherever it leads, that they’ll continue to give the glory to God for all the gifts he’s given them, and continue following him and helping lead other people to Christ.”
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