SPIRE event highlights inclusive Catholic education opportunities
Bishop Ralph B. O’Donnell visited and laughed with everyone in Cana Hall, but two young women were the belles of the ball.
Elaina and Grace are both graduates of the Vogelweid Learning Center at St. Peter School in Jefferson City, and offering similar opportunities to others is what the gathering was all about.
Nearly 200 people purchased tickets to the Nov. 5 “Aces for Accessible Spaces” event to benefit the SPIRE Fund (diojeffcity.org/special-learning-opportunities).
Those attending enjoyed an evening of fun and games, conviviality and insights into a vision for Catholic education where everyone belongs.
Joining them were principals and faculty from St. Joseph Cathedral School, St. Peter School and Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City; Our Lady of Lourdes Interparish School and Fr. Tolton Regional Catholic High School in Columbia; St. Stanislaus School in Wardsville and St. Martin School in St. Martins.
The SPIRE Fund was established 11 years ago to support special education services at Catholic schools throughout the diocese.
Its purpose is to help more Catholic schools in these 38 counties welcome and educate students with a broader range of abilities and learning styles.
Its premise is that Jesus loves and welcomes all children, and his schools should do likewise.
SPIRE’s objectives fall into two categories:
- raising awareness among school administrators, teachers, staff and parents of the need to provide Catholic education to children with special needs, as well as the availability of workshops and professional development opportunities to help teachers bring out the children’s best efforts; and
- raising money and helping secure grants to pay for staff development, classroom materials and additional personnel to help students with special needs achieve success in Catholic schools.
Last year, money from the SPIRE Fund helped support the Vogelweid Learning Program at Helias Catholic, which in recent years has been established as an expansion of the successful Vogelweid Learning Center.
Vogelweid helps students with a broad range of needs achieve success at both schools.
This is in addition to the good works already done at Helias’s St. John Paul II Student Support Center by “building a program that provides specialized classes for those with exceptional learning needs,” said Kathryn Coulson, interim diocesan superintendent of Catholic schools.
It expands Helias Catholic’s ability to provide a Catholic high school experience that is inclusive to more students.
Promoters of the SPIRE Fund desire to broaden access to Catholic education in other parts of the diocese. They hope to build up an endowment that will provide specialized training for all Catholic school teachers and offer grants to schools for helping provide specialized services to students who need it.
Evident needs
Mrs. Coulson referred to the SPIRE Fund as “an important initiative in our diocese to support all learners.”
She pointed out how studies conducted in recent years on the rate of developmental disabilities in children have led to increased awareness, earlier screening and improved diagnostic practices.
“Whether officially diagnosed or not, all schools, including ours, have children enrolled or families who wish to enroll with a variety of needs,” she stated.
She noted that approximately 1 in 5 children live with special healthcare needs, with a majority of those carrying a mental health or behavioral diagnosis.
She pointed out that 9.5 to 12 percent of children are diagnosed with ADHD, while 7.6 to 8.8 percent have a specific learning disability, such as in language, reading comprehension or math.
About 1 in 5 students have dyslexia, which affects reading; 5 to 7 percent of students have dyscalculia, which affects math abilities; and 5 to 15 percent have dyspraxia, which affects motor skills.
Five to 30 percent of students have dysgraphia, impacting fine motor skills, writing and language. Two to 5 percent have auditory processing disorders; from 3.1 to 4.5 percent of children — about 1 in 31 — are on the autism spectrum; and 5.5 to 6.4 percent of children have developmental delays.
Having been a student, teacher, principal, diocesan Director of Curriculum and Instruction, and parent in the diocese, Mrs. Coulson has witnessed firsthand what Catholic school teachers do to support students and their academic needs.
“I’ve been on both sides of the table when that hard conversation was had between school and parent: ‘Our school doesn’t have the resources to best support the needs of your child,’” she said.
As a school administrator, she worked with her teachers and pastor to find ways to serve the needs of more students: “How can we learn more, how can we provide more resources, how can we create an environment of support and welcome so that our doors are open to those in need?”
She emphasized that people who give sacrificially through their tithe to their parishes support all of that parish’s ministries, including the school.
“They, in fact, are sponsoring the Catholic education of children, covering the cost to educate,” said Mrs. Coulson.
Given the high cost of all aspects of running a school, parish finance councils, school advisory councils, pastors and principals have to make difficult decisions about what can and cannot be paid for with limited resources.
“These decisions aren’t easy and are even more difficult when we look at the finances and have to say there isn’t funding for a learning specialist, extra resource teacher, aide, or materials needed for Tier 3 intervention,” she said.
Nonetheless, each of the 36 Catholic grade schools and three Catholic high schools in this diocese go about doing what they can to welcome and serve children in their parishes and communities who have special needs.
They want to do more.
The main thing
The event’s emcees were Katie Helfer Ed.D. and Sara Blandford, principal and assistant principal of Our Lady of Lourdes Interparish School.
“SPIRE isn’t simply a fundraiser, and it isn’t simply about purchasing equipment or funding programs,” said Dr. Helfer. “SPIRE is ultimately about children and families.”
Mrs. Blandford spoke of how Catholic school parents want their children to attend Mass together, grow up in the same school community, and learn the academic fundamentals from teachers who will also teach them that they are created and loved by God.
If one child has learning needs that their Catholic school cannot support, that child loses out on the opportunities for formation that his or her siblings and peers have available to them in the Catholic school setting.
“That is where the mission of SPIRE becomes very real,” said Mrs. Blandford.
Dr. Helfer said the question isn’t whether our Catholic schools care about these children.
“They absolutely do,” she stated. “The question is: How do we give our schools the resources, training, staffing, tools and support necessary to serve more of them well?”
That’s the opportunity SPIRE presents.
Mrs. Blandford noted that the word “accessible” means more than physical accessibility.
“It means creating educational environments where children with diverse learning needs have a genuine opportunity to flourish — academically, socially and spiritually,” she said.
SPIRE is about helping Catholic schools move from wanting to serve every child to having more of the resources necessary to actually do it well, she said.
“Because ultimately, every child who walks through the doors of one of our Catholic schools deserves to be seen first for who they are: a child of God,” she stated.
Behind every story are real children, real parents, real teachers, real Catholic schools and real families who want what every family wants — for their child to be known, loved, challenged, supported and given every opportunity to become the person God created them to be.
“This is a story we want to continue writing,” said Mrs. Blandford.
Dollars to doing
The Aces for Accessible Spaces event raised about $80,000 in pledges for the SPIRE Fund.
“Take a look around this room,” said Dr. Helfer. “This is what community looks like!”
“What you gave tonight isn’t ultimately about a dollar amount,” Mrs. Blandford stated. “It’s about what that dollar amount makes possible: more resources, more support, more opportunities for schools, more families hearing, ‘Let’s figure out how we can make this work.’”
Online contributions to the SPIRE Fund and other diocesan initiatives can be made online at diojeffcity.org/donate.
