State of Catholic Schools 2022

Interview with the superintendent: It’s going to be a great year

By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald

Hawaii Catholic Schools Office superintendent Llewellyn Young sat down with the Hawaii Catholic Herald in early August. He talked about how things are going in the 27 Catholic schools on four islands, and how his department is here to “serve, empower and make a positive difference.”

Hawaii Catholic schools saw a higher amount of turnover in faculty and staff between last school year and this school year. Why is that?

In the K-8 schools in particular, we’re seeing this exodus of individuals. And I was really concerned about that because even the Hawaii Department of Education is having a difficult time replacing some of their faculty. There’s a shortage of teachers, we can all acknowledge that.

But the Lord is on our side because we haven’t struggled in the same way in replacing our teachers, even though we don’t have the same salary capacity as the Department of Education. People are attracted to Catholic schools for a variety of reasons. The caliber of our students, the small class sizes, the safe environment, the spiritual aspects of the school. Those factors are attractive to people. So that’s a good thing.

There’s also a lot of teacher autonomy. There’s a lot of curricular autonomy. Teachers can come to a Catholic school and enjoy teaching because they’re deciding on what the curriculum looks like. They’re deciding the assignments, whereas a lot of times in other types of schools, you’ll see a more packaged curriculum. They’re being required to teach a certain thing, and that you don’t see too much of in a Catholic school.

This year you’ve also brought back a school administrators’ retreat, being held at St. Theresa, Kekaha, over the Admission Day weekend. Can you tell me a little more about that?

We used to have an administrators’ retreat at the beginning of the school year and at the end of the school year. And then it just went away. You know, priorities changed. People got too busy.

So, we decided, especially with COVID, especially with what was going on around the state, that this would be the perfect time to bring all the administrators together. We’re still going to have our mandatory administrators’ meeting where we give them a lot of information about changes in religious education and in education in general.

But this is more for formation purposes. People coming together, praying together, having fun together. It’s a collegial exercise. We used to do it in the past, but we need it now. So we’re really excited about this. I don’t know the exact number of administrators, but it was more than I expected to attend.

In terms of the pandemic, how does it feel going into this school year?

I think most people would agree that last year was an awful year in the sense that people were so tired of COVID. It affected our schools because people had really strong feelings one way or another, especially around the issue of masking. And our office was not immune to it. We got all the complaints on both ends. But I felt really bad for our schools because they had to really navigate and let people know, “Folks we’re just the messenger,” you know?

We had to keep reminding people that we were going with the best information provided by the Hawaii State Department of Health. And we’re, in essence, not making the call. Now, toward the end of the school year, the Department of Health came back and said, “Okay, we’re going to strongly recommend, but we’re not going to require masks.”

We as the Hawaii Catholic Schools Office didn’t take a stance either way, because each school has their own issues. So, we told each school to really look at their COVID plans, to talk to their COVID response team, and to come up with a way to mitigate and to minimize the risk of spreading the virus on their campuses. And most of them now have allowed optional masking.

I sit at the table for the Department of Health advisory group for education. And so, I get to review the information before it’s disseminated and give my input along with the other private schools. And the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools is there and the public school system.

You’re originally from Kauai and were the administrator of St. Joseph School, Hilo, before coming to the Hawaii Catholic Schools Office. Do you think the neighbor islands need a different kind of support as far as Catholic education? Do you try and be all-island-focused rather than getting too Oahu-centric?

Thank you for asking that question. I’ve always felt as a neighbor islander and when I was an administrator for a neighbor island school that we were like stepchildren in the diocese. That’s an honest answer. When I assumed this position, I did not want our neighbor islanders to feel that at all.

So, we really reached out to our neighbor island schools to include them in everything that we’re doing for all of our schools. I don’t want us to look like we’re Oahu-centric at all. We are 100% inclusive.

For example, with the Mass of the Holy Spirit coming up, we’re making sure that all of the neighbor islands have the benefit of viewing it via streaming. And in many ways, I think that’s where COVID was a blessing to us because it allowed us to reach out in different ways. Zooming and teleconferencing, streaming things, weren’t commonplace before COVID. Now we’re using the technology as effectively as possible to extend that capability. And they’ve so appreciated it.

Mandy Thronas-Brown, my associate superintendent, is working directly at St. Catherine on Kauai as its interim principal, and we’re providing them direct support. We’re either connecting with them over Zoom or we’re there in person. Because we do not want the neighbor islands to feel like they’re stepchildren anymore, ever again.

Can you talk a little more about the school collaboration program that started in 2020?

The cohort schools program has just completely exceeded my expectations. All of the cohort schools are in an excellent financial situation and are thriving, I can say. And those three schools are St. Michael School in Waialua, Oahu, St. Joseph School in Waipahu, Oahu, and St. Theresa School in Kekaha, Kauai.

Those were picked because it was just better to pool resources for them in certain areas. They needed help. They asked for it. There was a significant issue with governance at those schools. They wanted to see what effective governance would look like. And there were also some financial considerations.

The cohort board is a combination of different best practices of Catholic mainland governing boards. We did a lot of research and we saw that it was very effective when we brought similar schools together and put them under one governing board. While I say “governing board,” it’s technically still advisory. But it is a situation where all of the pastors of these parochial schools delegate certain authority to the chair of the board, to be able to hold the school accountable for all of its goals and objectives.

And that’s exactly what we do. So, we meet four times a year. And prior to the quarterly meetings, we do individual finance meetings with each of the schools every quarter. We look over all of their finances. We look over all of their institutional investment plans. We look at their strategic plans. We make sure everything’s in alignment and that the principals have the resources and the capability to advance the school forward.

The cohort model started in 2020 and was meant to be a temporary situation, for about one to two years, at most three, and then the schools would transition off the board and be able to continue their good work with a really effective board specific to each school. Well, what has happened is, it’s working so well the schools don’t want to let it go. They all voted to continue because it’s been very effective for them.

St. Michael School is one example. At one point St. Michael School was on “the watch list” and was not financially sound. Now, they have made significant improvements in all areas, including enrollment, and are no longer on the watch list. So, it’s amazing what these principals and pastors have been able to do in a relatively short period with the right oversight from governance.

The Diocesan Board of Education is looking to expand this model. You just need a chair, and I’m the current one, and board members who are willing to put in the time.

We didn’t know how it was going to work bringing three schools together because we didn’t know if people were going to share. You talk about a lot of things that are near and dear to your school, so how much are you willing to talk about those with two other schools in the room? Well, the dynamic was incredible. They all trusted each other! So, they not only divulged what they were doing, they call each other throughout the week and talk to each other and really pull each other up. And that was a dynamic we didn’t expect.

The silver lining for all of this is now I know what to look for if a school is in trouble. A lot of it has to do with governance and finances. And so, we’re looking at that constantly. The schools have taken the “thriving and not surviving” stance very, very seriously. And so if they see themselves slipping there, they don’t hesitate to ask for help or to reach out and say, hey, you know, have any ideas of how we can turn this around? That’s something we didn’t see in the past. I mean, they just handled it themselves.

But because that message came out of our office so strongly and they took it so seriously that they see this as a team effort. Now, we are all in this together and we need to try to help them thrive. Surviving is not an option.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Coming out of last year into this school year, I’m beyond optimistic. I’m really excited because I can see changes in policy generally across our state and across the nation where we’re advancing in the area of the pandemic.

Right now, we’re changing our approach to the pandemic on all of our campuses. And we want to make it a very positive thing for everyone. And so that’s really exciting, and I think our administrators are very excited as well.

All of them are saying the same thing to me every time that I’ve communicated over the last couple of weeks, as we’re getting ready to launch, and as some of them have already launched.

They’re not saying, “I hope we have …,” they’re saying, “This is going to be a great year.” And so that’s become, I think, part of my vocabulary now. And I’m saying that to everyone. This is going to be a great year for Catholic schools, because our administrators are saying it and they’re saying it with passion. They believe this.

I think it has to do with the fact that, you know, things are changing in the pandemic. And we’re praying and hoping that people will still see the high value of Catholic schools and what we can offer in comparison to anything else that’s out there. So it’s an exciting time for Catholic schools and things are looking positive for everyone.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

To hear more from Llewellyn Young, listen to our first episode of the Herald’s new podcast: