Changing Governance Models in Religious Order Schools

NCEATALK

Written by Father Tom Simonds, SJ, Ed.D., director of school engagement, NCEA, [email protected]

Over the last two years, I have spoken with presidents of religious order schools and directors of religious order school systems about changes in school governance models. The religious orders who have governed these schools have already, or are preparing to, change the way they govern. In some cases, the religious order wants to maintain some relationship with the school, but in other cases the religious order has decided that it can no longer provide appropriate candidates for board membership or executive leadership positions of Catholic schools.

Models for Continued Religious Oversight

There are a number of models a religious order can adopt if they want to maintain some relationship with the school or schools they govern. Examples are the establishment of a two-tiered board and creation of a regional or national oversight board.

In the two-tiered board model, members of the religious order are chosen to be members of the religious order board, sometimes called a board of members. This board then authorizes the school or schools to create governing boards under civil law. The religious board reserves some powers to itself, such as the appointment of the president, the sale of school property and any changes to the school’s mission or name. The governing board of each school, composed of school stakeholders and community leaders, takes responsibility for oversight of the president, oversight of the school’s finances and reports to the religious order board on how the school is living out the Catholic Church’s goals for education. In this model, civil and canon lawyers would need to be consulted to address ownership of school property including buildings, grounds and endowment funds.

I asked Father James J. Conn, SJ, J.D., J.C.D., of the Pontifical North American College, to share some perspectives on the governance of Catholic schools as defined in canon law. Father Conn noted that, “The 1983 Code of Canon Law provides some goals that should characterize the Catholic education of the young, namely that ‘they are able to develop their physical, moral and intellectual talents harmoniously, acquire a more perfect sense of responsibility and right use of freedom, and are formed to participate actively in social life’ (canon 795). More specific norms provide that ‘education and instruction in Catholic schools must be grounded in the principles of Catholic doctrine’ and that ‘teachers are to be outstanding in correct doctrine and integrity of life’ (canon 803 §2).” These goals and norms can be used by a religious order board of members to develop a template for each school’s governing board to use in their reporting on Catholic mission effectiveness.

If a religious order decides to create a regional or national oversight board instead of a two-tiered board at each school, the regional or national board would focus primarily, and very likely only, on the Catholic mission effectiveness of schools while giving all other governance duties to local school governing boards. This model may be a better fit for those religious orders who have a limited number of members to engage in school oversight and who are most interested in preserving the goals and norms of Catholic education noted above by Father Conn.

Governance Without Religious Involvement

Neither the two-tiered board model nor the regional/national oversight board model will be possible when a religious order decides it can no longer provide any members to govern Catholic schools. In this case, the religious order would end or complete its relationship with the schools. The religious order may endeavor to assist schools with continuing as Catholic schools. However, in some situations small religious orders have not been able to make arrangements for the governance of their schools before they ended their governance. It is this final circumstance that has led presidents of Catholic schools to contact me.

In reviewing information Father Conn shared with me, I have learned that there are a number of options leaders of religious order schools can pursue to ensure their status as a Catholic school with a new governance model. NCEA will be offering two webinars to follow up on this blog post. In these webinars, we will learn from leaders of Catholic schools and leaders of school system oversight boards how two of these models operate. The two models we will discuss during the webinars will be the association of Christ’s faithful governance model and the public juridic person governance model.

Alternative Oversight Structures

In conclusion, I want to add two points. First, a school that finds itself in a situation in which a religious order has not made provision for the school’s governance, could meet with the local bishop or his delegate to discuss the possibility of either becoming a diocesan school or the possibility of being an independent Catholic school with the written approval of the bishop (canon 803 §1).

Second, there is also a possibility for international religious orders to exercise oversight of the Catholic goals and norms of their schools through the office of their superior general or similar international general superior. In this model, schools send an annual report on the Catholic goals and norms of education to the office of the general superior. This model has been adopted by the Society of Jesus for many of the Jesuit schools in the United States.

Continuing the Conversation

Be sure to join us for two upcoming webinars in the NCEA School Governance Series, which build on the insights shared in this blog. These sessions are especially valuable for presidents of individual schools and directors of religious order school systems exploring new governance models.