Written by Dr. Jill Wierzbicki, President/CEO, jillwierzbicki@grwestcatholic.org, and Cecilia Street, communications specialist, ceciliastreet@grwestcatholic.org, West Catholic High School, Diocese of Grand Rapids, MI
“We are the people of life because God, in his unconditional love, has given us the Gospel of Life… and we are called to act accordingly…”
—Saint John Paul II, Evangelium vitae
Some might consider caring for both teens and toddlers a surefire way to go crazy. At West Catholic High School, we consider it a great blessing. The call as Catholics to live as people of life is also a call to look for creative and practical ways to support families. One way we are doing that at West Catholic is through our innovative staff child care center, which provides on-site child care for the children of teachers and staff. Now in its fourth year, the center currently cares for 12 children, from infants up to age 4. For our staff, being able to have their young children in the same building and on the same schedule is a tremendous benefit. For the school community, the added vibrancy of having young children sharing space with teenagers and adults is a reminder that God is a family, and that there is much love and joy in living out family life.
The child care center was pioneered in 2022 when former school president Cynthia Kneibel learned that a beloved young male teacher was resigning his theology teaching position in order to stay home to care for his growing family. How do we hire young talent while also promoting Catholic family life? Kneibel researched workplace child care programs and found a solution—bring the infants to school. In this way, we began to show what we believe: the centrality of the family within the school community.
Across the country, the stress of finding and affording early child care causes young teachers to feel the pull between their family vocation and their role as teachers. It is difficult to do both well. The child care center offers an innovative and faith-based solution that our teachers have been eager to use.
When the center opened, Kneibel had retired as president and Dr. Jill Wierzbicki took over the role, embracing the center as part of the school’s mission. With data showing the skyrocketing price of child care in the area, early childhood care was costing more than high school tuition. The board began to tackle the topic of the financial responsibility of the center: Who will pay for it? Wierzbicki supported the child care center decision, stating that if, as Catholics, we can’t support families and our young and talented staff, with this balance, then no one can. The board agreed to an approximate 50 percent responsibility, which allowed the staff to pay half the market rate of child care while the other half was supported in the staff’s compensation and benefits package.
Partnering with Families
For those who use the child care center, being able to connect family life with work life makes a great difference in how they approach both. The National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools remind us that our faculties and staff should live as “role models” of faith (Benchmarks 3.4; 4.5). Having the center makes school a part of their lives where their families are known and integrated into the fabric of the community. Teachers love having their children near them during the day. The center eliminated the logistical stress of morning dropoff, and staff have found ways for extra (precious) time with their children. Nursing mothers can feed their babies to continue their family bond. Staff can sign their infants and toddlers out of the center so they can attend weekly all-school Mass with them. Joe Rolf, the theology teacher who took time off from teaching to care for his young children but returned when the child care center opened, put it this way: “Being able to drive into work in the morning with them in the car, saying goodbye in the same building, and knowing they’re being taken care of by the best people is a gift.” This gift began as a staff benefit but strengthened the whole school.
Joyful Witness
Our school’s mission is to form disciples of Christ through a dynamic, excellence-driven Catholic education. The addition of the staff child care is both a fruit of that mission and one of the ways we live it out. Being able to see their teachers as more than teachers, as parents and members of a family unit, adds depth to the students’ understanding of the different ways a person lives as a disciple of Christ. As Kniebel observed: “As Catholic school educators, having our young children in the building allows the high school students the opportunity to further witness the love and joy of family life in those that they spend so much time with and look up to. Students get to see their teachers living out their calling as parents and teachers in a joyful way instead of a stressed-out way.” Internship opportunities for our students were also extended to a new career path: early childhood education. Students can intern in the center, learning from the staff while also caring for the children of their teachers. Additionally, the energy of the little ones brings a sense of joy and delight to students, who can’t help but smile when they see and hear the children playing.
Embracing Some Inconvenience
It wasn’t all roses in the beginning. Our building is structured with three courtyards, and one of them became an ideal place for outdoor play for the toddlers. A once-quiet courtyard with open classroom windows became a noisy surprise to some teachers. By the time a crane appeared to install a small playground, the teachers of that courtyard accepted that this was their new reality of distraction out their windows. We remind ourselves that this is the sound of the future of the school. Just as we encourage people to bring their children to church despite the added noise and wiggles that it entails, having these young children in our building helps us remember that we are part of a larger family of God, and when we work and live together—and allow ourselves to be inconvenienced at times by the needs of others—we are putting our faith in action.
Forming Disciples of Christ at All Ages
As seen in the enrollment trend of Catholic elementary schools extending their kindergarten to eighth grade to now offer preschool and even infant programs, our high school embraces the idea that our infants will someday be our high school students. The program offers a faith-filled environment that closes the gap between birth and preschool so that our faculty can be supported in the formation of their children in these early stages of development. The children can attend a nearby Catholic parish elementary school before coming full circle and attending West Catholic for high school.
Driven by Mission
Through our innovative staff child care center, West Catholic is living out its mission to form disciples of Christ, as well as our call as Catholics to support a culture of life that reaffirms the centrality of the family in society. Through this partnership with our teachers and staff, we are building stronger families and a more vibrant, connected community. It is our hope that by supporting families in this intentional and practical way, we will continue to foster an openness to life and an understanding of children as a great gift from God. Through programs such as ours, Catholic schools can help those in their communities live out their callings to both career and family in a joyful, integrated way, as well as model for younger generations the blessings of family.
