JS: The Seton network vowed to transform Catholic education in Milwaukee. Four years later, troubles mount

When the Archdiocese of Milwaukee launched its Seton Catholic Schools network in the fall of 2015, it vowed it would transform Catholic education in southeastern Wisconsin.

The experience at Prince of Peace isn't what anyone had in mind.

In the almost three years since it joined Seton, parents say, the south side elementary school has been spiraling downward.

It lost its extracurricular activities and more than a fourth of its teachers. There's no library and no playground equipment. Kids play on a grassy lot that is checked for used condoms and needles, parents say, after they complained last year. Enrollment is down. And the school dropped a grade on its latest state report card, leaving parents fretting about their children's high school prospects.

"We want to know what they're doing with the money," Prince of Peace parent Elizabeth Nolasco said of the $16 million a year Seton schools bring to the network in taxpayer-funded voucher payments alone.

"They said they would be in the community recruiting. ... There'd be more teachers. Test grades were going to go up. Report cards were going to go up. All these things were promised and nothing was fulfilled."

Nolasco is part of a group of parents threatening to pull their children from Prince of Peace unless the archdiocese allows it to secede from the network. Two other schools already have bailed — Divine Mercy in South Milwaukee and St. Matthias in West Allis — and parents and teachers elsewhere have raised similar concerns.

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JS New MKE Seton Catholic School system bolsters voucher schools

Turner is in his second year at St. Catherine, one of nine schools in the inaugural class of Seton Catholic Schools, a nonprofit the Archdiocese of Milwaukee launched to boost enrollment and improve educational outcomes at its elementary schools that take part in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, which offers taxpayer-funded vouchers for low- and middle-income students to attend private schools.

Adopting more innovative teaching practices is just one of many priorities Turner has set for St. Catherine — up there with raising test scores, expanding extracurricular activities, and creating a culture where students and families feel welcome.

"I have a lot of 'number one priorities,' " said Turner, who spent 15 years as a Milwaukee Public Schools teacher before joining St. Catherine in July 2015. "We're a work in progress. But we're making progress."

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Catholic school enrollments peaked in the 1960s, when more than 15 million students were educated in 13,000 schools across the country, staffed primarily by religious sisters who offered a plentiful source of low-cost labor, according to the National Catholic Education Association. The movement of sisters into other ministries dramatically altered the economic picture for Catholic schools. And enrollments declined over the decades driven by a host of reasons, including rising tuition costs and a lessening of the moral obligation for Catholics to send their children to religious schools.

By 2015-16, there were just 6,525 Catholic schools, serving about 1.9 million students nationally. Enrollment in the Milwaukee Archdiocese is 30,772 this year, down from 33,559 in 2007-08, according to Kathleen Cepelka, who serves as superintendent for its 92 elementary and 15 high schools across the 10-county area.

Milwaukee Archdiocese taps leadership for Seton Catholic Schools initiative

Seton Catholic Schools, a new initiative by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee aimed at improving 26 of its mostly urban schools, announced the appointment of its president and chief academic officer on Tuesday.

Seton named as president Don Drees, former managing director at the consulting and technology firm Accenture. Drees has been working with the archdiocese as a consultant on the creation of the Seton Schools.

It also tapped former Greendale School District Superintendent Bill Hughes as its chief academic officer. Hughes, director of the School and Instructional Leadership Program at Alverno College, has spent the last four years with the nonprofit education reform group Schools That Can Milwaukee.

"Catholic education is a priority for our community and for our Church," Archbishop Jerome Listecki said in announcing the appointments. "The Church has a responsibility to do more to support children and families in Milwaukee, and Seton Catholic Schools has the ability to positively impact our community."

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