It seems lately that Catholic High School has garnered its share of criticism and bad news.  I believe those criticisms have given New Iberia an inaccurate portrayal of one of its greatest assets.  The criticisms range from the unfair to the simply erroneous.

Catholic High has a long history in New Iberia, begun as St. Peter’s College in 1918 by a devoted group of Christian Brothers under the direction of St. Peter’s Church.  There is no question that we are now in a state of transition — things have been changing at Catholic High. When I arrived three years ago, the school was mired in “federation mode,” which I define as groups of people who had carved out their niche and believed their part was more important than the whole.

While some of these federations were successful by certain measures (wins/losses, reputation, test scores, or awards, for example) the federations were not working well together. In other words, people were rowing, but they weren’t necessarily rowing in the same direction or even rowing in the same boat!

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What we’ve tried to establish at Catholic High is that all of us need to work together.  This is the tradition that has made Catholic High successful over the years. This change in philosophy has threatened people who had established niches. Some of those people have moved on; some people are still trying to make sense of things; and others have adapted. Still others have been attracted to this new vision of a school and we’ve seen an influx of enthusiastic and talented teachers.

Today we’re close to rowing together in the same boat. And we’re rowing toward a common goal — to provide an academically challenging school rooted in caring discipline, compassion and zeal.

Along the way we have encountered a few bumps in the road. And certainly the criticism from former teachers and former parents illustrates confusion about the new direction.

Herein lies the crux of the unfairness — people who struggle to share the same vision of working together couch their criticisms of the school (or me in particular) in terms of a load of other issues yet their central concern is that the school is changing and they don’t understand why. It would be more proper if the people would make a proper claim such as “The school is changing, I don’t like it, I want the old way, now.” That would be more fitting. Instead we hear a litany of simply untrue complaints which mask the unwillingness to adapt to the new vision of the school shared by many.

The inaccurate complaints usually center on non-certified teachers, sometimes range to financial malfeasance and from time to time involve a drop in academic excellence. In the spring of 2008, we received our five-year accreditation from SACS. Certification of personnel, allocation of resources, and approval of the academic program are all part of that certification process. In addition, every year we submit to the state our roster of teachers and we have been re-approved as a non-public school every year. There is no truth to the rumor that we have non-certified teachers. We do not have a financial shortfall — even in this poor economy, we were able to come within 1/2 of 1 percent of our expected budget. And we continue to produce excellent graduates who are well-prepared for college.

We are preparing to open for our 91st year of educating New Iberia’s finest.  We have an enthusiastic group of teachers, coaches, and support staff. We have great students, great parents, and a bright future.