Archbishop Fabre announces diocesan appointments

Priests placed in consulting posts, to assist diocese until a bishop is named

The East Tennessee Catholic

Following the resignation of Bishop Richard F. Stika on June 27, and in accord with canon law, Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Knoxville, has announced a series of appointments to various consultative bodies that will assist him in the governance of the diocese until a new bishop is installed.

The Presbyteral Council acts as a senate of the bishop and is composed of representative members of priests. It assists in the governance of the diocese so that the pastoral welfare of the people of God may be more effectively achieved.

Archbishop Fabre has decreed to reconstitute the diocesan Presbyteral Council as the Presbyteral Council Pro Tempore, whose members are the same as the previous council, and who will serve in this capacity until

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Members of this council are Father Joe Reed (chairman), Father Mark Schuster (vice chairman), Father Ray Powell (record secretary), Father David Boettner, Father David Carter, Father Dustin Collins, Father Michael Cummins, Father Charlie Donahue, CSP, Father Martin Gladysz, Father Jim Harvey, Monsig- nor Al Humbrecht, Father Peter Iorio, Father Michael Nolan, Father Manuel Pérez, and Father Tim Sullivan, CSP.

Archbishop Fabre will serve as president, and Father Doug Owens will function as his delegate.

The bishop of a diocese can group parishes into regional areas according to their geographic location. These regions are called deaneries. The Diocese of Knoxville has four deaneries. A dean or a special delegate coordinates the common pastoral activity of the priests and parishes in his area.

Archbishop Fabre has appointed the following special delegates to lead deaneries in the Diocese of Knoxville: Father Michael Cummins, Five Rivers Deanery; Father Peter Iorio, Smoky Mountain Deanery; Father Michael Nolan, Chattanooga Deanery; and Father Mark Schuster, Cumberland Mountain Deanery. ■

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Big challenges

“In my mind we have two great challenges: students and money,” he said. “Students bring money, but they don’t bring, in most cases, enough to cover full tuition. So therefore, you have to have money through development. Those two things, on top of a phenomenal faculty, make a school work.”

Work has been underway to increase enrollment, and efforts include making the campus more appealing to prospective students and their parents, expanding and upgrading athletic facilities, and updating academic areas.

Notre Dame also is taking part in the new school choice program the state of Tennessee has extended to Hamilton County. Students in Hamilton County’s public school system are now eligible to transfer to Notre Dame or its diocesan feeder schools, Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Jude, and receive tuition assistance to do so.

“I think we have had over the last 13 years a slow decline in enrollment, with some up years, but basically a decline,” Deacon Armor said. “I think it’s imperative that we do partnerships with our grammar schools, Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Jude, to increase our enrollment and truly evangelize the faith we believe. Additional students are imperative for us to grow as an institution. So, enrollment is key.”

To that end, Deacon Armor shared that when Bishop Emeritus Richard F. Stika and Deacon Sean Smith, Diocese of Knoxville chancellor, asked him in the spring of 2022 to fill the vacancy of Notre Dame’s leader, he agreed, albeit reluctantly, because his vocational strengths are business management and raising money, not education.

“Out of obedience and friendship to the bishop and Deacon Sean, I said yes. My only confidence was that I didn’t think God would walk away from me. By me saying yes and thinking I don’t know how I’m going to do this, (God) helped me,” he recalled. “If you ask me how my faith journey has been in the last year and a half, and if you ask me if God has talked to me today? No, but He sure gives me people. He certainly helps me out in situations.”

Deacon Armor now knows that God was with him every step of the way and that his early worries about getting the job done were unproductive.

As he occupied an office at Notre Dame, concerned about how he would accomplish objectives for improving the school, he didn’t at first notice that also occupying an office was longtime diocesan educator Jamie Goodhard.

Ms. Goodhard taught English and served as development director at Our Lady of Perpetual Help from 1992-2001 before becoming principal of St. Jude, where she served from 2001-21. She then served as accreditation and special-projects coordinator for Diocese of Knoxville schools from July 2021 to June 2022.

Deacon Armor approached Ms. Goodhard about becoming the assistant head of school, and she agreed. That’s when his prayer for a lead educator was answered.

“People who are professional educators understand better than I the quality of education we have at Notre Dame, and I think that has been an unsung, understated fact. When you look at our honors courses, Advanced Placement courses, and dual-enrollment courses, we have three to five times more than our competitors and almost as many as the top three private schools in Chattanooga,” the deacon said.

Another answered prayer was finding expertise to handle development activities for the high school.

Jumpstarting development

To jumpstart the development process, Deacon Hicks informed Bishop Stika that he needed to raise money, and he wanted to get going first with the Chattanoogaarea Catholic churches to convince parishioners “to send me kids or money.” “Bishop Stika said, ‘How can I help you?’”

The Notre Dame graduate asked Bishop Stika to write and sign a letter that he could take to priests in the Chattanooga Deanery allowing him to go into churches to promote Notre Dame and its need for students and donations.

He proceeded to attend Masses, where he would read the Gospel and deliver the homily about Notre Dame. So began the effort to get Notre Dame’s story out into the community.

While visiting St. Thérèse of Lisieux Church in Cleveland, a man introduced himself and offered to help in any way he could.

St. Thérèse pastor Father Michael Nolan told Deacon Armor that the man, Carl Rohsenberger, has worked as a development director and specialprojects coordinator for United Way of Greater Chattanooga from December 2017 to August 2022. Before joining United Way, Mr. Rohsenberger was a manager in the private sector.

“God sends you people. You have to be humble enough to ask and quiet enough to listen. If you can be humble and quiet and desperate He’ll help you,” Deacon Armor said. “Those are just two examples where He has put people in my path.”

He said it wasn’t hard to convince Mr. Rohsenberger and Ms. Goodhard to join him at Notre Dame.

“I think the school academically is there. I haven’t done anything academically (for the school). I’m a businessperson. However, my work is development, admissions, communications, athletics, facilities. I work the non-academic departments. Jamie is the academic person,” Deacon Armor explained. “This model works. And Jamie says we make it work because we have to.”

Deacon Armor praises retired Notre Dame principal George Valadie for his leadership in maintaining and raising Notre Dame’s high academic standards, which is vital to the school’s success.

And that strong academic reputation is critical to the jobs Deacon Armor and Mr. Rohsenberger are doing in reaching out to potential students, their parents, and people who might want to support the school financially.

The deacon, who serves at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, is passionate about promoting Notre Dame, so persuading families to join the Fighting Irish family and donors to open their checkbooks comes naturally. He began his education at Notre Dame Elementary School and then attended St. Jude School before going to Notre Dame High School. He was in the first class of third-grade students at St. Jude and the first freshman class at Notre Dame when the school relocated. He graduated from Notre Dame in 1970.

He continues to take the message of Chattanooga’s “hidden gem” into the Diocese of Knoxville community, not only because it supports Notre Dame, but it also evangelizes for the Catholic Church in East Tennessee.

“Catholic education sells. … We are supposed to evangelize.

Jesus told the Apostles to grow the Church.

… We’re supposed to grow the Church. We’re supposed to evangelize. If you can’t catechize, you can’t evangelize. Part of our mission as Catholics is to educate or catechize our youth, and this is the best way to do it,” he said. “I believe it’s something we have to do for our kids. I can do public speaking; I’m a deacon; I can read the Gospel; I went to Catholic schools; I can get up and give personal testimony about this.”

When Deacon Armor has visited churches, he has told congregations that an important part of the Catholic mission is to support Catholic education and that most everyone in the pews has been touched by Catholic education at some time or another.

He also asks parishioners to support Our Lady of Perpetual Help School and St. Jude School.

Fundraising gains

Notre Dame is having success with its annual fundraising gala that has raised nearly $200,000 for capital improvements, including new campus signage and landscaping and updates to the school’s interior.

Those are just two of several projects the school is launching to improve the campus and its facilities.

“In all of the studies we’ve had for all three schools over the last five to 10 years, one of the things they say is we need curb appeal. We’ve always said if we can get a kid in the front door, once they come in they will see the facilities are good inside, and the culture sells itself. We don’t have bullying. We don’t have cliques. It’s a very family-oriented group,” Deacon Armor said.

“So, if we can get a kid in the front door, nine times out of 10 they’re going to choose us over somebody else. When you drive up to some of our schools, they haven’t been updated. The last study said we need to update the entrance to our facility,” he added. “The gala last year raised a little under $100,000. We’re going to end up spending more than that on campus improvements. The front of the building has been painted. The downstairs has been renovated and updated. The upstairs

Notre Dame continued on page A11 school setting.

“I have loved what I was doing in serving all 10 Diocese of Knoxville schools. It has been a great honor of my life to work with our Catholic schools at this level,” Dr. Prater said. “First and foremost, I wholeheartedly believe in the mission of Catholic school education. I think that Catholic schools have the best opportunity to serve the whole child, their spiritual formation, and their faith formation, and work with the families and minister to that.”

“I also believe that Catholic schools are one of the great shining stars for evangelization of the Catholic Church, to above all bring children and families to Jesus. I’ve been committed to this. And I have enjoyed at the administrative level serving and working with our schools in that capacity, working with pastors, working with school leaders, working with teachers,” she added.

However, Dr. Prater acknowledged missing the daily interaction with students and teachers that only happens in a school environment.

She said after much prayerful discernment about where Jesus was leading her next, she felt called to return to the school setting where she could again have direct impact on day-to-day teaching and learning with students and their families.

Dr. Prater recalls that she “loved” being a high school teacher before feeling called to go in a different direction early in her career. She then became a middle school teacher at Sacred Heart Cathedral School, where she taught history, English language arts, and foreign language.

“There I was called to serve in an administrative role, and I kept being called to serve in that area,” she said, describing her transition into school administration.

She became assistant principal at Sacred Heart in July 1998 and then served as principal of the cathedral school from July 2004 to June 2013. She became director of curriculum for all 10 diocesan schools in July 2013 and served in that role until she was named superintendent in April 2019.

“Now, this opportunity opened up, and I’ve kind of come full circle, coming back to high school, a place that I love, working with students, and I will still be serving Catholic schools,” she said.

At KCHS, Dr. Prater succeeds Jane Walker, who served the high school for more than 30 years, many of those years as academic dean.

Dr. Prater has worked with Ms. Walker and is an admirer of the former academic dean. “She has done a phenomenal job at Knoxville Catholic High School for years,” Dr. Prater said of Ms. Walker.

While her title and role at KCHS is somewhat different than Ms. Walker’s, Dr. Prater will continue as a lead administrator for academics.

“My role is over teaching and learning, so I’ll be directly involved with the teachers, the students, the academic program. I’m looking forward to being back in the school setting, getting to know the students, getting to know the teachers, and helping them,” Dr. Prater said.

“They (teachers) are on the front line and always have been. The teachers are the backbone of everything that we do. And they are the heart. I’m going to have more direct interaction with them while they are doing what they need to do to serve our students. I’m very excited about it,” she continued.

Dr. Prater’s familiarity with KCHS extends beyond her superintendent position. She was a Fighting Irish parent for several years as her children attended and graduated from the school, which is one of two diocesan high schools.

Going viral

Dr. Prater’s four-year term as superintendent was marked by the coronavirus pandemic, which hit in early 2020. While the epidemic forced schools and everything else in the United States to shut down, Diocese of Knoxville schools were closed only a short time as Dr. Prater and leaders of the 10 schools convened to implement a comprehensive remote-learning program where students could continue attending class from home.

Although the pandemic proved extremely stressful for schools, and students have borne the brunt of the contagion that claimed thousands of lives across the country, Dr. Prater said that period also included major victories in teaching, enrollment, and school finances.

When diocesan schools abruptly shuttered, Dr. Prater said KCHS was the only diocesan school equipped to teach remotely. However, the other nine schools quickly adopted the remote-learning techniques, implemented equipment, and went online.

Diocesan schools lost relatively little learning time compared with public schools, which suspended learning for months. Dr. Prater said it was “miraculous” that Diocese of Knoxville schools could acclimate to remote learning so quickly without losing appreciable learning time.

Diocesan schools became eligible for public funding to support schools impacted by the pandemic. The diocese and its 10 schools applied for and received Emergency Assistance for Nonpublic Schools (EANS) money as well as Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER) grants created to sustain public, private, and parochial schools during COVID-19.

“This is money the federal government provided during the pandemic for learning loss and to help schools get ready for remote learning. It involved technology, infrastructure, and all of that,” Dr. Prater noted. “Our schools have benefited greatly from it. And our parishes have benefited greatly since schools are a part of that. It involves close to $7 million. The GEER money was over $4 million, and in EANS I we received close to $4 million. EANS II was less, it was about $2 million more. All 10 of our schools applied for EANS funding, and all 10 received it in 2021. The funding had to be used for technology infrastructure, safe environment, and health protocols. Our schools used the money for cleaning services, for school nurses, curriculum programs, and educational platforms.”

She pointed out that funding criteria allowed schools to improve their infrastructure, and at least one school was able to install new heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning equipment, which saved the school’s parish thousands of dollars.

“Our school leaders and faculty, our pastors, everyone mobilized to make sure that we got the infrastructure, the programs, everything. We received those grants. We used that money to build up the infrastructure for technology so we could go remote. We used it to get the computers, and we also used it for nurses and other things we did not have. That was EANS I,” she said.

A second round of government funding, called EANS II, was applied for by the diocese, and seven of the 10 schools received this money. Criteria for this funding round hinged on the number of students who met poverty guidelines and restrictions on school vendors.

Dr. Prater said a number of private and parochial schools across Tennessee did not qualify for EANS II funding, so there was money left over in the funding pool. In 2022, she and other independent school leaders across the state successfully lobbied Tennessee’s governor to shift that leftover EANS money to the GEER grants. Nearly $80 million was left unused in the EANS II funding pool in Tennessee, according to Dr. Prater.

“We convinced them to move the money to the GEER and redistribute that money through GEER grants, which the governor has discretion over,” she said, noting that nine of the diocese’s 10 schools received the next round of GEER grants totaling approximately $4 million.

“There were again designations as to what you could use the money for, but one of the things you could use it for was ventilation systems, which many of our schools did. Our schools that had aging air-conditioning units purchased new air-conditioning units. That fit under the category, and it’s exactly what the public schools did. And that helped the parishes,” she said. “That is significant because of operational vitality, which we’ve heard a lot about. Thanks to this money, parishes didn’t have to expend money for these items,” she noted.

She cited St. Jude School in Chattanooga, which has been in need of a new heating and airconditioning system. Now the school is able to purchase one with GEER money, which helps St. Jude Parish. And Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga will have money to make needed improvements, too.

“Also, our schools for the 202324 academic year are probably going to get grants from the state for school safety. All 10 schools have applied for the school safety grants for improvements that will impact our school buildings,” she added.

She said discussions still are taking place at the state level as to whether private and parochial schools can use the GEER money for school resource officers (SROs), which essentially are police officers in schools. It is hoped the money also can be used for security cameras, new security systems, and improved safety glass that can withstand direct, severe impacts.

“We’ve applied for the school safety grant. The state knows that we intend to participate and that we want SROs. But even if it’s not SROs, we can provide security cameras, a new security system that protects and monitors all facility entrances and exits, it could be new safety glass. These are expenses that will help our schools and parishes to keep our children safe,” she added.

Side effects

Dr. Prater said that while diocesan schools reacted quickly to the coronavirus pandemic and provided remote learning options to all students, remote learning overall wasn’t good for students.

“It was detrimental to their mental wellbeing, their social wellbeing, and their academic wellbeing. Even in our schools, we have seen an increase across the board in mental health issues. Children are more depressed. They are more anxious. It has affected younger students’ ability to socially interact appropriately. There are great deficits there. We are seeing that, too,” she observed.

The result has been a need for schools to offer more assistance in helping some students catch up. And she believes that assistance likely will continue.

“The cognitive part, the learning loss, our schools have very little learning loss. We did have some. Some students have benefited from additional tutoring and support. I don’t see that going away. That is something we are going to have to continue to do,” she said.

Diocesan schools have added students in recent months, and Dr. Prater cited the pandemic as a key reason students left public schools and transferred to Catholic schools in Chattanooga, Oak Ridge, Farragut, Knoxville, Kingsport, and Johnson City. She said many of these new students have some degree of learning loss. She pointed to statistics that show it takes a student three years to recover academically from a poor year, whether that year was due to an underperforming teacher, problems at home, or issues at school.

“We had two and a half years of interrupted education. And for our schools, the worst year was not the first year, 2020, or even the second year. It was the 202122 academic year. The reason was we were back in school, but we were still having to quarantine; students were catching COVID and having to stay out of school, and we were having to remediate.

So, 2021-22 was the hardest year. We had a lot of disruption. This past year we’ve tried to catch up,” she said.

“In the 2022-23 school year, we stopped quarantining. We decided at the beginning of the year that we are treating this illness like we do flu, RSV, and all the other normal childhood illnesses,” she added.

Schools continued on page A10