St.
Pius X School Admissions Policy Overview
Issued April 2001
Over one year ago, the St. Pius X School Commission began reevaluating its school admissions policy. This was prompted by the need to ensure that students on the class waiting lists were not "bumped" by siblings of students admitted to other grades. The resultant policy (explained further in this article) fulfills this need. In addition, a new criterion for school admission based on "active parishioner" status has been added.
In an article by Father Marty in the Pius Connection last summer, he described the requirement that the first priority for school admission will be that the immediate family of the applicant be active parishioners. An active parishioner is defined as a registered, practicing member of the St. Pius X faith community, who celebrates regularly in the Roman Catholic tradition, is committed to consistently share their time, talent and treasure according to their means and who prayerfully seeks to serve others both within and beyond the parish community. As further described by Father Marty, this means that regular and frequent attendance at Saturday or Sunday Mass, sharing in parish ministries and financial contributions will all be considered to determine if the family of an applicant for school is an active parishioner.
In the spirit of our stewardship parish (where taking an active role in Catholic life is encouraged) the School Commission has fashioned an addition to the school registration packet that asks parents to communicate in writing how their family fits the active parishioner description. Families of students on the current waiting list (under the old policy) will be asked to do this as well. A School Commission committee will confidentially review these and pass on the presumably few that may not qualify for school admission to a Parish Council committee so that a decision can be made.
The new policy will be fully used for the 2004-2005 academic year. Until that time, students who have received letters promising an upcoming class spot will, of course, be admitted.
Under the old policy, once a waiting list for a class was created, siblings of students admitted to other grades could gain admission to a class before those on the waiting list. With the new policy, applications for each class are accepted during a specific time period (described below) and the list of all the students is prioritized according to the following criteria:
The roster for each class is then filled in order from the prioritized list. When the roster is full, the remaining students on the list become the "waiting list" and are "frozen" in that position. Any additional students to apply for the class are added to the bottom of the list in the order in which applications are received and may not replace students already on the waiting list.
Applications for kindergarten will be accepted between January 1 and March 31 of the calendar year before the calendar year of their entering class year (that is, eighteen to twenty one months before the start of the new kindergarten year.) All students applying at this time must be baptized. Composition of the class will be formed by August of the application year and all applying families will then be notified. At that time, the class waiting lists will be frozen.
Applications for non-kindergarten classes can be made at any time. Composition of the classes will be established as soon as possible prior to the start of the school year and all applying families will then be notified. Again, the class and waiting lists will be frozen at that time.
It is hoped that this policy creates proper admission criteria for a very popular school while fulfilling and encouraging our mandate as a stewardship parish.
Copies of the complete admissions policy are available by calling the school office and will be published in the School Handbook and an upcoming School Newsletter. Please call the school office or a member of the School Commission if you have any questions.
Tom Funk
School Commission Chairman 2001