The Diocese of Erie on Wednesday announced sweeping changes to Catholic schools in the 13-county region it serves, in a “Top-to-Bottom rethinking” of Catholic education amid demographic changes and declines in enrollment nationwide.

Under the “Preliminary Plan for Catholic Schools,” announced by the diocese this week, all Catholic schools in the region would be guided by a newly-created superintendent of schools position and new uniform guidelines. The 11 schools across the diocese currently not connected to a school system, including St. Bernard Elementary and Middle School in Bradford, will form a consortium to “enjoy improvements in academic quality and operational efficiency similar to system-affiliated schools,” a diocese news release reads.

The plan will ultimately include new initiatives for churches and diocesan ministries in the region as well, with those expected to be unveiled this coming spring.

As for the historic schools plan unveiled this week, Bishop of Erie Lawrence T. Persico has called it “nothing less than a rebirth of Catholic education in the Diocese of Erie.”

And while the largest changes are expected in Erie itself, many are also slated for parochial schools in the local four-county region and beyond.

At the Elk County Catholic School System in St. Marys — home to roughly 600 students in grades K through 12 — the diocese wants to see the system expanded to include two more currently unaffiliated Elk County Catholic schools — St. Leo’s in Ridgway and St. Boniface in Kersey. Both would be brought into the fold as satellite campuses beginning in 2016.

And while St. Boniface will continue serving students in pre-K through grade 5, students in grades 6-8 will be encouraged to attend St. Marys Catholic Middle School, followed by Elk County Catholic High School, both in the Elk County Catholic School System.

The same is true for St. Leo’s, where students in grades 6-8 will be similarly directed to schools in St. Marys, more than 10 miles away.

The impact of the grades 6 through 8 consolidation on teaching positions at the schools those students would likely be leaving remains unclear.

After hours calls to St. Leo’s and St. Boniface went unanswered on Wednesday.

In Bradford, St. Bernard Elementary and Middle School — McKean County’s only Catholic school — will remain a parish K-8 school under the plan, while an enrollment management position will be created to “increase marketing activities and expand recruiting into neighboring parishes as well as the wider community.” Multi-age classes may also be created to help with “financial viability,” while the school would also participate in the consortium of schools that are not part of a system in order to enjoy similar improvements in academic quality and operational efficiency, principal Kimberly Mooney said in a letter to parents.

Likely anticipating some push-back or at least bristling at the changes — which, for some, portend the loss of local autonomy and, for the local four-county region, life under a more centralized and far-off form of government — Persico said he expects the emotions around the issue to give way to consensus over time.

“Once (people) have a chance to absorb the emotion of the news, I believe they will see the wisdom in the recommendations,” he added.

Director of the diocese’s office of communications, Anne-Marie Welsh, said reaction to the proposal, while still in its infancy, has been largely positive thus far.

“I think the reaction in the diocese is hopeful but there are still many, many logistics to work out,” Welsh said, adding, “when we first shared the plan with our (school) administrators, pastors and principals yesterday (Tuesday) it was generally well received.”  

Welsh said a formal plan like it hasn’t been undertaken by the diocese in decades.

In that time enrollments have continued to fall at Catholic schools across the state and around the country.

In 2012, the Erie Diocese projected a decline in enrollments of one to two percent.

Elsewhere in the state, the Allentown Diocese has seen enrollment fall 29 percent since 2001, prompting school mergers.

Nationwide, enrollment in Catholic schools declined almost 12 percent for the 2012-13 school year compared with five years ago, a National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) report says. About 2 million children, from pre-K to 12th grade, attend Catholic schools across the U.S., compared to 2.27 million in 2007-08.

USA Today reported the reasons for the decline were varied, but included a siphoning-off of students by charter and magnet schools, steep tuition increases and dwindling numbers of Catholic students in large urban areas.

With its attempt to insulate the region’s Catholic schools from those forces, Welsh said the diocese hopes to “be in a position of making decisions from a place of inspiration and not desperation or crisis,” adding, “we have stepped back to make sure our foundation is as solid as it can be to carry us through the next several generations …  We want to make sure our finances are solid.”

The diocese said it aims to achieve this by fostering “more collaboration and less competition among the schools, ensuring consistency in everything from tuition rates to academic offerings.” Schools have until Dec. 1 to review details of the plan and offer feedback, with Persico expected to approve a final plan in early 2016, ahead of implementing it in the 2018-19 school year.

At the Elk County Catholic School System, president Sam McDonald said faculty and parents were still being made aware of the news on Wednesday.

McDonald said it remains to be seen how the proposed changes would impact the school system’s teacher rolls, or those of other private schools in Elk County, saying, it is still “very early in the process.”

The approach being taken by the diocese was also taken in St. Marys, although on a smaller scale, with three separate schools being merged and buildings combined into a single district or system after 2010.

The school system’s website says the merger was “due to declining demographics,” an oblique reference to population losses that continue to dog the area, its workforce and tax rolls.

“We were kind of ahead of the curve on a lot of the changes now taking place (in the diocese),” McDonald said. “A lot of this is new to others but not necessarily to us.”

That process began in the last year, McDonald added, with the diocese sending “representatives from its Catholic schools office and a consulting company to every school, every parish in the diocese.”

The diocese oversees dozens of schools and thousands of students spread over 9,936-square-miles, according to its website, and includes 120 parishes and 151 churches in total.

The recommendations yielded by those visits will also include changes to parishes and churches similar to those being eyed at area schools, Welsh said, with the parish changes expected to be announced this coming spring.

As for the schools plan announced Wednesday, the full plan, with more details for each school and district, will be made available on the diocese’s homepage Friday, Welsh said.

And while acknowledging the work as daunting, Welsh said it is also unavoidable.

“This is a moment in which we are truly trying to address our needs,” she added.