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Circle Urban Ministries Welcomes The Brothers of The Christian SchoolsCircle Urban Ministries welcomes The Brothers of the Christian Schools (www.brothersvocation.org/URL/defmain.htm) or, sometimes referred to as the De LaSalle Christian Brothers. The Christian Brothers are a catholic order independent of the Chicago Archdiocese, having dedicated their lives to the vocation of education. The “San Miguel” group in Chicago has started three schools, ours will be the fourth. Catalyst Schools is the organizational name overseeing this school. As many of you know who have journeyed with us since the day the doors of Circle Rock School first opened, there has been a constant race to stay ahead of the growing challenge to not only provide affordable and quality education, but to also provide the much needed social services which many of our chidren required. Evaluations of the effects of quality education alone with a strong social support system has proven that students who had this support did far better than those children without it.
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This newsletter announces an exciting development at Circle Urban Ministries. Some may be surprised but, we hope, after a thorough reading you will be as thrilled about the future as we are. Early last school year we were approached by a Christian educational group with the proposal to work on a joint venture, to expand our partnership base. In many ways this partnership offered potential to address long standing issues that exist in attempting to bring high quality education to inner city families. But there were several major strategic changes with this model: 1. Partnership vs Independence The new school would be operated in partnership with the new group. Circle Urban Ministries would no longer have independent control of the school. 2. Charter School Structure The new model revolves around the idea of converting Circle Rock Prep School into a Charter School (more accurately, a Contract School). At first pass this seemed to us to be unworkable, however, the staff and boards of both Circle Urban Ministries and Rock Church began an extensive process of determining whether this was a Godly opportunity or a temptation. The limitations of this newsletter do not allow us to explain either the exhaustive determinative process or all the reasoning behind our conclusions. But we strongly want you, our supporters and partners of many years, to be assured that every rock was turned over and every issue examined. We held dozens of meetings addressing hundreds of questions and issues. Finally, the boards of both Circle Urban Ministries and Rock Church came to a strong conviction that this opportunity was clearly in the best interest of this ministry and would greatly enhance our effectiveness in serving the children and families of Austin for years to come. It was 34 years ago this month that Lonni and I moved into a tiny one bedroom apartment in South Austin. Every step of the way since then we have seen the miracles God has done. I am thoroughly convinced this is a door God is opening that will expand into tremendous ministry opportunities beyond anything we can now conceive. More than ever we need every one of our faithful partners to join us in this exciting challenge and continue to financially support us. |
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