Seton and Archdiocese of Milwaukee administrators met with parents of students from Prince of Peace, no favorable solution reached.
By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.
May 7, 2019
Milwaukee, WI - On Monday, Seton administrators, Board members from Seton and Archdiocese of Milwaukee administrators admitted to the parents whose children attend several Prince of Peace (PoP) schools that they weren't aware of the problematic issues plaguing the schools for the last three years. Apparently, Prince of Peace school administrators failed to inform the Seton administration of the problems plaguing the schools, according to Joan Shafer, the CEO of Seton Catholic Schools Network (SCSN). The parents during the meeting complained about the large teacher turnover and many positions that have not been filled and the lack of extracurricular activities for the last three years and a school bus that had no driver during the winter making students walk to school including numerous other issues plaguing PoP.
Seton placed an ad in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee website for the vacant principal position at PoP and at least 13 candidates have applied for the position, according to Ryan Krienke, the interim principal at PoP and the Director of Schools for Seton.
Shafer told the parents that PoP is one of the poor schools in the Seton system and that she will work with parents to create a school library. Parents also complained that the PoP school gym has poor lighting and audio system.
The PoP parents are pushing for Father (Pastor) Max Tzul to pull out of the Seton Catholic School system due to prolonged mismanagement by the Seton administrators. PoP has been under the umbrella of Seton for the last three years and not one Board member or administrator from Seton had ever introduced themselves to the parents until the parents began to complain last month and organized a petition to oust Seton from PoP and make PoP independent from Seton.
The PoP parents didn't get a response on Monday, if Seton will no longer manage PoP under its umbrella, but Seton will continue to collect at least $64,000 per year from PoP for services provided.
Seton administrators did offer to meet with the parents again at a later date, since they were overwhelmed with complaints and offered to provide some answers to their concerns.
The following Archdiocese of Milwaukee administrators attended the meeting, Kathleen Cepelka, the Superintendent of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee; Jerry Topcewski, Chief of Staff for the Archbishop;Leni Dieteich, the Director of Curriculum and Instruction and five other Seton administrators and board members.
The two outspoken parents and organizers for the Saca Seton petition are Elizabeth Nolasco and Norma Herrera, which Krienke, the interim principal told the parents at the meeting that he will continue to address the issues with Nolasco and Herrera.
PoP is one of multiple Catholic schools including St. Roman in Seton's management that are now seeking to be removed from the SCSN.
The current SCSN participating Catholic schools include Catholic East, Mary Queen of Saints, Northwest Catholic, Our Lady Queen of Peace, Prince of Peace, St. Catherine, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Martin of Tours, St. Rafael the Archangel, St. Thomas Aquinas Academy and St. Roman.
So far, two Catholic schools that joined the SCSN, St. Matthias and Divine Mercy opt out within the first two years of initiating the SCSN program due to unsatisfied management and operating procedures that cost both schools.
Other Catholic schools in the area have been offering parents from PoP the opportunity to enroll their children at their schools, which are not in the SCSN.
Update: SCS Network Participation: "The Archbishop and pastoral leadership have determined that Prince of Peace will remain in the SCS network. Since joining SCS, the school's overall academic performance has improved, and the school is better able to meet the needs of its students while using its scarce resources most effectively," according to letters in both English and Spanish by Ryan Krienke, the Interim Principal at Prince of Peace (PoP) distributed to parents. But, the student parents at PoP are still working to get their school out of the Seton umbrella.
A 5-page e-mail was also recently distributed to student parents from Prince of Peace. The e-mail was sent to Joan Shafer, CEO of Seton, the following Seton Board members, Archbishop Listecki, Bishop Jeff, Father Tim and Father John by a student mother from Catholic East School. Hispanic News Network U.S.A. (HNNUSA) contacted the original author of the letter (e-mail).
When contacted, Yvonne-Marie Lewandowski, the author and student parent from Catholic East of the 5-page e-mail sent to Shafer from Seton and Archbishop Listecki, she stated, the statements in the e-mail, "...are not my opinion, but are based upon facts and events that occurred in our school, and I stand by what I wrote."
HNNUSA published the 5-page e-mail, since HNNUSA has been cited in the letter and apparently the persons mentioned in the e-mail have also received a copy as well. The attached 5-page e-mail allegedly details the insight issues concerning transparency, extracurricular activities, lack of communication, high rate of teacher turnover and ect. plaguing Catholic East as well.
The following is a 5-page e-mail by Yvonne-Marie Lewandowski sent to Shafer from Seton and Archbishop Listecki.
Update: SCS Network Participation: "The Archbishop and pastoral leadership have determined that Prince of Peace will remain in the SCS network. Since joining SCS, the school's overall academic performance has improved, and the school is better able to meet the needs of its students while using its scarce resources most effectively," according to letters in both English and Spanish by Ryan Krienke, the Interim Principal at Prince of Peace (PoP) distributed to parents. But, the student parents at PoP are still working to get their school out of the Seton umbrella.
A 5-page e-mail was also recently distributed to student parents from Prince of Peace. The e-mail was sent to Joan Shafer, CEO of Seton, the following Seton Board members, Archbishop Listecki, Bishop Jeff, Father Tim and Father John by a student mother from Catholic East School. Hispanic News Network U.S.A. (HNNUSA) contacted the original author of the letter (e-mail).
When contacted, Yvonne-Marie Lewandowski, the author and student parent from Catholic East of the 5-page e-mail sent to Shafer from Seton and Archbishop Listecki, she stated, the statements in the e-mail, "...are not my opinion, but are based upon facts and events that occurred in our school, and I stand by what I wrote."
HNNUSA published the 5-page e-mail, since HNNUSA has been cited in the letter and apparently the persons mentioned in the e-mail have also received a copy as well. The attached 5-page e-mail allegedly details the insight issues concerning transparency, extracurricular activities, lack of communication, high rate of teacher turnover and ect. plaguing Catholic East as well.
The following is a 5-page e-mail by Yvonne-Marie Lewandowski sent to Shafer from Seton and Archbishop Listecki.
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