4/29/22 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Third Graders dining!

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,

In August of 1992 I was hired to be the principal of Bishop Hartley High School. It was a week before the start of the school year. As soon as I signed my contract, I was informed that the school was being placed on “review” because it was running deeply in the red and owed the Diocese a lot of money.

The review was a warning to the Hartley community. Father Wehrle High School on the south side had been closed a year earlier and there was a huge outcry from that community that they had been given no warning. And so, the review was our warning that we, too were in danger of closing.

I remember having a meeting in the Bishop Hartley gymnasium announcing the review to that community. A man kept jumping up from the packed crowd on the bleacher to ask me, “What’s your plan?” At that point I didn’t even know where all the bathrooms in the school were. I honestly don’t remember what I said that day or how I replied to the man, but we quickly got started collecting tuition, trimming the budget and raising funds to keep us solvent. In two years, we were able to pay off our debt and come off the the dreaded “review.” It remains a strong and successful high school.

When I got to Hartley the building and grounds were a little tired and in need of improvement. The press box up on top of the bleachers in the football field had been burned down the year before. Twice a week bingo took a toll on the cafeteria and gym. We knew that making improvements would help attract and retain students, but we had no money.

One of the changes we had made the first year was to have all students and visitors enter through the main doors of the building into what was a nice-looking lobby. But the doors were far from the parking. We came up with the idea of putting a small circular driveway off of Zetttler Road that would crest right at those main front doors. As I said, we had no money, but we thought that if we could do one small project outside and visible to all that it would counter the rumor that we would be closing, that we would be the next Wehrle.

The cost for the drive was, in 1992 dollars, $13,000. Somehow, someway we took the gamble that we could, that we should spend that money as an incentive that we were here to stay. In addition, during construction of the drive, Mike Feeney, our Advisory Board President had the brilliant idea to take a large metal cross off the front wall of the building and put it in the green space inside the circular drive, front and center for everyone to see and be reminded that not only were we alive and vital but that we were a school dedicated and driven by Jesus Christ.

If you go to Bishop Hartley now, the additions and improvements made to the building and grounds are impressive and benefit the students and community there. The driveway and the cross remain, the first symbol of the rebirth of that vital school.

I am reminded of that modest project when I think about the ramp that we want to build up to the gym. The community has given generously to the refurbishing of the inside of the gym which will make it better not only for students but as a place that the whole parish and comfortably use. The ramp will allow parishioners who have trouble with stairs to enter the gym with ease. It can become a true large room gathering space for our parish in addition to serving the day to day needs of the school and our athletic programs.

But I also think that the addition of the ramp, not quite front and center but certainly visible for all to see will be a sign to our community that we are alive and vibrant and worthy of staying open to serve our parishioners and community for many years to come.

In 2022 dollars the 60k we need is equivalent to the 13k that I spent in the nineties. Please help us if you can make this symbolic and practical project become a reality this summer. No donation is too small.

Pledge money to one of our students for their walkathon on May 13th or donate directly to the school or church. No donation is too small, but the end result will be huge!

Jim Silcott