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Financial management and accountability have been regular themes playing through the education news in Milwaukee these days. As the leader of Cristo Rey Jesuit, how we direct and account for our financial resources is something I think about quite a bit. I would argue that stewardship of our financial resources towards the objectives of our mission and the processes that hold us to account for doing this are as or more rigorous than almost any other high school in Milwaukee. This is because of the people involved in regularly assessing our use of financial resources and the variety of organizations working to ensure our “north star” remains our mission and the young people we educate.
In my time as President, I have learned that strong governance board leadership is essential to the process of appropriately allocating and accounting for resources. At Cristo Rey Jesuit, we are blessed on our governance board with education, faith, community, and business leaders at the pinnacles of their careers. Some of these leaders with deep career experience in financial management act as our finance committee. They scrutinize and approve our annual financial audits, performed by external auditors, for both our school and our Corporate Work Study Program. This group also analyzes our annual budget in light of our strategic plan. They help us manage our financial resources so that we are prepared to meet the needs of our mission in the future. Our senior leadership works closely with governance board members and views them as a valuable and trusted resource when financial questions or challenges arise. We are so blessed to have benefited from the expertise and experience of strong business and community leaders from the inception of our school.
In addition to these people are the organizations who regularly audit or evaluate us in all areas of mission fidelity, including that we have a sound financial structure and that we are attributing our resources in service of our mission. The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) performs three audits per year verifying our enrollment, financial practices, and that we spent the funds we received from the school choice program according to state laws. These are in addition to the Corporate Work Study Program and school audits that are performed by our external auditors. The Archdiocese requests personnel related information annually. Also, similar to some other high schools, we are accredited through the state of Wisconsin by Cognia. This accreditation visit occurs every three years and is a comprehensive multi-day review of our school according to state academic standards. These aforementioned groups are just a baseline of accountability for us, however.
What is truly unique about our school is that we also report to the Jesuit Schools Network, the Cristo Rey Network, and Midwest Province Jesuits annually. These networks request personnel and financial data every year. The Cristo Rey Network asks us to report our progress on meeting the Mission Effectiveness Standards of the Cristo Rey Network and sends a team of Cristo Rey leaders in person to evaluate Cristo Rey Jesuit Milwaukee every five years. (This review is next school year for us!) The Midwest Province Jesuits evaluate us against the Standards and Benchmarks of Jesuit Education. They send a group of Jesuit school leaders to Cristo Rey Jesuit Milwaukee every six years to ensure we are meeting the expectations of a Jesuit school. Both of these reviews are multi-day and probe every aspect of our operational and financial reality. They provide us important feedback both in how we are living up to our mission and what areas of growth these organizations expect us to address in order to better serve our students. These organizations and processes are so valuable to us as they act as continued barometers for our growth as we seek to live out our Catholic, Jesuit mission.
I’ll admit that all of the accountability to these different organizations can feel overwhelming to me, especially when we layer on our responsiveness to various institutional stakeholders. However, they all help us to continue to be a better school. They ensure we are stretching every dollar for the good of our mission. They can push us to be our best programmatically for the students we serve. They can ask the tough questions and help us to think about our challenges differently. They walk with us, ensure our strong foundation, and continue to push us to aspire to more as stewards of our Catholic, Jesuit high school mission. While the various ways that we are accountable won’t make the education news in Milwaukee, I felt that it was a good time to share our perspective!
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