I am Pam Neumann, DRE at St. Catherine of Siena and I would like to give you a heads up about some changes coming to St. Catherine's.
We are about to tear down our parish center, Johnson Hall, and replace it with a much larger facility. We are excited about the possibilities to come, and also anxious about the short term challenges.
Since we are located on the aquifer, we cannot use vacant space for construction. We must use the impervious surface already occupied by our current building. That means demolishing our hall and rebuilding on its footprint.
During the construction phase, which is expected to last two years, we will be losing our education space and therefore need to reinvent RE during the construction phase. This will put us out of pocket from 2014-2016, reopening in the summer of 2016.
During this time, we will be using a family faith model, bringing families to the parish once a month and having them attend one of 12 sessions during the month. These sessions will meet in the evenings, after construction has stopped for the day. During the sessions we will be coaching the parents how to teach their children the unit material from the books and we will introduce the children and youth to the themes. Families will then work through the books and, using an online component, send their completed work to the program coordinators.
Unfortunately, we cannot offer the traditional format of RE: we have no place to safely put everyone. Instead of our current 10 classrooms, we will have 5 meeting rooms, much smaller and not equipped for children. Rather than opt for an exclusive home-schooling model, we have decided to use a family approach.
We have spent the past year and a half researching other options: renting space, public schools, etc. We couldn't find any space to rent, let alone at a manageable price. Southwest Austin is booming. Due to EIM concerns (safe environment policies), we had to rule out gathering in the homes - we cannot monitor every home. And with almost 1000 young people to care for, we were at a loss where to go.
Our RE staff is working very hard to provide a good experience for your family during this time, and we are excited at the chance to educate our parents so that everyone feels well equipped to have these conversations about God and the Church with your children.
Please don"t hesitate to
contact me. And please pray for all of us as we embrace this unique opportunity to engage more fully in the faith life of our young people.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Pam Neumann
Pastoral Associate/DRE , St. Catherine of Siena Parish