St Francis private school (Louisville, Goshen: to live, price, education)

[Clssmith54]

I’m interest in people thoughts about St Francis changing the schools Name.

[Oldhag1]

Originally Posted by Clssmith54

I’m interest in people thoughts about St Francis changing the schools Name.

What’s it changing its name to? Perhaps a little backstory might help.

[Oldhag1]

So, some background. Saint Francis School is apparently a strictly secular school with a religious name. Not only are they not religious, but they strongly lean towards, in their words, progressive educational practices.

It looks like they did a pretty thorough job of exploring how important stakeholders to the school would feel about the name change. Did you not take the opportunity to respond when they were seeking out input from parents in the fall? It looks like the overwhelming majority of your fellow parents support changing the name.

Highlights of Results by Constituent Groups, including Current Students, Alums, Current Parents, and Alumni Parents

• Current students – Majority of respondents favor a name change (56% strongly agree or agree, 13% neutral, 31% disagree or strongly disagree)
• Current faculty and staff – Overwhelming majority of respondents favor a name change (83% strongly agree or agree, 10% neither agree nor disagree, 5% have no opinion, and 2% disagree)
• High school alums – Plurality of respondents slightly favor a name change, with more opposition than in the overall group (43% strongly agree or agree, 22% neutral, 33% disagree or strongly disagree)
• Goshen alums – Plurality of respondents slightly oppose a name change, the only constituent group with more opposition than support (36% strongly agree or agree, 18% neutral, 41% disagree or strongly disagree)
• Current parents – Overwhelming majority of respondents favor of a name change (69% strongly agree or agree, 17% neutral, 11% disagree or strongly disagree)
• Alumni parents – Majority of respondents favor a name change (53% strongly agree or agree, 25% neutral, 21% disagree or strongly disagree)

https://www.stfrancisschool.org/name...onfinalreport/

I do agree with them changing the name. Having a distinctly religious name when you are the opposite of a religious school is a disservice for everyone concerned.

[Clssmith54]

Yes I have family member at the school and yes i have voiced how I feel strongly ageist the change. The school heads are pushing this. and I feel the way the questionnaire was very slanted toward the name change almost like a Moderator cut: biased questionnaire to raise money I think what’s going on there is some cancel culture the school was founded by Saint Francis Church my family are not Catholic

[Oldhag1]

They were pushing the change because the school’s name presented a very real recruiting problem. They would get parents looking for religious education contacting them and wasting everyone’s time because the school does not offer it. They would conversely have parents looking for secular private education, which is what they do offer, not contacting their school because they would assume based on the name that it is a religious school. Keeping St. Francis as their name was a disservice to everyone. Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long to change it.

The original founding church was St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Louisville, it has never been a catholic school.

[johnsonkk]

Originally Posted by Oldhag1

They were pushing the change because the school’s name presented a very real recruiting problem. They would get parents looking for religious education contacting them and wasting everyone’s time because the school does not offer it. They would conversely have parents looking for secular private education, which is what they do offer, not contacting their school because they would assume based on the name that it is a religious school. Keeping St. Francis as their name was a disservice to everyone. Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long to change it.

The original founding church was St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Louisville, it has never been a catholic school.

You keep saying the name is a “disservice to everyone.” It’s only a disservice to the school if the name is more of a negative for the school. The cost identified for the name change is (by their website) going to cost over $225,000 and that’s not factoring in labor. The additional loss is the name brand that has been built by the alumni and existing positive name recognition. It’s like the Highlands Latin school. It’s not about Latin but about excellence and that school has become #1 high school in Louisville. Those that invest research quickly find out the school “brand”.

Reading their website, the name change process has become super complex and it’s an overdone production that will be overpriced and overly marketed.

[ServoMiff]

I'm a Goshen grad and think changing the name makes complete sense. I have no emotional tie to my grade school years, and I might suggest anyone that does might want to live a little.

They need a name that doesn't create doubt as to who they are and what they do. Heck, just call it Abacus School of Goshen, you keep the history of the logo and location and boom. Send me the $225k.

The person above who thinks it's cancel culture clearly doesn't understand business, and since this is a private school, this is a purely business decision.

[Oldhag1]

Originally Posted by ServoMiff

I'm a Goshen grad and think changing the name makes complete sense. I have no emotional tie to my grade school years, and I might suggest anyone that does might want to live a little.

They need a name that doesn't create doubt as to who they are and what they do. Heck, just call it Abacus School of Goshen, you keep the history of the logo and location and boom. Send me the $225k.

The person above who thinks it's cancel culture clearly doesn't understand business, and since this is a private school, this is a purely business decision.

Exactly.