Private Faith School's 22-point Plan

1. Extraordinary measures will be taken to assure the purity of our bookkeeping, which will include a complete disclosure of our income and expenditures. Once we receive substantial donation a detailed financial statement, provided by an established CPA, will be posted on this Website at least once each year. We will post monthly our check disbursements and income amounts. It will also include the usual trial balance showing all assets and all liabilities. No one will have to wonder how much money is coming in and where the money is going because that information will be posted on this Website. The only item that will be kept confidential is a name of a donor (because we wouldn’t want to share that source of income), but the amount of money he or she donates will be posted for all to see. Any property that we may own will also be published on the web.

2. Each day children will be offered, but not required to take religious lessons in whatever their faith is. Appropriate clergy and approved laity will design a religious curriculum for our students to follow. Parents may opt out if they want to. Private Faith will also participate, but to what length, the volunteers, parents, faculty and donors will decide that issue.

3. The parents and volunteers will be given the opportunity to participate in the school’s decision-making processes. At meetings the parents and volunteers will decide upon all manner of things by voting for them.

4. The school will be staffed entirely by parents and volunteers. No administrator, teacher, clerk, janitor, or any other person working at our school will receive a salary.

5. Under no circumstances will we withhold a student's records. We will not punish the student because of the indiscretions of his parents.

6. A parent and a trustee or volunteer principal will sign checks. Two signatures will be required. The founder's approval for check disbursements will be necessary.

7. A choice will be offered. Either pay all or part of $4,000 tuition or be a volunteer. For free tuition for all of your children, parents or family members or their friends will be required to work a total of 200 hours over any part of a 12-month period. Each hour that is worked will reduce your tuition by $20. If you cannot work at all, then $4,000 in tuition per family, not per child, will be charged. For instance, a family with seven children who attend our school will be required to work any part of 200 hours or pay a maximum of $4,000. That's it! A large family will pay no more than a family with one attending child. This is an example of how you can volunteer your time and talent: a 5 adult members of a family volunteer to paint a classroom, not only will their total number of hours worked be deducted from their tuition obligation, the money that they spend on paint supplies will also be deducted. For needy cases, other volunteers may donate their hours to parents who cannot work at the school or at home. We recognize that some families simply cannot volunteer their time because they are always working trying to make ends meet.

8. Necessary expenses such as heat, electricity and school supplies will be paid by the parents and, of course, financial backers who take an interest in our school, which I expect will be many since no one stands to gain financially. If enough money is not raised to meet unavoidable expenses such as heat and electricity, a minimum tuition will either have to be paid by those who can afford it or aggressive fundraisers will take place for that purpose.

9. The only financial gain anyone can possibly get is goodwill. For example, suppose a contractor installs sheetrock and compounds the joints in all our hallways for free. He won’t get a dime from us, but by him donating the supplies and labor it could possibly bring about more business for him. How much business is impossible to predict – maybe he’ll get none. We will show our appreciation to any company that donates something useful to us primarily through word-of-mouth and occasional literature or ads on Private.Faith or our yet to be activated, PrivateFaithSchool.org website.

10. Principals and teachers will work closely with each other to establish a curriculum that ensures our children a high degree of success in taking state standardized tests.

11. An after-school program will be established to nurture the academic progress of poorly performing students. We will also encourage students to complete their homework assignments during this time. A sufficient number of parent or volunteer tutors will be available to help students.

12. We will promote student teaching. The schools at which they will work will benefit and they will learn more about actual teaching through our seasoned teachers than they would elsewhere.

13. Some parents and volunteers will be responsible for fund raising. Time spent at home calling people and businesses will count toward their 200 hours. We will audit their methods of timekeeping.

14. I will be the administrator for a year, maybe two. The parents and volunteers will vote on my successor. All positions, including the volunteer principal, will come under my direction, although they will have complete autonomy in teaching methodology and in designing the curriculum. We will follow the mandate of the state, city and majority-voted decisions made by the parents and volunteers.

15. We will try to enlist doctors, nurses, accountants, lawyers and other professionals who will donate their services for free.

16. Most libraries have access to the Internet and many parents have computers at home. All parents will be required to have an email account so we can distribute notices or student reports quickly and without concern over whether or not a student intercepted a progress report, for example. If necessary, parents will be shown how to use their email accounts.

17. Depending on the number of volunteer teachers, available space, and funds, other courses will be available besides those that are required by the New York State Department of Education. Photography and, dance and computers are just three examples.

18. Parents or their representative will be required to attend certain meetings. The time they spend at meetings will count toward their 200 hours.

19. The volunteer principals will establish the curriculum and work closely with all the teachers, teacher assistants and student teachers.

20. We will accept all government aid such as bus service, a nurse, books, lunches, etc.

21. We will quickly strive to be accredited by several agencies such as the Middle States.

22. Before approaching the commercial sector, we will try to negotiate a lease with a parish that had the misfortune of having to close their school. Having our school located at a parish will be mutually beneficial, but we will not be part of that parish in any other way. It must be as if we were a public school that leases the school for our purposes.

Originally there were 23-points, which was “Depending on the advice of our volunteer attorneys, all parents and volunteers will be required to sign an agreement that states they give up their right to sue the school,” but our attorney who helped register Private Faith under NY’s Religious Corporation Law, said that that would not be allowed. I’ll ask him about having parents and volunteers sign letters of indemnity.