All Things New and Catholic Community Schools Survey Summary
January 2026
In November 2025, Catholic Community Schools invited families and employees to share their experiences of our schools and our relationships with participating parishes, in the context of the Diocese of Saint Cloud’s All Things New (ATN) pastoral planning process and CCS’s responsibility to plan for the future of Catholic education in our region. We received strong participation across all CCS schools. This summary highlights the most consistent themes we heard and how this feedback will be used.
Purpose and Context
All Things New is a diocesan-wide process helping parishes plan for a sustainable, mission-focused future. At the encouragement of Bishop Neary, CCS conducted this survey so the lived experience of school families and staff could inform that wider discernment. This was a practical listening tool to help us understand what is going well and where we need to grow.
What We Heard
Why Families Choose CCS
Families and employees described a shared vision for children:
A Catholic education where faith and values are woven into daily life through prayer, service, and character formation
A school community where students are known, cared for, and treated with dignity
Strong relationships among students, families, staff, and parishes
High-quality learning and preparation for high school, college, work, and life
Taken together, respondents expressed that CCS matters because it offers excellent learning, strong community, and a lived Catholic educational mission.
Strengths People Deeply Appreciate
Across campuses, respondents consistently named:
The dedication and care of teachers and staff
A sense of belonging and community
A wide range of student opportunities
A daily environment shaped by faith, values, and character
Priorities for Continued Focus
Respondents called for shared solutions in these areas:
Affordability and accessibility
Communication and transparency
Program quality and student support
Practical realities for families (transportation, schedules, before/after-school care)
Schools, Parishes, and the CCS Network
Many respondents see CCS as a connected PK-12 regional ministry. Themes included:
A desire for fairness and shared responsibility across schools and participating parishes
Questions about how the system works (who pays for what, and how resources fit together)
Hope for a more unified CCS that strengthens consistency and shared capacity across campuses
Mission with Clarity and Welcome
A recurring theme was a desire for schools that are clearly rooted in Catholic teaching and genuinely welcoming: accompanying families with respect and dignity, regardless of where they are on their faith journey.
Looking to the Future
The survey did not ask people to vote on specific scenarios. Many respondents recognize that some change may be necessary and are cautiously open to thoughtful change if it is clearly explained, centered on students, attentive to family realities, and supportive of long-term sustainability.
Alignment with Broader Research
What we heard locally strongly echoes national research on Catholic schools: families value strong academics, a safe and caring community, and faith formation—and they consistently name affordability, communication, and student support as priority areas for continued focus.
How These Results will be Used
Survey feedback is one important source of information, alongside enrollment trends, parish life, financial realities, and demographic data. It will help inform leaders involved in ATN, diocesan leadership, and CCS priorities for improvement and investment.
With these themes in mind, CCS is undertaking a planning initiative to guide the next stage of long-range planning for our schools, alongside the Diocese’s All Things New process. This is not a decision about any specific campus outcome. It is a commitment to a structured planning and evaluation process over time, with meaningful opportunities for community engagement.
No decisions about school structures or campuses have been made based on this survey. The results help shape priorities and planning principles; they do not predetermine outcomes.
Looking Ahead
CCS will continue to share updates related to All Things New and will communicate specific steps we are taking in response to what we heard—especially around communication, tuition and accessibility, and student support. We will share more about the planning initiative separately, after an initial period of careful reflection, so that we can communicate it clearly and invite engagement in a meaningful way.
Thank you to all who participated, and to all families, employees, and parishes who partner with CCS to carry forward the mission of Catholic education in our region.
