May 2006--Board Award

CARDINAL RITTER COLLEGE PREP BOARD OF DIRECTORS RECEIVES
OUTSTANDING BOARD AWARD

ST. LOUIS – The National Association of Boards, Commissions and Councils of Catholic Education (NABCCCE) has awarded the Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School Board of Directors their prestigious “Outstanding Board Award.” The Cardinal Ritter Prep board was one of only 10 governing or advisory boards of Catholic education in the United States to receive the annual NABCCCE award.

“The 2006 winners represent qualities of effective boards that set the example for others,” said Dr. Regina Haney, NABCCCE executive director. NABCCCE is a department of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), the world’s largest professional association for private education, representing more than 200,000 educators at all levels of Catholic education.

The Cardinal Ritter Prep board was selected because of their exemplary success in meeting significant and unprecedented challenges, according to George Henry, the superintendent of Catholic education for the St. Louis Diocese. The Cardinal Ritter Prep board guided the school through a complex process of studying site locations, raising funds and building a new school in the city. The Cardinal Ritter Prep board operates as a limited jurisdiction board, with direct responsibility for the operation of the school.

“Cardinal Ritter Prep would have closed had the board not found a location and generated $20 million in private money from the St. Louis area,” said Henry. “I’m not aware of any board within the Catholic school community that has achieved what this board has achieved. They built a new school in an urban area with private money, something that hadn’t been done anywhere else in the United States, to my knowledge.”

The dedication and commitment of the Cardinal Ritter board members is exemplarily. These are individuals who are very dedicated and committed to the very mission and purpose to which that school exists.”

Cardinal Ritter Prep is an archdiocesan, coeducational high school accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Cardinal Ritter Prep has educated students from the entire St. Louis region for more than 25 years and opened a new, state-of-the-art school in Grand Center in 2003. Last year, all Cardinal Ritter Prep seniors graduated and moved on to college. For more information, call (314) 446-5500 or visit www.cardinalritterprep.org.

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