When I served as a principal and since my arrival in the diocese in the fall of 2022, one of the approaches to fiscal leadership I have tried to implement is accounting for - and actually using - depreciation in our budgets. Instead of including it as a part of our expenses but not actually using it to maintain our facilities and assets, we need to use these earmarked funds for repairs, renovations, and multi-year budgeting for larger maintenance projects. By doing this we set the future versions of ourselves and our schools up for success, displaying the responsibility that will help our schools remain viable for many years.
To depreciate means to decrease in value over time or to disparage or belittle.
I bring up this understanding of depreciation, something we talk about every year and (hopefully) guard against by reinvesting in our facilities and assets, as a way to focus on its opposite: appreciation.
The most commonly understood meaning of appreciation is the act of showing gratitude. To appreciate something or someone means to be grateful, to recognize the full worth of something/someone, or to fully understand something.
I recently learned, and it makes sense, that to appreciate also means to rise or increase in value (if you're interested in the source of this new understanding, go here: https://youtu.be/q6yPcEk93nk?si=LhM-DRm_C1fU_kmh&t=3290).
The cool part: when we show appreciation for something or someone we appreciate - increase, enhance, grow - its/their value.
The takeaway: we should show appreciation to our school communities for the efforts we want to see more of. To put this another way, recognizing the good work and improvements of our school communities in appreciative ways will make these types of behaviors increase in both frequency and magnitude.
As St. Paul writes in his first letter to the Thessalonians, "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:16 - 18).
It is Jesus's will for us to give thanks in all circumstances. To appreciate what we have - both giving thanks for it and increasing its value.
As we near the end of the first quarter of the 2025-26 school year, take some time to appreciate your school communities, knowing that as you show gratitude you will also be enhancing and amplifying the good work taking place across our campuses.
Thank you for appreciating your communities - faculty, staff, administration, volunteers, benefactors, students, and families!
I say it again: THANK YOU!
