Shared Facilities Maintenance Pilot

The HALO Initiative’s mission is to strengthen, grow the impact of, and provide broad-based access to kindergarten through eighth grades at the Dallas Diocese Catholic schools.

When our Catholic school offers a good experience, more students enroll. When students enroll and connect with their faith, they often inspire family members to re-engage and become more involved in the community. When that happens, the Catholic Church and school become stronger, serving the greater community with Catholic education. And yet, we have room in our Catholic schools.

Working alongside the Catholic Schools Office, we have identified a way for schools to

share a service to manage facilities repairs and preventive maintenance to open up

more time for Principals (or their few staff members) to attract new families and

additional leadership. Introducing HALO's Shared Facilities Maintenance Pilot.

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We are halfway there!

Please donate to our Shared Facilities Maintenance Pilot and help us provide services to some of our smallest Catholic schools.

Shared Facilities Maintenance Pilot

While janitorial and grounds work is handled, all too often, we found leaders of our area Catholic schools are involved in ongoing repairs and maintenance at their Catholic schools because they do not have a resource for this work. The leaders we interviewed each spend an average of eight hours a week on these projects!

To help Catholic school leaders focus their time and energy, HALO will leverage an existing crew of professionals who are certified to work on our campuses, to handle repairs and preventive maintenance on a weekly basis. We will provide services to these six Catholic schools in the south and west of Dallas to see if it would be smart to develop an ongoing shared service for more schools.

Immaculate Conception Catholic School
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School
St. Cecilia Catholic School
St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic School
St. Mary of Carmel Catholic School
Santa Clara de Assisi Catholic Academy
Good Shepherd Catholic School

Anticipated Outcomes

Catholic school Administrators can focus more time and energy on their environment of care, safety, and learning.
New families can more easily see the strengths of Catholic education and be less distracted by newer competing schools.
Donors who fund major capital repairs and replacements at these same schools can be more confident in their investment, knowing that a new roof, new HVAC, or other enhancement will be properly maintained.

Funds Needed

To manage this Shared Facilities Maintenance pilot from February 2024 through January 2026, HALO needs to raise $100,0000. To date, we've raised $117,500 (more than half of what we need for the pilot).

Please contribute or pledge! We are getting the pilot started and your support will make immediate impact!

* HALO is grateful to Chris and Joe Popolo for helping us complete our first project, HALO 139, and for providing a great start to funds for this Facilities Maintenance Pilot with their $1 match for every $2 donated. With all of us working together, in 2023, we earned the full $100,000 possible in matching funds when we met their challenge to fund these HALO pilots!

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Questions here

How will we know if the pilot is successful?

We will measure the results in several ways:

Our service partners at Catholic Charities will track, measure, and report all work done on regular weekly visits, as well as additional emergency work needed. We will know time, materials, expertise, urgency, and any additional resources required and understand each school’s usage of service and what maintenance is deferred.

HALO will gather ongoing input from the six school principals.
HALO will measure the appropriateness of the budget we created for the services, including an assumption that the schools can afford to pay for everyday parts and supplies.
We will measure donor support.
We will measure readiness for Phase 2, which could bring in the next level of more significant facility capital improvements for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and building repairs.

Catholic schools will always need tuition assistance and capital improvements, and we thank the many people who make that part of their giving each year. Beyond those needs, these small, often interurban Catholic schools need this practical, efficient support, too. We would be grateful if you would support our Shared Facilities Maintenance Pilot.