wfn.org | GAC Saves New Curriculum with $5 Million Bailout

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

28-September-1999 
99318 
 
    GAC Saves New Curriculum with $5 Million Bailout 
 
    "Covenant People, "Bible Quest," "The Present Word" To Debut in 
February 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The General Assembly Council (GAC) bit a $5 million 
bullet here on Sept. 25, approving a financial rescue package that ensures 
that the Presbyterian Church's highly-touted new church-school curriculum 
will roll out as scheduled next February. 
 
    The bailout includes forgiveness of $1.8 million in debt for the years 
1996-1998, forgiveness of a projected $1.5 million debt for 1999, and a 
line of credit of $1.2 million to cover the remaining development, 
production and marketing costs of the three new curricula - "Covenant 
People," "Bible Quest" and "The Present Word." 
 
    In addition, the GAC agreed to find $400,000 for severance packages for 
staff cuts next spring that will trim the Curriculum Publishing Program 
Area (CPPA) from 45 employees to approximately 30. The council also 
approved $300,000 to fund revisions of the denomination's sexuality 
curriculum that were mandated by this year's General Assembly. 
 
    Now the fate of the new curriculum materials lies in the hands of 
Presbyterian congregations.  The new materials will debut during the annual 
meeting of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators in February. 
 
    Currently, 34 percent of the denomination's 11,400 congregations use 
the Presbyterian curriculum. Donn Cobb, of Clovis, Calif., the vice chair 
of the Congregational Ministries Division (CMD), said that "if just 15 
percent more Presbyterian churches buy the new curriculum, then much of the 
financial worries will be over." 
 
    By all accounts, the new curriculum materials are first-rate. Martha 
Gee of the CPPA staff said one of the reasons development costs have been 
so high is that Christian educators throughout the PC(USA) have been 
heavily involved in their design and refinement. "From the beginning, a 
60-member development team has directed the design of this curriculum," Gee 
said. "We have also done extensive field-testing and continually modified 
the materials based on field-test feedback." 
 
    No matter how good the new curriculum may be, the question remains 
whether, in a shrinking curriculum market, the huge investment made in the 
new denominational curriculum can ever be recovered. CPPA interim publisher 
Jim Marchal said there are 28 competing church-school curricula on the 
market. He said every major denomination is facing financial losses on its 
curriculum. "Success will require highly public exposure, congregational 
support and strict cost-containment from here on out," he said. 
 
    GAC executive director John Detterick told the council that the 
short-term goal of paying for this curriculum "is almost secondary" to the 
goal of meeting the PC(USA)'s longer-term curriculum needs. "We're almost 
ready to produce a curriculum that is very, very good," he explained, "but 
once we work through the plan for this curriculum, we have to ask ourselves 
if it's appropriate for curriculum to be (expected to be) self-supporting. 
If curriculum is one of our top priorities, should we commit mission 
dollars to it?" 
 
    Detterick and Marchal also sought to absolve CPPA staff from blame for 
the huge deficits run up during the development of the new curriculum. 
"It's incumbent upon us to support these people as best we can," Detterick 
said. "We told curriculum editors to run a business - (but) we didn't give 
them the resources to do what we asked them to do." Marchal, a veteran 
publishing executive, was hired last spring. 
 
    Cobb agreed with Detterick. "It's important to put this [deficit] in 
context," he said. "Four years ago, CMD was instructed to develop this new 
curriculum, but without financial support or expertise." 
 
    CPPA was established as a self-supporting office; its budget is to be 
met through sales of the materials it produces. 
 
    Marchal said the anticipated staff cuts in CPPA next spring are part of 
a process of prioritizing the work of the curriculum office so that only 
essential functions are retained. Right now the essential functions are 
marketing and sales of the new curricula and promotion through a network of 
POINT (Presbyterians Organized In Nurture and Training) persons appointed 
by their presbyteries to help congregations evaluate and use the new 
materials. 
 
    Marchal said he is encouraged that 70 percent of presbyteries have 
appointed POINT people. 
 
    The Rev. Don Campbell, the CMD's new director, who has been on board 
for little more than a month, said: 
 
    "We have headlines and bottom lines, and it's painful to have to work 
on the bottom line, because staff have done such a remarkable job of 
producing the headlines - an exciting new offering that is about to be 
presented to the church. 
 
    "The assumption we're always working from is that Presbyterian 
curriculum is essential. "The questions are, how we invest time, energy and 
money. We'll be involving the whole church in those conversations, so that 
our churches can continue to equip Presbyterians for ministry." 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This note sent by Office of News Services, 
  Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
  to the World Faith News list <wfn-news@wfn.org>.
  For additional information about this news story,
  call 502-569-5493 or send e-mail to PCUSA.News@pcusa.org

  On the web:  http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/

  If you have a question about this mailing list, 
  send queries to wfn@wfn.org