Fr. Tim McMahon, SJ, pastor at St. Francis Xavier in Kansas City, helped develop a partnership between his grade school and Rockhurst College. It works to the advantage of faculty and students at both institutions.

Where do you think we should hold the car wash?" Rockhurst College sophomore Christy Still asks her group of boisterous grade school students at the Jesuits' St. Francis Xavier School in Kansas City. They were debating ways to raise money for new playground equipment.

"How about at the Wal-Mart?" asks one. "Maybe at the mall," suggests another.

"Let's discuss having it right here in the parking lot of St. Francis Xavier," says Christy. "That way we can get more publicity for the school and have an easier time getting Rockhurst students and professors as customers."

Students at St. Francis Xavier, in the city's urban core, may be in need of new desks, internet access, and more books for their library as well as that playground equipment, but initiative and motivation are definitely not in short supply at this school. Every Tuesday morning during the past school year, fourth through eighth graders participated in a variety of "town meetings," otherwise known as the Public Achievement Program, to address their concerns, including new school uniforms, a schoolwide recycling program, and an antigraffiti campaign. Rockhurst education majors such as Christy Still were there as committee coaches to help the kids turn their ideas into action.

Students at St. Francis Xavier get assistance from Rockhurst student Deanna Dressler, who in turn benefits from this program for teachers-in-training with its accent on curriculum and instruction in an on-the-job setting.

Scrubbing the headlights of cars belonging to Rockhurst faculty and students was probably not what Fr. Tim McMahon, SJ, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church, had in mind when he approached Rockhurst College with an idea for a partnership plan four years ago. But this benefit from the Jesuit college across the street would not be overlooked. It was simply part of a much broader program.

Just what is the Rockhurst/St. Francis Xavier partnership? On paper, it is a bunch of circles and lines emanating from one central square. Lists of goals flow under each circle with headings such as "Needs Assessment," "Joint Planning," and "Parent Involvement."

But, in reality, the partnership is Rockhurst sophomore Deanna Dressler driving St. Francis Xavier eighth graders to the Gap to try on donated clothing for an upcoming school fashion show. It's Rockhurst senior Jennifer Wood sitting down to read with a group of kindergartners during her work study hours at the St. Francis Xavier Library. It's opening night of St. Francis Xavier's spring production of "Little Shop of Horrors" in Rockhurst's Mabee Theatre, overseen by the Rockhurst stage crew. It's the pen-pal letters written back and forth between Rockhurst students and the grade schoolers at St. Francis Xavier, culminating in a hot-chocolate-and-cookie party for the correspondents at semester's end. It's the cooperative painting and grounds cleanup of St. Francis Xavier's School during student breaks. It's also all the meetings and planning that goes into the Tuesday morning Public Achievement Program.

"Our partnership with Rockhurst reaches well beyond the classroom. More than anything, the partnership looks toward fostering community," says Fr. McMahon, "one where both Rockhurst and St. Francis Xavier students can grow spiritually and academically. We share a vision of service to one another with the realization that we need to work together."

St. Francis Xavier teacher Tom Bloch, former president and CEO of his family's tax preparation business, H&R Block, resigned his positions to teach math at St. Francis Xavier.

The two neighboring Jesuit learning institutions are intertwined on so many levels and in so many ways it seems almost Byzantine. Fr. McMahon, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish (which also happens to be Rockhurst College's parish), also holds the position of adjunct instructor in biology at the college, where he teaches one class per semester. Dr. Joan Caulfield, chair of Rockhurst's education department, serves as a major facilitator of the Partner School Program. Four of the eighteen teachers currently on staff at St. Francis Xavier graduated from Rockhurst. One of them is math teacher Tom Bloch, who recently resigned from his family's tax-preparation firm of H&R Block to begin a new career in education, helping math test scores of St. Francis Xavier students to double in the space of two years. And Rockhurst's president, Fr. Edward Kinerk, SJ, graduated from St. Francis Xavier more than 40 years ago.

Dr. Lynne Beachner, principal of St. Francis Xavier School, is also on the education faculty at Rockhurst, teaching a course every semester. By her own admission, she leaves St. Francis Xavier every evening wanting to do so much the next day that it is "overwhelming." When she's not writing grants for teacher development programs and outdoor-gardening classrooms, she's meeting with Fr. McMahon and the other members of the Rockhurst/St. Francis Xavier team to strategize more team-building efforts.

"Despite all of our recommendations, some of the best relationships between the two schools just flower on their own," says Dr. Beachner. "With so many Rockhurst students interacting with our students, all sorts of friendships develop, which has resulted in a type of informal Big Brother/Big Sister arrangement, although no one calls it that. We didn't orchestrate it. It just happened."

Rockhurst sophomore Penny Taft can vouch for that. As the Public Achievement coach for the recycling committee, Penny was so proud of her students' accomplishments that she took them out to lunch and followed up with a tour of the Rockhurst campus.

"The best thing about the Public Achievement Program was seeing the kids getting excited about accomplishing their goals and making their ideas work," says Penny, who helped the kids sponsor a competition to see which class could gather the most paper for recycling.

Dr. Lynne Beachner, St. Francis Xavier principal and Rockhurst College faculty member, is part of the team that puts theories of elementary education and curriculum development to the daily test in inner-city classrooms.

"And they soon found out what was realistic and practical," she notes. "Their first idea of holding a paper drive was doable. One of their other ideas of lobbying to change the cafeteria lunch food was not."

Besides her public-achievement work at St. Francis Xavier, Penny also tutors sixth graders on her own. She gets no class credit for helping the twelve-year-olds with their creative writing skills; it's simply another extension of herself, another link in the intertwining chain.

Rockhurst senior Jennifer Wood, who helps administer the Public Achievement Program for the education department, began her foray into St. Francis Xavier simply out of financial need. She wasn't even an education major at the time. Because of her work-study job at St. Francis Xavier's library and interaction with the students there, she switched majors from occupational therapy to education and has since completed some student teaching and observation requirements at the school.

"These kids have given me more in terms of experience than I could ever give them," she remarks. "Their backgrounds are so different from mine, and many of them have so many issues going on at home that I never had to deal with."

Training Rockhurst students to teach in a modern urban environment is a large factor in promoting the partnership. With its large non-Catholic and minority student population, St. Francis Xavier offers Rockhurst students exposure to an unusual mix of backgrounds, attitudes, and beliefs.

This interfaith gathering of Catholics with Buddhists, Muslims, and Baptists is, in Fr. McMahon's words, "a wonderful mix," no doubt providing many challenges to Rockhurst teachers-in-training. Over 50 percent of the students' parents are single, and the families range in economic makeup from welfare recipients to working poor to middle class. Paying the annual $1,800 tuition bill is a stretch for many.

"A less-affluent urban school presents different challenges to teachers," says Dr. Beachner. "Most often there's a lack of resources for teachers and students. And that translates into having to be more creative in order to meet your teaching goals. You can develop a creative curriculum all you want, but you have to have the resources to enact it."

Creativity is not a problem at St. Francis Xavier. There are always ideas in the offing, especially where the Rockhurst partnership is concerned. Fr. McMahon would like to see the children's collection in Rockhurst's library extended to St. Francis Xavier's library and have the two libraries' collections catalogued as one.

There are other ideas as well: allowing the grade school students to use Rockhurst's brand-new science labs and bringing Rockhurst professors into the grade school classrooms as visiting teachers.

And then, of course, there's the sports angle, which would allow St. Francis Xavier students greater access to Rockhurst basketball courts and other sports fields. Fr. McMahon would also like to see two Rockhurst education majors assigned full time to each St. Francis Xavier class, a move that would expand the depth and range of student teaching opportunities while giving invaluable assistance to kids who need extra help. There's also talk of developing an early childhood center as well as expanding the curriculum to include a separate high school.

In short, the partnership's goal is to create nothing less than a model of urban school reform and urban teacher education.

The time that Rockhurst education student Erin Reese spends in St. Francis Xavier classrooms gives her a realistic look at the career she is choosing.

Is the partnership working? Are the Rockhurst students gaining greater appreciation and insight into the challenges that lie before them? Are the St. Francis Xavier students reaping the benefits of spending time with Rockhurst students?

According to eighth grader Monte Terrill, they are.

"I like the way the Rockhurst students come over to be with us," he says. "They gave us their phone numbers so we can call them if we just want someone to talk to, or even to get help with our math homework. We don't just have to talk about the Public Achievement committees we're on together."

Deanna Dressler feels the same. "I loved the kids I worked with this semester. I only hope that the Public Achievement Program was as good an experience for them as it was for us."

Jennifer Wood is looking into the possibility of hooking up with a program that involves a year of service in the inner city after graduation. Or maybe she will go right into teaching. "Whatever I do," she says, "I want to stay in the city and use what I learned at St. Francis Xavier."

If one of the goals of the partnership is to motivate the kids to learn and feel good about themselves, it appears to be working.

"I like letting everyone see my ideas," remarks Janelle Perkins, an eighth grader who has attended St. Francis Xavier since the first grade and is excited about the possible change in the school uniform that she helped bring to the fore.

Eighth grader Dominique Kinney says, "I want to show younger kids that they can make change happen, too."

Their classmate Monte Terrill is, perhaps, the most effusive.

"Anything I put my mind to, I can accomplish it. I'm going to be a business leader one day."

"Absolutely," says Deanna Dressler. "I have learned that these kids can do anything they want to, and they think so, too."

As far as the area's business community is concerned, support for the school's efforts is gathering steam. When the students on St. Francis Xavier's antigraffiti committee called a local hardware store about donating paint to beautify the school, they inadvertently got hold of a St. Francis Xavier grad.

"You want paint?" asked the alum. "I've got paint! What else do you need?"

If any pastor has the needs of his community in his direct line of vision, it is Fr. McMahon.

"Whenever anyone asks me why we at St. Francis are educating mostly non-Catholic children in our school, I respond in the spirit of one of our U.S. bishops: We do not love and serve the poor because they are Catholic. We do it because we are."

Barbara Bodengraven is a freelance writer living in Overland Park, Kansas. Her feature stories and travel articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Boston Globe.