PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- The National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management honored the school system of the Diocese of Memphis, Tenn., June 26 for its efforts to make Catholic schools accessible to inner-city children. Memphis Bishop J. Terry Steib and Mary McDonald, superintendent of diocesan schools, accepted the organization's Best Practices Award for the school system's "excellence and visionary leadership in Catholic education" during a banquet in Philadelphia. Since 1999, the diocese has reopened eight inner-city elementary schools shut down over recent decades; revitalized two more inner-city elementary schools that were failing financially and in terms of enrollment; and put on a firm footing two inner-city high schools that were at risk of closing. One Memphis diocesan inner-city high school today resembles the Jesuits' Cristo Rey network of high schools for students from low-income families. Students attend class four days a week, working one day weekly in a local business to earn much of their tuition.