St. Clare School Advisory Council

03/13/2008

 

 

Present: Karen Woodruff, Steve Michaels, Becky Graham, Colette R, Jay Booth,  Kim Wisniewski,  Christine Zotter, Amy Leahy, Mike Marquard, Jennifer Pinder, Nancy Bolton  Sister Moe,  Fr. Tom

Absent: All present

 

I.          Order of Business

II.         Call to Order and Opening Prayer -Colette R.

III.        Recommended Action

a. Routine Matters

              I.  Acceptance of Agenda 

             ii. Approval of prior Minutes  February Minutes.  Sent to all SAC members prior to meeting via email.  Any necessary changes should be forwarded to Kim by Monday 3/1.  Changes will be made as needed, final copy to Patty.              

              iii. Hospitality  - Karen requests that SAC forward to her names of individuals who we want to thank prior to meeting so that she can prepare thank-you notes in advance.  

 b. New Business

             I.  SAC New member discernment.  Deferred until Fall 2008.  All current SAC members agreed to continue commitment until that time.   A  time-line has not been established for seeking new members, will be established at a later date. PP committee to coordinate. 

             ii. Children-In-Our-Lives. Postponed. No firm date has been set for this event for next year. The event was publicized via a flyer in the Dragon Post.   Given this, SAC agreed with marketing committee recommendation to put follow-up in Dragon Post to inform community that the event has been postponed.  Sr. Moe supports postponing event.  Fr. Tom confirmed commitment to event for 2008/2009 school year.

 

c. Old Business

               I.    Auction Results 

Paddle Bid resulted in ability to purchase 6 Smart Boards and 7 laptops.  John Prendeville will assist in formatting and installing software.  John Foy and Linda Fanning have agreed to write a grant to seek funds to purchase additional Smart Boards.  

 

Net proceeds from Auction had been previously reported as $120K.  Per Fr. Tom, this figure was based upon inaccurate numbers from auction night; indicating  that there some items/sales which were entered twice.  Per Fr. Tom, a more accurate number is $110K.  Considering split, school net is anticipated to be $70K.  SAC  Discussed concern that school budgeted amount for auction proceed is $100K.  Per Karen and Becky, this shortfall can be absorbed for this year due to strong/sound management of expenditures as well as greater than projected income from tuition.

 

IV.  Information/Communication/Reports

 a.  Pastor’s Report

                 I.  Area Vicariate recently hosted a meeting of Parish Pastoral Councils.  St. Clare Parish was well represented at this meeting which is a means for Archdiocesan council to obtain feedback/information from the Parish Council level.

              

  b.  Principal’s Report

                  I.  Sr. Moe recommends offering speech/language screening for those students identified by teachers as needing service.  Sr. Moe has been in contact with a speech/language pathologist (Sue Riner-Constantino) who is available to contract with the school on a case-by-case basis to provide screening for students in K-8.  Cost for service will be transferred to families, fee expected to be nominal. 

                ii. Enrollment for 2008 - 2009 is 228.  24 registered for Kindergarten, with additional families remaining to be screened.  Enrollment for 2007 - 2008 school year 231. 

               iii. Joe Weston Foundation and Maybelle Clark Foundation Matching Gift Programs – Update  Sr. Moe passed information which outlines the Archdiocese agreements with Weston and Clark for funding tuition assistance.  Weston and Clark will match donation to endowments (CEEF, endowment funds) up to $9,000 and 8,500 respectively.  Funds may be received from a single donor, or many.  But, must come from outside of the school parent community, the parish or archdiocese.  This restriction applies as well to matching funds available from Weston and Clark in the amounts of $6,000 and $4,000 respectively for non CEEF School Tuition Programs. 

 

SAC discussed how to best capitalize on these available funds given funds already raised via Adopt-A-student, paddle bid (auction) and individual existing bequests.  Discussed logistics of applying Adopt A-Student and paddle bid funds for match, namely need to identify donor to insure that they are not school parents.   St. Moe will ask Patty to research source of donations for Adopt-A-Student, IE: identity those which came from non-parent contributors.  Regarding Paddle Bid contributors, Jennifer P will ask Terri C to research which donations toward paddle bid came from non-parent contributors.   Suggestion made to apply all paddle bid donations which were made from non-parent donations toward school in order to access matching funds.  Jennifer P expressed concern regarding this approach as the donor at auction was likely under the impression that the gift made would be split 3 ways- school, parish, and preschool.  To do otherwise, without direct consent or understanding to the donor, would be misleading.

Projecting ahead to next year, need to clearly market inform the community of the existence of the matching funds to best utilize the match. 

 

c. PTC Report.

                 I.  Sr. Moe and Karen met with PTC.  Reviewed auction.  Auction committee looking to propose changes to auction format for next year.  Suggestions have not yet been formalized.  Executive committee open to hearing proposed change suggestions.  Chair positions PTC filled for next year, not yet named, confirmed. 

                  

 d. SAC Committee Reports

             Finance/Facilities  Committee

               Becky reviewed financials/budget to date.  Continues to work toward developing a monthly budget to allow for tracking of expenses and revenue on a month-to-month basis rather than current model which allow for year end and to date snap-shot.  Goal is to implement month-to-month budget in next/upcoming fiscal year.  To date, expenses for year have been well managed with no reported over-expenditures.  Additionally, overage in tuition should balance out shortfall of proceeds from auction as compared to projections. 

             Marketing and Enrollment

Kindergarten Round-up successful.  To date 24 enrolled in Kindergarten for 2008/09 school year. Marketing to work with development to draft Dragon Post Announcement regarding post-poned Children-In-Our-Lives Luncheon.

             Process and Policy

No report.  Committee to draft verbiage regarding change in policy for SAC members and PIP fee exemption.   above in old business

              Development

Children-In-Our-Lives postponed. Working toward necessary documentation for matching grants as noted above.

               Chair Report

                   No Report

 

Future Business

Next Mtg April 10, 2008

 

General Meeting Adjourned --Executive Session Held

Notes Taken and Submitted to Committee Members Present at Session

Respectfully Submitted

Kim Wisniewski

SAC Secretary