St. Alexander Parish Council
Tuesday, January 27, 2015 – 7:00 p.m. Meeting Minutes
In attendance: Father Mark Cote, Camille Bouckaert, John Brechin, Jason Golba,
Lynn Hippensteel, Matt Schmit, Bruce Stachowiak, Tim Gillen, Jim Weber
1. Open Session
A. Opening Prayer by Camille Bouckaert
B. November 25, 2014 meeting minutes were approved by Parish Council members.
C. Tim Gillen has had difficulties with his e-mail. We verified his e-mail address as
2. School
A. Kicking of the Annual Fund for St. Alexander School. This weekend will be the push on those students that plan to transfer to St. A's school. Those families will receive a $1,000 grant tuition for the 1st year and a $500 grant the following year. Spanish grants are also being offered to Hispanic families in addition to the tuition grants. The Diocese has $30,000 to put towards these grants.
B. Math Program has been a point of controversy between the parents and principal. This program will be reviewed soon and at that review meeting should determine the future of the program.
C. Dinner/Dance/Auction will be held on Sat., Feb. 21, 2015 at the Diplomat West. There will be some exciting auction items and trips. All are encouraged to attend.
3. Worship Commission
A. Currently working on Easter week. Our Parish Mission will be combined with St. John's and St.A's this year. St. A's will be hosting this year and St. John's will host next year. By doing this we will share the costs. The Mission is scheduled for March 1, 2, & 3. The week prior to the Mission, Fr. Mark will preach at all Masses at John the Apostle Church to promote the Mission and Fr. Mark Rosenbaum will be preaching at all Masses at St. A's promoting the Mission.
B. Reconciliation during Lent are as follows: Thursday, Feb 26, Thursday, March 12 and Thursday, March 19 from 7pm to 8pm. There will be Reconciliation during the Mission on March 3rd.
C. Hour of Worship is scheduled to begin on Friday, March 6. The schedule is not in place yet, but it will be held the 1st Friday of the month when possible. We will be using a different book, therefore, it will no longer be called The Miracle Hour.
D. Easter Sunday - St. A's will have an extra Mass at 12:30 pm and it will be our Children's Mass. The children's choir was hoping to sing at Easter. Since it was necessary for us to add an additional Mass on Easter Sunday to balance the attendance at the other Masses, it was decided that this would be a good time for the Children's Easter Mass.
4. New Business
A. Jason Golba will be reserving rooms for our following meetings in 2015. He wanted to know if the 4th Tuesdays of the month still works in everyone's schedule. Everyone agreed to continue meeting the 4th Tuesday of the month. Jason will forward our following meeting dates which are below.
B. Knights of Columbus will sponsor and All You Can Eat Breakfast on Sun., Feb. 8th.
Everyone is encouraged to attend. Breakfast will be served from 7:30 am to 12:30 pm.
C. Handicapped Parking is an issue especially along the West side of the Church. It was suggested to purchase "no parking signs". Currently it is difficult for other cars to leave the parking lot with cars parked along the West side of the Church.
D. Knights of Columbus would like to be apart of a Spring Clean Up for the campus of St. A's. The St. Alexander School sign on Ardmore is peeling and needs painting. A Spring Clean Up is what the Buildings and Grounds Committee would like to arrange as well. They need volunteers to help during the summer/fall seasons.
5. Old Business
A. Parking Lot Issue - currently we do not have any news at this time.
B. Family Room in back of Church. This continues to be a problem for those families with children not having a place to sit. There are several people without children that use this area every weekend. It is suggested that a bulletin article be placed to remind parishioners to be courteous of the families that need to use this area and please allow them seating during Mass.
6. Pastor's Report
A. St. Alexander School has hired a new part-time cleaning service for the school. The company is called Cleaning Services and located in Villa Park. This service will begin on February 1st. Renee is our full time facilities manager with an assistant. The new service will deep clean our facilities during the Summer months and charges $27 per hour if help is needed in shoveling snow.
7. Closing Prayer - Meeting ended at 8:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Camille Bouckaert
PARISH COUNCIL DATES AND PRAYER SIGN UPS
Tues., February 24 Matt Schmit
Tues., March 24 John Brechin
Tues., April 28 Tim Gillen
Tues., May 26 Fr. Mark Cote
Tues., June 23
Tues., July 28
Tues., August 25
Tues., September 22
Tues., October 27
Tues., November 24
2016 dates continue to be the 4th Tuesday of each month ending June 28, 2016
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