Pastoral Council Meeting
January 5, 2016
Page 3
MEETING MINUTES
Chairperson: Kristine Schroeder Secretary/ Minutes: Cindy Hill
Date/Time: Tuesday, January 5, 2016, 6:00pm Location: East Meeting Room
Participants: Pastoral Council: Father Chuck Hanel, Mike Hausman, Cindy Hill, Tyler Feldkamp, Donna Jensen, Kathy Korn, Frank Paulus, Mic Pietrykowski, Bob Rohde, Kristine Schroeder, Steve Szocs, Mike Voss
Finance: Chris Behrendt, Jim Fischer, Troy Haupert, John Schuller
School Committee: Katie Glafcke, Chris Jackson, Mary-Lynne Lukenda, Brent Adams, Robbyn Marcinkevic, Rita Miller, Michele Toby
Item / Discussion / Next Steps & Responsible Party /Prayer/ Review of agenda / The meeting began with a prayer. Katie Glafcke reviewed the school vision statement and the agenda items. Handouts of the outline, budget, and the proposal were distributed. The proposal included the successes of the school year along with the summary of the current and planned marketing activities.
The introduction emphasized the culture of commitment of a small and close-knit family that desires growth to a strong 150 students. The desire is to grow as an integral part of the parish family.
Current stats & successes / Chris Jackson reviewed the statistics:
· 48 students representing 32 families
· Staff: 7 FTE, 12 part time
· The multi-age model allows teaching at the individual level, socializing as an entire school, and learning from all peers.
· Summary of successes:
o Monthly service projects live out the motto of “Saved to Serve” for the greater community. Through the projects, the students live out their faith.
o Community building activities have included Christian Formation in two activities. Several alumni participated in the breakfast with St. Nick.
o New Star Christmas Program at the church was held – thank you to the Prayer Shawl ministry who provided the beautiful costumes.
o Fundraisers have surpassed the budgeted goals- raising $86,150 since July 1.
Communications and Marketing / Rita Miller discussed the marketing plans – current and future
· The marketing committee members are working with Sarah Toepfer, Marketing Manager of Archdiocese Schools.
· The Lake Country Reporter and Waukesha Freeman have provided positive newspaper press throughout the school year.
· Weekly pictures and stories are printed in the parish bulletin
· Other marketing activities were listed by month starting with July of this year.
· Plans are being made for the upcoming Catholic School’s week (end of January) - yard signs are available to distribute and put up. Promotion of full-day K3 & K4 cost savings will be provided in the bulletin and newspaper. A “Meet and greet” with St. James parish is being planned. Many bullet points listing marketing plans for February and future were also provided in the handout.
· Parish-wide promotion via weekend announcements and hiring a professional marketing firm for the school and parish is part of the future plans. / Parish support via announcements and consideration of hiring a professional marketing firm.
2016-17 Proposed budget / Tyler Feldkamp provided information on the budget subsidy and expenses from 2012 to the projected 2016-17 budget year. The proposed cap on the parish subsidy for the next 3 years would be set at $200,000 per year. This is down significantly from $368,700 for 2013-14 school year. Archdiocese allows a parish subsidy between 30-40%. The $200,000 would be at 38.73%. There would be no 10 for $10,000 request for 2016-17 as there was for 2015-16.
A detailed budget of expenses and funding sources for 2015-16 and 2016-17 were also included. Currently, the actual budget is $9,000 under projected budget YTD. In addition, the school has set aside $8,000 for repairs & maintenance per year over the two budget years.
Next, three scenarios based on enrollment were provided. Although the school has applied for the Choice Program (the Choice Program makes Catholic Education accessible for low-moderate income families), none of the scenarios included incoming money from this program. The scenarios include no increase in tuition.
School Committee Proposal / 1) Year of Mercy: Mass of Hope & Healing
2) Short-term commitment of 3 years with parish subsidy of $200,000 yearly to allow rebuilding the school’s long-term sustainability, growing of enrollment, and stabilizing of finances.
3) Long-term commitment is to unite all ministries at the Capitol Drive campus by providing an inter-generational education center. The improvement would serve parishioners of every age and welcome the lost.
Discernment / The next step was for the Pastoral Council to discuss the proposal and bring a motion for voting. Father would then consider the motion. The Finance Committee members were asked to stay for the discussion.
Summary of discussion:
· A question was raised regarding how the $6,000/year provided by Christian Women for tuition is used. The TAD program (tuition assistance) is a third party that accepts and reviews applications for assistance for up to ½ the tuition. The $6,000 donation from Christian Women plus the money collected during the Soles Walk is used solely for tuition assistance. This money does not affect the budget, thus was not included in the numbers.
· Finance and Pastoral Committees has a fiduciary role to the parish. Current collections do not cover the budget and the mortgage ($600,000) for the contiguous land on Capitol Drive is due. The budget runs only on a one-year strategy/ there is no 3-year budget strategy to date.
· Is it reasonable to subsidize the school for the number of students versus assisting the students’ tuition at another school? What would be the pivot point to saying the school is no longer a viable option? The answer was another question - do we want to commit to, believe in and have faith in the school ministry? If we didn’t have the Wisconsin Ave. property as an asset, it wouldn’t be a viable option.
· Consider selling the school and land as it is no longer a sustainable property. Consideration was to sell the land and close the school versus sell the land and move the school to the proposed education center on Capitol Drive. The difference would be the yearly subsidy of $200,000. The risk is that many current and alumni families will leave the parish if the school is closed.
· A long-term vision is needed to focus on the parish strengths and the needs. The Capitol Drive campus sits empty for most of the week – consolidating ministries would assist in making the parish strong.
Motion and votes / A final motion was introduced by Bob Rohde and seconded by Donna Jensen.
The motion is to support the School Committee’s proposal to support and endorse a 3-year commitment to the parish school at $200,000 per year.
Abstain: Father Chuck Hanel, Kristine Schroeder, Steve Szocs
Yes: Mike Hausman, Cindy Hill, Tyler Feldkamp, Donna Jensen, Kathy Korn, Frank Paulus,
Bob Rohde, Mike Voss
No: Mic Pietrykowski
The meeting was then closed.