IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

BOARD OF CATHOLIC EDUCATION 

Minutes of Proceeding April 11, 2002 

I.      Opening prayer: Was provided by Ed Colina 

Attendance: Fr. Britt, Sr. Armella, Ed Colina, Barb Knight, Karen Sanders, Scott Nesmith, Faye Roch, and Ellen Torbeck. 

II.   Action Items

A.    Minutes of the Previous Meeting: Ellen motioned for approved with changes and Scott second. Ed noted changes and will post. 

B.    Old Business:

1.     Collation of past months’ minutes has been tabled until May. A copy of September minutes was distributed.

2.     Notices concerning choosing new Board of Education members have been posted in parish newsletter, school newsletter, and parish bulletin. Two applications have been received with more anticipated by May meeting.           

C.    New Business:

1.     Guests Doug Lyons and Rick Schwab (representatives of the parish finance committee) summarized the Parish Budget and next year’s tuition proposal. The “State of the Parish” and the increased tuition rates were discussed.

2.     The tuition rate presented will cover increases in teacher/staff salaries. It costs approximately $2,480 to educate one child at IHM. The information presented included what the parish kicks in to assist with tuition. It is a goal of the Dioceses to increase teacher salaries annually to line up better with public school salaries. It was requested that there be no additions to the budget (with the exception of salary increase) while the parish budget is stabilizing. A guidance counselor was discussed, and it was noted that while this is important for the school, the services of the Diocese can be used in the interim, and a counselor position will remain on the “wish list”. The new tuition rates will be published in the April 24th school newsletter.

3.     Smart Tuition, and the inclusion of the book bill and field trips with tuition was also discussed. Smart Tuition will remain in place for the 2003-2004 school year. The issue of field trip fee inclusion and book bills will be further discussed at finance committees’ tuition meeting next year.

4.     The high number of students currently on an “in-house” tuition payment plan was felt to be due to a large number of people missing enrollment into Smart Tuition last summer. This year anyone who is not paying in full by August 31st, should be enrolled in Smart Tuition. A discount for early payment of full tuition, i.e., paying before August 31st was also discussed. Doug did not feel and advance of money to the school would result in any significant earnings to be passed on to early payers. Currently, the $35 savings realized by paying tuition in full by August 31st, is the incentive over Smart Tuition plan. 

II.        Non Action Items 

General Reports:

A.    Correspondence:

1.     The leaders of all parish organizations met in March. From that meeting, a list of possible means by which to accomplish parish goals was formulated. The IHM stewardship team would like these items ranked as to ease of implementation and degree of effectiveness. Given the timeline for completion and the length of the list, the board approved delegating this duty to the Chair, Norb, and the Vice Chair (Karen).

2.     Two letters were received from parents. One was from a mother concerned with the cost of the aftercare program. This mother has investigated the cost of care at other schools and IHM’s was considerably higher. It is noted that childcare at the other locations is provided by an outside agency and they are able to provide lower costs due to the volume of schools and participants involved. IHM has not had any problems with its in-house program and will continue to operate as they have been, relooking at the budget and the program at the end of the school year. It was again noted that IHM’s aftercare has not made money. Mandating or setting aftercare costs is beyond the scope of the board’s functions. A letter summarizing these discussions will be sent to the parent.

3.     A letter was received from a parent whose child did not get into the 4-year old preschool program. This was discussed at length as the family has been in the parish and involved for many years. The parent did receive a copy of a rescinded preschool admission policy from the school at registration. Ed and Fr. Britt acknowledged that currently the same admission criteria and preferences are used for all applicants, that the admission policy had been followed and that these admissions cases are difficult. The admission policy concerning preschool needs to be further clarified, given the confusion evident this year. Having a preschool admission policy and a K-8 admission policy was discussed. Policy committee is in the process of revising admissions policy and will review, and present a proposal to the board. A letter will be sent to the parent explaining the criteria and preferences used and apologizing for the conflicting information received. One of the responsibilities of the board is effectively communicating policy.

4.     A letter was received from the Diocese congratulating Sr. Armella on being chosen for the Catechist Award. She will be honored by the Diocese at a reception on April 24th . All are invited to attend. 

B.    Director of Religious Education Report:

1.     Sister distributed her report. She had to depart before reviewing the contents; and questions can be addressed to her directly or held until next meeting.  

B.    Principal’s Report:

1.     Ed presented his consent calendar and this was reviewed. There was an issue with some eighth graders and inappropriate behavior. The students involved were counseled. Two families withdrew their eighth grade students as a result. The COSI visit also went well. There are many events in the planning process, including the Walk-A-Thon, Graduation of eighth graders, the Sports Banquet, etc. Ed had posted all the board of education policies to date on the web site. 

            Committee Reports:

A.    Finance:

1.     It is projected that the LGG debt will eventually be retired. The parish has reduced its debt by $10,000 in the past 6 months. 

A.    PTO:

1.     Ellen provided report of March meeting. PTO is giving $30,000 to the library for upgrades. They also donated a sound system to the gym, which was used during the talent show.

2.     New officers were presented. 

C.    Parish Council: None 

D.   Long Range Planning: A May meeting is planned. 

E.    Policy:

1.     Policies under consideration/ to be worked on include no smoking in the facility during school hours, admissions, and board member application procedures. 

A.    Assessment:

1.     June meeting. 

Guest Speakers: Doug Lyons and Rick Schwab 

IV. Future Business 

A.    Next Meeting: May 2nd at 7:30p.m. Faye will give prayer

1.     Items for May agenda:

a.      Expanding roll of assessment committee. Discuss assessment committee’s monitoring board policies that involve timed review. For example, Policy 4050 states that the school administrator shall report to the Board the certification status of the school teaching staff as a whole on an annual basis. The assessment committee would ensure that the principal’s certification report got on the agenda for, let’s say, the October’s meeting. P1150 states that IHM shall seek accreditation every five years. The committee would know when we are due for the next one, and bring it up as an agenda item the year before.

b.     Readdress the concept of getting a volunteer secretary to record board of education meeting minutes. An alternative would be that the board member who fulfills the role of secretary would be expected to fill no other committee roles. 

Meeting was adjourned by Faye and second by Karen.