St. Agnes School Board Minutes - February
St. Agnes School Advisory Council Minutes
February 25, 2014
6:30 p.m.
Roll Call: The
meeting was called to order at 6:33 p.m.
Present: Layne Schulz, Jessica
Preister, Wes Christensen, Deb Gapp, Matt Knutson, Becky Thomas and Darla Hamm.
Fr. John Fischer was absent.
Approval of the Agenda:
Jessica moved to approve the agenda with the addition of new phone system
under old business, Matt seconded.
Approval of the Minutes: Wes
moved to approve the minutes for January with the change in spelling of his last
name, Jessica seconded.
Principal Report:
Mrs. Hamm reported that the Catholic United Financial Raffle is almost over
and we have raised $6,375. We were
hoping to reach $10,000 this year.
Parent Teacher
Conferences are being held tonight and Thursday night.
On Thursday, Feb. 27, Darla will attend the State Testing Coordinators
Workshop to find out more about the new Smarter Balanced Assessment.
Ash Wednesday is March 5; we will have Mass at 9:00 a.m.
The end of the 3rd quarter is Tue., March 11.
No school March 12-14 due to Spring Break.
Kindergarten Round-up is scheduled for March 20 and 21, the Parent
Meeting will be on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. and the incoming Kindergarteners
will come Friday from 1-3 p.m. The
St. Agnes School Classic will be held Saturday, March 29.
Teacher Report:
Highlights from the report were:
Kindergarten is watching the Decorah eagles; they have laid one egg!
The 1st graders just finished a unit on writing research
papers. 2nd graders have
started regrouping in Math and they will start 3-digit addition.
The 3rd grade created dioramas and reports on the Winter
Olympics. The 4th grade
students are working on science experiments having to do with Matter.
The 5th grade students are learning about simple machines and
they are finishing up their fractions unit.
Red & Gold Report:
Mrs. Thomas reported that they made about $6,000 in January.
Has a proposal quote for a Smart Board with the projector.
They are beginning on working on their projects for this summer.
The summer packets are almost ready, just waiting on a couple of field
trip dates.
PTSA Report:
PTSA is continuing work on the School Classic, which will be on Mar. 29.
Hospitality provided cookies for the parents and meals for the teachers.
The next PTSA meeting is scheduled for Tues., March 4.
Financial Report:
January financial statements were reviewed.
Darla will ask Gail for a print-out of line item #9291.
Where did the other money go besides the $13,473 that was transferred
into the Special Events in #3142.
Old Business:
·
Catholic Schools Week Report:
Mrs. Hamm handed out a copy of the Financial Statement from the Catholic
Schools Week Dinner and Auction. The
total profit was about $10,337, which is down almost $500 from last year.
The Time, Talents & Treasures silent auction had less items donated this
year. We will send home the
brochures a few months in advance next year so people have more time to think
and create.
·
New Phone System:
Mrs. Hamm reported that, the last she heard, the new phone system is
going to be installed over Easter break.
New Business:
·
St. Agnes School Classic Update: Donations are beginning to come
in. All parents and parishioners
will receive invitations again this year.
Tickets will be available soon.
They are still deciding on a Friends of St. Agnes Award Recipient.
·
2014-15 School Calendar:
The proposed 2014-15 St. Agnes School calendar was handed out.
Mrs. Hamm pointed out the differences between the Vermillion Public
School and our calendar. Wes made a
motion to approve the calendar, Deb seconded, the board approved.
·
Parent Service Hours:
The faculty submitted a proposal to have parents required to do service
hours for the school. They suggested
each family complete a minimum of 5 hours per year.
The council would like to try wording it so that it is strongly
recommended, and not tie it to money, so it doesn’t need tracked.
Get something worded to put in the handbook for next year and on the
tuition payment sheet.
·
Parish Subsidy Request:
Mrs. Hamm shared the letter that will be prepared and finished for Fr.
John to give to the Parish Finance Council.
The requested subsidy will go up about 3% just like the rest of the
income and expenses will.
·
2014-15 Tuition:
Mrs. Hamm passed out the tuition sheets with a 3% increase.
She then discussed the need for making our non-parishioner rates more
affordable and more comparable to other schools in the Diocese.
She shared the responses that she received from other principals in the
Diocese about how they figure their parishioner and non-parishioner rates.
Compared to the schools who responded our non-parishioner rates are the
biggest difference compared to the parishioner rates.
Jessica is going to get the numbers from Darla on the amount of
non-parishioners that are enrolled and how that would affect the budget.
·
Budget Strategies for 2014-15:
Mrs. Hamm did not have a copy of the Budget Worksheet from Gail.
She will get them to the members for the next meeting.
Executive Session:
There was no need for executive session.
Adjournment:
The meeting was moved to adjourn by Wes, seconded by Matt at 7:50.