Saint Theresa Parish Board of Education Minutes

Executive Session – 5:30

 II    Prayer – 5:47-Steve led the Board in prayer.

 III  Open Forum/Visitors’ comments – 5:48 - None.

 IV  Acceptance of January Agenda – 5:49 - Add Consideration of a school mission statement.

 V    Approval of November Minutes – 5:50 - There was discussion of the November minutes. Revision, condensation and grammar editing was necessary. Geri had begun revision prior to the meeting. Father Larry moved to table the November Minutes for further revision, which was seconded by Barb and approved by the Board. The Board would communicate among members on revisions via email and forward to Lisa for grammar proofing. The October minutes had been approved at the November meeting. Lisa would forward the October minutes to Renee for uploading to the school website.

 VI  Administrators’ Reports – 5:55 

A.     Director of Faith Formation - Bob distributed Kathy’s report in her absence. Father Larry complimented everyone involved in the recent Generations of Faith festival, specifically the 8^th-graders. It was a marvelous use of talent and it would be good to continue this with future festivals.

B.    Parish Manager – 5:58-Sound panels had been installed during the Christmas 

      break and have made a world of difference in the gym. Bob had been spending a 

      lot of time on the upcoming budget. Bob had information on the proposed 

      Childcare budget and had presented budgeted salary figures to Ellen. The Nutrition 

      Department was looking at a possible 10% rise in lunch prices next year. Food 

      prices were rising substantially. Bob would email more complete budget

      information to the Board within the week.

C.    School Administrator – 6:01-The school play would be performed Feb. 7 and 8 at

      Dowling Catholic. The school had received a $10K grant from Prairie Meadows 

      that would go toward CPUs for student use. More grants were in the works.

      Smartboards were a priority. Teachers would get laptops and their desktop

      computers would be cleaned off and given to students. The Technology Committee

      had met the previous week, and it would need to be decided whether to have two

      platforms or downgrade to Windows XP. Wireless technology was being

    considered for the school building, which could involve $6-7K in vouchers from

    Microsoft. Licensing was being watched closely. Overall ongoing needs were being

    looked at and the technology plan was being updated, potentially to have three-year

    rotation of one-third of the school’s computers being replaced. Ellen had attended a

    meeting on the Pre-K grant the day before and would attend another on Thursday.

    The previous meeting concerned scheduling for the coming year and more training

    for Pre-K aides and teachers. The Thursday meeting would be in regard to getting

    the cost per-student in line with the $2880 cost of the Des Moines public schools.

    Ellen would email results of the Thursday meeting to the Board on Friday. Ellen took

    questions from the Board. St Theresa would be part of the Pre-K grant again the

           next year. At any such time as the grant would mean that the faith element of the 

           curriculum would be challenged; St. Theresa would discontinue the program. St. 

           Pius would have Pre-K next year, but since Urbandale is not part of the State grant  

           St. Pius cannot participate. There was discussion of expenses with regard to the

           budget. At the end of the year Ellen has to show the State any additional costs

           adding up to the $2880 per-student amount set for the Des Moines public schools.

           Ellen spoke about Hunger Awareness Week and thanked the teachers for their hard

           work and flexibility. She mentioned the collaboration between school, Wednesday

           Faith Formation and the parish, and ran down the activities thus far.

 VII–  Unfinished (Old Business) Business - 6:15

          A. State site visit report

         There was nothing out of compliance. A suggestion had been made to add some         

          diversity to the School Improvement Committee. A new plan for the committee would  

          need to be written by Sept. 15, and would be worked on by the committee and

          teachers. The State report would go on the school website. There was discussion of

          the School Improvement Committee and how recommendations made by the

          committee are to be implemented or acted upon by the Board. There was discussion

          of how goals are developed. Steve initiated discussion of there being two separate

          and distinct components for input to the committee, school administration and

          parents. Teachers were creating a survey for parents and another for students.

          These surveys would reflect desired input expressed by Steve. There was additional

          discussion. Ellen said school administration and staff was truly looking for more ways

          to get parents involved. Consensus among the Board was to let the teachers do

          what they’ve been trained to do in terms of input for the School Improvement

          Committee. Ellen thanked everyone involved in the committee. 

D.    Mission Statement (“Other” from Administrators’ Reports) – 6:24

Ellen distributed a proposed school mission statement for the Board’s consideration. A committee comprised of staff, students and parishioners had developed the statement. It read: “Our parish school will receive each child in the name of Jesus Christ, inspiring them on a journey of life-long learning dedicated to faith, education and service for the greater good.” A parishioner that had worked on the statement had submitted another proposed statement after the committee met, but it had not been possible to schedule another meeting to discuss the second statement. There was discussion of the proposed statement before the Board, what the mission of the school should be and what a mission statement should communicate. It was proposed to add “Catholic” to describe the faith referred to in the statement. Steve read a proposed statement he had written. Ellen read the second statement proposed by the parishioner. Both subsequent statements were longer in length and more detailed than the initial proposed statements, consequently including additional components not in the first statement. Ellen said with changes and growth in the parish, and the implementation of stewardship, the thought was that a school mission statement was needed. There was discussion of the varying components of the respective proposed statements. There was also general discussion. The Board tabled action on a school mission statement until further discussion could occur.   

 VIII  Committee Reports – 6:45

    Kelly-no meeting. Steve-Finance-The committee was pleased with the financial

    statement. An increase in the parish subsidy percentage was being looked at. Teacher

    compensation was being looked at. Experienced teachers were at a good pay level, 

    while newer teachers were on the low end. Steve had the feeling the committee wanted 

    Tuition to be stable. There had been a billing issue affecting the budget. There was

    consideration of making the school counselor move from halftime to fulltime. Here was

    discussion of balancing the right number of students with the proper tuition amount. 

    Ellen distributed a list of comparative tuition levels among diocesan schools and a

    projected enrollment number if all current students are retained. Ellen-PTC- The

    committee would pay $1590 toward mats. Hans and Larry had attended that week’s

    meeting. Jeremy-Wellness-no meeting. Veronica-School Improvement-no meeting. Geri

    and Molly-Grant Writing-no meeting. Barb-policy-no action. Molly-Staff Needs-no action.

    Barb-Technology-Committee met the previous Thursday. Ellen had covered meeting

    content earlier in the Board meeting. Julie Andreson will work with the website

    committee to assist with content maintenance. Barb will ask Pat Stuerkerjergen to

    contact Denise Wicker, who teaches web design, to assist with the Technology

    Committee.      

IX  New Business – 6:54

       A. Budget – There were two proposed staff changes. The first was to making the

    counselor fulltime, resulting in an increase of $18,111. A parent had volunteered to clean

    bathrooms for 10-15 hours per week. The second change was to add $5,000 for

    custodial help for bathroom cleaning. Ellen gave proposed step increases for teacher

    pay, with steps 0-4 increasing by $1,000 and step 5 increasing by $500. St. Theresa

    has the lowest starting pay. Cost would have to be looked at. If the teacher on leave

    returned, the budget would be affected by her pay scale. The other issue each year is

    that it’s not immediately known which teachers would be returning. Teacher aides would

    potentially affect the budget, and were themselves affected by enrollment which is not

    entirely known until school starts. Bob had prepared the salary part of the budget. There

    was discussion of next year’s salary amount. Hot Lunch must break even and cannot

    make a profit. A proposed Hot Lunch budget was distributed. There was discussion of

    the Hot Lunch program. A $.20 price increase for lunch was possible. There is a need to

    encourage people to apply for free and reduced lunches. Prices for food and delivery 

    were rising substantially. A proposed Childcare budget was distributed. Bob detailed

   basic entries. It  was a best estimate since there’s no guarantee of how many students

   would be enrolled. Jennifer has done really well controlling food and labor costs. Salary

   increases would likely be 2-1/2 to 3 percent. Daycare has done really well. Maria

   Calhoun has replaced Kristen who graduated from Grandview. The Board would like to

   see a comparison of childcare rates with other parochial schools and what percentage of

   revenue goes into the school’s general fund versus what stays in the department. The

   Board expressed concern for daycare being in the position of making up for other budget

   shortfall. There was discussion of comparison between varying childcare programs.

   There was discussion of rates and how budget numbers are arrived at. The Board

   discussed what is necessary to have a quality childcare program. The Board discussed 

   computerizing the registration process, offering registration at conferences and rolling

   registration fees into tuition. An earlier kindergarten/pre-k round-up date was suggested.

   The Board recognized the need for tuition rates to be set by the open house and round-

   up. There was discussion of tuition billing. The Board called a special meeting for

   January 29 to address the budget and set tuition rates.     

 X   Other business– 8:00 – The Board discussed preparation for the open house. A lot of

   work was needed. Geri will email contact information for Board members to call

   prospective families of incoming four-year-olds.
XI  Next meeting date- 8:16-February 26, 5:30-Executive Session, 5:45 regular meeting.

 XII Adjournment -8:25-Molly moved to adjourn, which was seconded by Rachael and approved by the Board. The Board continued to discuss the open house preparations.