Church

School Commission Minutes – January 2011

School Commission Meeting Minutes
January 17, 2011

Attendance:
Father Haemmerle, Mrs. Fran Moore, Beth Hart, John White, Mike Carter, Carrie McHenry, Erin Stolly, Michelle Popp, Sue Klosterman, Jen Butler, John Gochenaur, Beth Lantz

I. Opening Prayer:
John White opened the meeting at 6:15pm in the School Library with a prayer.

II. Approval of Minutes:
The November 2010 minutes were approved. Beth Hart motioned, Mike Carter seconded.

III. Pastor’s Report:
Father Haemmerle reported:
Collections: Between Christmas and New Year’s the collections were up.
Tuition: PSAS forms are going home this week. Tuition depends upon enrollment.

IV. Principal’s Report:
Mrs. Moore reported:
Catholic Schools Week Open House: This is just a reminder to all members of School Commission that you and/or your spouse are asked to be hosts for tours of the school for families considering St. Charles School during our Open House on Sunday, January 30th from 1:30-3:30. If your children are in grades 4-8 and would like to assist you with tours that would be great. Last year it seemed to work very well having kids talk to kids and adults escorting adults around the building.

Quarter Ends: The end of the second quarter is this Friday. Report cards will be distributed on the next Friday, January 28th. It is always stunning to realize in January we are beginning the third quarter of the school year. It is now time to work on calendars and recruiting for the 2011-12 school year.

Pre-School Update: In trying to get all of our “ducks in a row” to send in our application for a preschool, we ran into a glitch on the very first part. We need a building approval from the “local building authority” as a first step. I contacted Kettering before Christmas and learned that since this building was built in the 60’s we do not yet have a Certificate of Occupancy. I was told that in order to get this we needed a scaled drawing of the entire school. I contacted Chris Rauch and as of two weeks ago we now have the scaled drawing. It has taken nearly two weeks of phone tag for me to once again speak to Kettering’s Chief Building Official. We are now at a point where I have downloaded the Commercial Permit Application which I must fill out and return to him with the scaled drawing, a brief description of our numbers and $103. This will enable us to get building approval from Kettering to proceed with the application. I hope and pray the rest of the journey is not as complicated as the first steps have been.

Parents are beginning to inquire about the status of our plan for next year. We keep hearing that we will be all set but I am reluctant to say much until this application is sent into the state.

Sacramental Programs: Our second graders begin their work in preparation for receiving First Communion. The meeting for their parents is on Monday January 31st.
Our eighth graders will be participating in their Confirmation retreat on Saturday January 22nd for the majority of them and February 12th for the remainder. Confirmation takes place May 14th.

Catholic Schools Week: In preparation for Catholic Schools Week we had our Faith families gather. All students wrote letters of appreciation to parishioners which will appear in the church bulletins on the weekend of the 5th and 6th of February. In addition all students worked on making snowflakes which will be part of our decorations for the school. It is so refreshing walking into each classroom seeing the students in their family groups and working together with our eighth graders doing a remarkable job of helping their family to complete the projects. Many students ask me each month when are we going to be in our faith families again? This has become a very successful school practice. A very special thank you to Kathy Dorsten for spearheading most of the faith family activities along with the assistance of the other specials teachers.

Maggie Collins is working hard making sure the word is out about our open house. We have postcards being sent to our parish and St. Francis parish four year olds. We have posters for all day cares and preschools. If you know of a place that could use one of our posters we would be happy to provide one for you.

The spaghetti dinner is also all set with the Knights of Columbus and the youth group helping with the serving and clean-up for the dinner.

There is a group of women determined to bring back the Used Book Fair. They have worked it out with other groups so they will have the use of the tiled part of Walsh Hall for Catholic Schools Week. Look for ads for collecting books for the Used Book Fair this week.

We have the data back from the collaborative regarding the new parent survey after the last year’s dedicated advertising campaign and it continues to show that the greatest impact on a family’s decision about where to send their child was asking friends or relatives about the school their children attend, going to a school open house, or taking a private tour of the school. So this is a very critical time for us in gathering students for next year. Thank you all in advance for your help on the 30th of January.

V. Old Business:
a. Playground Update:
Progress:
On December 22, 2010 the Parish Finance Commission and Parish Council approved the signing of a quote from PlayCreations. The quote was signed and a 50% deposit was paid toward the playground equipment. St. Charles Church reserves the right to change the quantity of the “kid-tile” rubberized surface tiles based on continued fundraising. Delivery of the products will be around March 31, 2011
Action Needed:
Fundraising amount needed is approximately $26,000. The Playground Committee will be meeting to discuss additional fundraising options.
Installation Goal:
Project goal is playground installation by summer 2011.

b. Preschool Update:
See Principal’s Report.

c. School Survey Update: Beth Hart/John White
John Gochenaur has copies of the last survey questions – he sent those to Mrs. Moore for the teachers’ input. Mrs. Moore will meet with John and the teachers. It will not be free to go through Survey Monkey because there will be more than 100 surveys.

d. Parking Update:
The morning drop off situation is getting better. However, there are still some drivers that are not following the rules.

e. On-Line Purchasing Program Update:
No interest at this time.

VI. New Business
a. Catholic Schools Week
Open House January 30, 2011
School Commission was asked to give tours during the Open House. Maggie Collins has planned a Scavenger Hunt for the visiting families. The children will receive a prize at the end of the hunt. The new brochures will be handed out. Show Choir, Juggling Club and the Used Book Fair will also be a part of Open House.

b. TWINNING Program: Beth Hart
St. Charles Church has matched up with St Augustine Indian Mission – a Nebraskan church with a school. The TWINNING Program is a stewardship where we join in a relationship with another parish. It allows us to learn their culture and grow in faith. There is hope that the schools can start a pen pal program. St Charles Church is looking for 6 volunteers to travel to Nebraska and establish a relationship with St. Augustine Church. They will visit our church as well.

VII. Liaison Reports:
a. Teacher’s Report: Mary Burrows/Fran Moore
Kindergarten: Kindergarten is exploring the season of winter through books, real life experiences and fun activities. We are also continuing to learn about letters, how they make words, and how words make sentences.
Grade 2: Second grade has been learning 2-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping- an exciting new math skill! The students are also excited to begin learning cursive in the upcoming weeks! This week we will also be working with the third grade classes, making art projects to create a winter wonderland to decorate our hallways!
In social studies we are learning that producers and consumers depend on each other for goods and services.
Grade 3: Third graders are learning about life in the Holy Land during the time of Jesus. They are using this new knowledge to build a scale model of the town of Nazareth.
Grade 4: In fourth grade we just finished our chapter on Multiplication. We will be working with prime and composite numbers and division. We are finishing up our unit on the study of Ohio and will begin studying the regions of the United States. We will start this study by writing a letter to one Catholic school in each of our 50 states! We are very excited about this and hope that we hear back from all of them. We are continuing to work on learning about the scientific method by working in groups to complete our science expo projects! The kids are really enjoying this!
Grade 5: Fifth grade toured St. Vincent Hotel and delivered their knitted scarves. They also brought food and other necessary items that benefit St. Vincent’s.
Deacon Bill Moore went through the process of the Baptism Rite with the fifth graders. They had mock parents, godparents and a baby doll to represent the steps in the baptism Ritual.
They also completed their vocation essays for the Knights of Columbus.
Grade 6: “There is No Place Like the USA!”
Mrs. Waker and Mrs. Callahan’s sixth grade students received a wonderful gift from a parent, and he received a priceless gift from all of them. Lt. Col. Mark Batcho deploys for Qatar to serve our country in the Air Medical Evacuation Department of the Air Force in January. He shared his role in the Air Force and told them two important things: as an American to always remember to never stop learning and to always remember the importance of the national anthem every time you hear it. The entire class made Mr. Batcho a handmade rosary to take with him on his journey to Qatar. Mr. Batcho and his family have been a part of the St. Charles community for the last two years. Katie is in the sixth grade at St. Charles.
Grade 7: Seventh grade language arts is working cooperatively with other subject areas, studying early pioneer life while the Social Studies department covers the constitution. In Science we will be working on writing conclusions to support the Science Expo project.
We are also concluding a section on mapping. We made topographic maps (our very own ski resorts), used globes to identify locations on Earth and used our social studies text books for finding latitude and longitude on a map.
Grade 8: The 8th grade celebrated Christmas with Santa on December 8. We are making a craft together for a local nursing home. In science we are studying chemical reactions. We have several lab activities associated with types of chemical reactions.

b. Marketing/PR: Carrie McHenry/John Gochenaur
Open House is Sunday, January 30. Invitations are going out tomorrow – 300 of them! Eighty-six families have inquired about St. Charles and will also be invited. Maggie needs people to help give tours to prospective families. Last year’s Open House was so busy with new people coming in that we ran out of helpers. Teachers were pulled from their classes to help and then we had empty classrooms because the teachers were walking the building with new families. We are trying to avoid that again. There will be a sign-up sheet to help with the tours at Open House. Spouses can help, too! Maggie would like everyone in the lobby by 1:10-1:15 the day of the event to go over information. The school brochure is complete. Posters are being distributed to 15 preschools in the vicinity of St. Charles.
Our website is next on the list to be redone. Maggie will be discussing the website and funding with Chris Rauch.

c. Finance: John White
Registration Fee Update
The finance commission discussed increasing the $50 school registration fee at our December 2010 meeting. Chris investigated the fees of surrounding catholic schools (St. Helen $50, St. Luke $100, St. Albert $100, Incarnation $100). After some discussion, we suggested a modest increase of $10. Fr. Haemmerle approved the suggestion. The 2011-12 registration letters can now be generated. This brings the school registration fee for 2011-2012 to $60.

d. Charger Support Committee: Carrie McHenry
Mrs. Moore met with the CSC. They will hold a Used Book Fair during Open House. They will also help with 4th grade Camp Kern.

e. Athletic Commission: Michelle Popp
The Fish Fry will be held on March 25th. . The Knights of Columbus will serve food. We will need volunteers to deal cards.
The roof project is complete. Roof nails in the PAC ceiling were exposed and are now capped.
It cost $879 to repair the basket in PAC. All the baskets were checked as well.
CYO volleyball will be over before spring break this year.
The new soccer coordinator is Scott Clarke and the new equipment coordinator is Ann Heebsh.
Baseball sign-ups took place with 26 signed up. Girls can play.

f. Parish Council: Beth Hart
A women’s retreat is being planned as a replacement for the annual February day of renewal. Planning for the Parish Mission continues with the theme: Forgiveness and Reconciliation. “Date Nights” are being planned with other south Dayton parishes. The Young Adult Community has developed their mission statement and will have a formal kickoff in Jan 2011.

g. Technology: Michelle Popp/Mike Carter
No report.

h. Scouting: John Gochenaur/Mike Carter
The Boys Scouts worked hard to display some of the school trophies in the library. They look great! There will be a Court of Honor this week. They are looking into setting up display cases with pictures of various club events.

VIII. Adjournment: John White
We adjourned at 7:20pm and attended Evensong in the Church.
The next meeting is Monday February 21, 2011 at 6:15PM in the School Library.
Submitted by: Beth Lantz

Church

School Commission Minutes – January 2011

Church Events Today

Coming Events