Church

School Commission Minutes – February 2011

School Commission Meeting Minutes
February 21, 2011

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

I. Opening Prayer:
John White opened the meeting at 6:20pm in the School Library with a prayer.

II. Approval of Minutes:
The January 2011 minutes were approved. Mike Carter motioned, Carrie McHenry seconded.

III. Pastor’s Report:
Father Haemmerle reported:
Mrs. Moore Retirement: Mrs. Moore will retire in June. She will truly be missed by all. Toni Moore will head the search committee for a replacement. Parents and a teacher will be represented on the committee. An ad has been placed in the Catholic Telegraph.
Finance: Tuition is being discussed with Chris Rauch. There will be reasonable increase. To finalize the tuition they will need the enrollment numbers for next year.
Pre-School: Father wants to see firm numbers and figures in order to proceed. There is a meeting tomorrow to see if we can get commitments from interested families. Father re-emphasized that the Pre-school must be self-supporting. Per Beth Hart we have more than enough families interested. We need 16 to break even and more than that have shown interest. Brian Leen suggested collecting a deposit. Mrs. Moore said many pre-schools have already collected deposits for next year. Beth Hart will determine cost of retrofit in order to run a pre-school.

IV. Principal’s Report:
Mrs. Moore reported:
Open House:
We were quite pleased with the turnout for our Catholic Schools Week Open House. There was certainly lots of energy and excitement throughout the building. Our teachers, Maggie Collins, students and parents did an outstanding job of sprucing up the school and classrooms. Thank you for contributing to the success with the great tours you gave the families who visited. We had a decent number of families come through St. Charles. We are thinking there were around 40 new families. Now we need them to register for the 2011-12 school year! Our numbers for registration are about the same as last year. Maggie is sending letters out to those who were here and have not come in to register and to those who did an RSVP they would attend and then didn’t. The more information we can gather on what does and does not motivate parents to sign up the better marketing plan we can create.

The spaghetti dinner was attended by families who came to visit and our current families and parishioners in large numbers. There were 500 reservations and our great youth ministry servers and Knights of Columbus kept food coming, the kitchen working and folks praising DiSalvo’s and St. Charles for a nice dinner out. The silent auction items also were a hit. I don’t yet have a number of what the profit was. It will be divided between Youth Ministry and a recently established marketing fund for the school.
The rest of the CSW events went really well when we were in school. The parent luncheon and science expo went very well. We were all commenting on how organized and efficient the entire day went. Our students were happy with their surprise dance on Friday. We are so grateful that we were able to celebrate some Catholic Schools Week events during the actual week. Some items were postponed to the following week.
Faith Families:
Last month our Faith Families spent time together creating the snowflakes that decorated the building for CSW and writing letters to parishioners thanking them for their support of our school. One of our accreditation goals was to work on having our students realize they are all part of the family of God and we can work together and do great things as the St. Charles School community. These Faith Families continue to be a hit with most students and teachers. Our next activity will be to create linking hearts that will be on display in Walsh Hall. Each month we will gather in our family for a project or activity.
Standardized Testing
Our student’s results on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills this year continue to be very good. There is a section on math computation that is timed that was more of a challenge than what was on the Terra Nova’s. We are currently working with the data we received to find our areas of strength and areas where we have the opportunity to improve. This information along with the data we are gathering for grades K-5 with our Dibbles testing of reading comprehension allows us to keep an eye on those who are struggling a bit and try to differentiate the instruction of those needing help. Each child now has a writing portfolio that will travel with them throughout the years and will contain four writing samples from each year. We will also have available online the scores from the Dibbles testing from the three times it happens during the year. Hopefully next year a screening folder will also follow each student year to year and will be given to the next teacher.

V. Old Business:
a. Preschool Update:
See Pastor’s Report.

b. School Survey Update
No report:

c. Catholic Schools Week/Open House Brief Review
See Principal’s report

VI. New Business
School Commission may not meet in April due to Spring Break. We need to begin thinking about new members for next year. There will be 4 outgoing members.

VII. Liaison Reports:
a. Teacher’s Report: Mary Burrows/Fran Moore
Kindergarten is learning about Presidents Washington, Lincoln, and Obama. The children are discovering what it means to be a good leader. We are also doing activities involving the special presidents like writing about them, listening to stories, building “log cabins”, and math related papers.
Second: We are working on three digit subtraction and geometry. In Social Studies we are studying that Communities Make Rules and Regulations
Third: Third graders will learn about the causes and outcome of the Revolutionary War by rehearsing and performing a classroom play.
Fourth: Fourth grade is touring the Northeast region, with stops at the Empire State building, Boston Commons, Plymouth, Massachusetts, The Hershey Factory and Washington DC. (just to name a few). We just finished our chapter on division and we are getting ready to start fractions. In science we are talking about motion, force, friction and simple machines.
Fifth: Fifth graders have been working on the Archdioceses writing prompt. They also took the ACRE test for the Archdiocese. A thrust has been put into the Forensic selections. They are to have their piece ready by Friday, February 25th.
Last week they met Mrs. Kathy Brown in the Chapel to pray with the rosaries they made in December. Father Tim blessed the rosaries, and now will be sent to a mission.
Sixth: Mrs. Waker’s sixth grade is reading a true story about a girl who had polio. There was discussion about what it would be like to be paralyzed. Mr. Mescher, parishioner and parent, spoke to the students about being paralyzed and how to overcome challenges in our lives. He explained the importance of treating everyone the same and not to treat people with disabilities differently. Thank you, Mr. Mescher, for your motivating stories.
Seventh: 7th grade is preparing for the Retreat at St. Francis, the Forensic program, and the Optimist oratorical contest. In Math they are working on percentages and applying percentage work in the real world.
Eighth: Math – The Algebra class is working on exponential work and scientific notation.
The Pre-Algebra class is working on real world financial situations such as sale price, tax, tips and installment buying. The students interviewed their parents regarding the use of cash, checks, credit cards and loans.
Music: The middle school students have just finished working on online song writing projects. They had to write lyrics as well as create a musical track to perform their piece to. They are now getting ready for finals. The finals will cover composers, note reading and rhythm reading skills. The 8th grade took a tour of Jazz history covering jazz from 1900 – 2000. The 7th grade has been working on rock and roll history. The 6th grade has been learning guitar. Fifth grade wrapped recorder playing last month and the 4th grade are studying Broadway Musicals with an emphasis on the Sound of Music.
The music department in general is preparing for Willy Wonka which will be April 8th , 9th and 10th . Our show choir has been performing all year long and the elementary chorus is in rehearsals for their Arts Week concert a Broadway review. This will be a fitting concert as we have been named a Broadway Junior School of Excellence. Arts week will begin Monday, April 4th.
b. Playground: Playground equipment has been ordered. Our Fundraising efforts continue for the installation and the fencing $12,000 is still needed to complete the project. Regular updates will be sent out so that everyone can track the playground fundraising progress.

c. Marketing/PR: Carrie McHenry/John Gochenaur
Carrie showed out the beautiful new St. Charles brochure.

Maggie Collins is looking for help in any capacity for our First Annual St. Charles Monte Carlo Fish Fry! It will be Friday, March 25, 7:00-12:00 a.m. Also, anyone with information or ideas for advertising and/or the Silent Auction, please contact Christine Welch, Carrie McHenry, or Maggie Collins. A new effort for St. Charles this year is to ask each family to be responsible for purchasing or selling 4 tickets to the Monte Carlo. We are hoping this will encourage more attendance, involvement, and vested interest in the event. The monies earned will help the whole school – not just athletics! Prime Time Party Rental is a huge supporter and is generously offering to decorate not only the PAC, but also the cafeteria – including large screen TV’s in both areas to broadcast the March Madness basketball games. Fish and side dishes will be served in the cafeteria while the PAC will be reserved for games and liquid refreshments. Please help spread the word – we are looking for a significant number in attendance with focus on generating a growing interest for next year as well!

c. Finance: John White
See Pastor’s report.

d. Charger Support Committee: Carrie McHenry
The CSC had a meeting and the members divided into various groups. This Thursday they will define the CSC mission. The budget group is trying to determine the activity fee for next year.

e. Athletic Commission: Michelle Popp
No report.

f. Parish Council: Beth Hart
The playground was discussed at the last meeting. A 50% deposit was made on playground.

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

h. Scouting: John Gochenaur/Mike Carter
Last Sunday was Scout Sunday. Pine Wood Derby weigh-in is next week. The third grade Brownies will go to COSI for an overnight in April.

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

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School Commission Minutes – February 2011

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