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School Commission Minutes – March 2011

School Commission Meeting Minutes
March 21, 2011

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

I. Opening Prayer:
John White opened the meeting at 6:20pm in the Teachers’ Lounge with a prayer.

II. Approval of Minutes:
The February 2011 minutes were approved. Mike Carter motioned, Beth Hart seconded.

III. Pastor’s Report:
Father Haemmerle reported:
Principal Search: The position remains open until Friday March 25th. A search committee has been formed with parent and teacher representation. They will meet soon to decide who to interview.
Parish/School: It is a busy time of year with Lent and upcoming First Communion and Confirmation Preparation.
Tuition: Father sent a tuition letter to all school families emphasizing the need for their support of the church. The tuition increase will be 4% this year. We are less expensive than Incarnation and in line with other area Catholic schools.
Preschool: The preschool must be financially sensible. Father wondered if it is getting to be too late to start one for next year.
Playground: Chris Rauch’s playground letter was discussed. We need a successful Fish Fry. We are within $11,000. We have reduced the cost some. Parishioners will install the tiles. Father also noted that we will need a fund to maintain the playground. The blacktop area will be resurfaced over Spring Break and then the installation can begin.

IV. Principal’s Report:
Mrs. Moore reported:
Preschool Update: Mrs. Moore checked with the state on the status of the preschool application. She was told it was an excellent application and included everything that was needed. She was also told that the next step is for an on-site review of the room but that probably wouldn’t happen until a day or two before school started. So it must be decided if we advertise now or wait another year? If the inspection goes well we would get a six-month approval.
Charger Support Committee: This group has a charter and a mission and will be working on by-laws for the group. Each group is working on their part of the preparations to re-introduce the new parent group to the school. One of the major discussions is how to continue financing the items that the previous PTO sponsored. We are losing ground with the fundraisers we now have. In speaking with other schools they have one big fundraiser that supports their schools. The financial committee met and we are considering having a class fee for the grades to underwrite all that takes place in that grade-level.
Social Justice: The Social Justice Committee would like to have one member of the school commission be a representative at their meetings on twinning. As Beth Hart told us we are twinning with a parish and school on an Indian reservation. They would like a School Commission representative since there is a school involved. Any volunteers would be greatly appreciated.
Students for next year: We are pleased with our counts for next year. At this time, most of our current students will remain and we have 12 for TK and are already close to 40 for kindergarten. Our kindergarten meeting for parents is next Monday and our screening for kindergarten is the week of April 11th.
Catholic Education Collaborative: Through the years Mrs. Moore has mentioned that we began testing every grade because through the collaborative we have the opportunity to work with Battelle for Kids. They are providing for us the means to use achievement tests and value-added information to assess and prioritize the strengths and challenges associated with our current instructional program. Because we have been with them for two test rounds we were able to attend our first workshop and look at Value-Added reports. Teresa Sarmiento, Denise Walker and Mrs. Moore were able to look at this year, which is very preliminary since it includes only data for one year and will be excited to study it further and capitalize on our strengths and address the challenges. We were very pleased that our challenge seems to be how to move up the brackets from “regular”. We had no glaring challenge issues.

V. Old Business:
a. New Principal Search Update
See Pastor’s report.
b. Preschool Update
After a lengthy discussion the School Commission recommends that we proceed with the 3 year old preschool with the new principal’s blessing for the fall of 2012. This would allow us time to better prepare, advertise and get commitments. The cut off for TK will be that the child must be 4 years old by May 31, 2011. An aide may be added to TK if the enrollment is greater than 14.
c. Playground Update
See Pastor’s report. A donor has pledged the additional money ($3,500) necessary to purchase the nicer aluminum fencing as opposed to the chain link fence.

VI. New Business
a. School Budget Update:
The School Commission voted to approve the School Budget.
b. No April School Commission Meeting.
Due to spring break the April School Commission meeting is cancelled.
c. 2011-2012 School Commission Membership Update:
Three people have shown interest in joining School Commission next year. One additional new member is needed.
d. 2011-2012 School Commission Officers
The President, Vice-President and Secretary positions need to be filled for the 2011-2012 school year. John White urged current members to consider an officer position or a committee liaison position for next year.

VII. Liaison Reports:
a. Teacher’s Report: Mary Burrows/Fran Moore
1st grade: We are learning all about contractions and nouns. In Science, we are having fun growing different vegetables and flowers from seeds! We are hoping this makes us think spring is coming!!
2nd grade: Second grade is busy getting ready to make their First Communion. The students and their parents are participating in the Jesus Retreat. In class we are learning the parts of the Mass.
3rd grade: Third grade will soon learn about communities during pioneer times. In order to learn what school was like for our ancestors, we will have One Room Schoolhouse Day in which we will pretend to be a school child from the past. We will also visit Pioneer Village near Waynesville, OH.
4th grade: Fourth grade has ended their “tour” of the Southeast, with stops at Cape Canaveral, a cotton plantation in Mississippi, the French Quarter in Louisiana (where we had a Mardi Gras party on Fat Tuesday!!), Disney World, and Jamestown, Virginia – just to name a few. The students are creating scrapbook pages and keeping travel logs on their journeys through the regions.
In math we are studying fractions. In Science we are doing an experiment to see if a bean will sprout better in shade or in sunlight. We are also studying plants.
5th grade: In Language Arts, the fifth graders wrote a letter and addressed an envelope to themselves. Mrs. Burrows will mail the letters in May, 2014, the year they graduate from eighth grade.
6th grade: In Mrs. Waker’s fifth and sixth grade math classes the student’s celebrated PI Day on March 14. The students learned all about the origin of pi, how it was developed, and how to use it today. We ended the celebration by eating PIE. We had fun learning all about PI.
The sixth graders wrote a creative story which they will publish in a purchased bound book.
Junior High: Seventh grade science students are studying astronomy. They are preparing for a trip to the Challenger Center in April. At the center, students run a simulated space shuttle mission. 8th grade science students have completed their chemistry work and are now studying physics for the remainder of the year. A highlight of the study is the design of catapults. A contest will take place in the spring.
8th Grade math classes had a guest speaker. Mr. John Morris presented an economics lesson to each class and then together they played a game that allowed students to plan a budget over a 5 year period and see the end result. The students enjoyed the presentation. The 7th grade classes are working on angles and geometry concepts. They will be preparing for the Geometric Zoo coming up in the spring.
8th Grade Language Arts: The Matinee at the Museum was a big success. The students portrayed characters from To Kill a Mockingbird in a Wax Museum format. The presentation concluded with a “country buffet” of fried chicken, crackling bread, Lane cakes, collard greens and many other Southern delicacies. The students will repeat the performance at Books & Co as a fundraiser for purchasing new novels.
b. Marketing/PR: Carrie McHenry/John Gochenaur
Carrie encouraged everyone to come out and support St. Charles at the Fish Fry/Monte Carlo night on Friday March 25th from 7 until midnight.
c. Charger Support Committee: Carrie McHenry
See Principal’s report.
d. Athletic Commission: Michelle Popp
The three nominations for athletic council officers are Ed Gerding: President, John Sweeterman: Vice President and Carolyn Ashurst: Secretary.
The upcoming Fish Fry was discussed. Mounts are needed for the TV in PAC. Cooking preparations, ticket sales were also discussed.
The proposed expansion of the evaluation process in CYO sports was discussed in detail. The current process is one paragraph and vague on details. The proposed process breaks it down into several easy to follow steps. It adds more detail and removes most of the ambiguity. Athletic Commission is trying to make the process more objective and less subjective.
Track only has 25 signed up for 3rd-8th grades this year. This is not enough to field a team. Scott Hornick is trying to locate another school with low participation so the two can field one team.
e. Parish Council: Beth Hart
The Playground and Preschool were discussed.
The March 2011 meeting of Parish Council will include an update to the Strategic Planning Team. At the conclusion of the strategic planning effort in November 2009 it was determined that Parish Council would provide an update, after one year, on progress against the goals and objectives that were part of the final strategic plan. The commissions involved in working toward these goals and objectives will report on progress at the March 2011 meeting.
f. Technology: Michelle Popp/Mike Carter
Mike Carter talked with Mrs. Hill about the Vartek contract which will expire soon.
g. Scouting: John Gochenaur/Mike Carter
The Scouts had a very neat overnight outing February 26-27 at Urban Krag down in the Oregon District. Urban Krag is an outfit that’s retrofitted a former church building with a collection of climbing walls. Eight adults and older scouts went down early to get checked out on belay procedures (manning the safety ropes) and then the owners gave us the run of the place for the night. The last climber came off the wall at about 0115 in the morning.
Tom Horwath’s Eagle Court of Honor was held on the afternoon of February 27th in the Borromeo Room – Congratulations Tom!
The scouts had an overnight adventure to Bluespring Caverns, camping out for the night about 100 feet below ground. The troop will be attending a camporee at the US Military Academy at West Point Thursday, 28 April through Sunday, 1 May.

VIII. Adjournment: John White
We adjourned at 7:25pm.
The next meeting is Monday May 16 2011 at 6:15PM in the School Library.
Submitted by: Beth Lantz

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School Commission Minutes – March 2011

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