School Board Minutes - April 11, 2005

Present: Jeff Thompson – Chair, Sherry Sloger, Brad Sparkman, Debbie Shah, Jim Grover, Dave Gebhardt, Lynn Kerkemeyer, John Ross, Liz Hellrung – Teacher Rep., Jack Holmes – Principal, Msgr. Mank – Canonical Administrator, Kit Morrissey, Theresa Rendleman.

Absent: Marsha Maller, Dale Kobayashi.

Guests: Sheri Hodapp, Jennifer Parker, Denise Farnworth, Robin Rheinecker, Nancy Klaus, Sue Stahlhut, Lyn Lambert, Karen Wassick, Michelle Hawthorne, Valerie Holdener, Natalia Braun, Ruthie Morris, Chuck Stowers.

Call to Order: Jeff Thompson called the meeting to order.

Opening Prayer: Jeff Thompson

Approval of March minutes with changes; Teacher Rep – Faculty is concerned about school board retiring into executive session; discussion of budget to take place during regular meeting but the budget vote will take place in executive session; Finance – information brought forward that tuition and cost per student were calculated incorrectly; motion made to approve March minutes with changes by Lynn Kerkemeyer; seconded by Jim Grover; motion carries.

Assignment of Prayer for May 2, 2005 meeting: Kit Morrissey

Old Business

Scrip Rebate – Some discussion of Scrip program; none of the pastors had any objection to a flat 2% rebate; this change was done to help lighten the load for the Scrip coordinator; motion made to amend Scrip rebate plan to a flat 2% starting on June 1 by Jim Grover; seconded by Theresa Rendleman; motion carries.

FastDirect – Faculty seems positive about this program; parents seemed very interested at PTU meeting; teachers do have some concern bout recording grades on the internet; parents will need password to retrieve grades; one of the points of the program that is causing some concern is the weak passwords for faculty and administrators; there have been no registered complaints from the Better Business Bureau; some discussion as to how safe our children’s social security numbers are; perhaps the children could use their lunch card numbers and initials; faculty will have to get used to working with the format; the charge per family would be approximately $15 per child and $25 per family; questions that still need to be addressed are: can health data be separated from other data on the internet; can a generic number be used as an ID number; can we be assured of anonymity dealing with student addresses, SS#’s and photographs; can teachers customize their report cards; motion made to proceed with contract for service with user fee to be applied pending satisfactory answers to our questions by Lynn Kerkemeyer; seconded by Jim Grover; motion carries.

New Business

Parking Lot Renovation – Handout given; we’ve received several bids; as price of oil goes up, our bids go up; payment for parking lot would be made in thirds; the warranty would be standard; we are requesting member pastors to recommend to the bishop that we accept the bid for the SJN parking lot; motion made to accept bid from Long Paving and Asphalt to upgrade parking lot by Kit Morrissey; seconded by Lynn Kerkemeyer; motion carries.

Executive Committee Slate – Executive Committee slate for the 2005/2006 school year would be Chair – Jeff Thompson; Vice Chair – Debbie Shah; Recording Secretary – Theresa Rendleman.

Committee Reports

Policy – Some discussion of having standard operating procedures for different committees stemming from school board.

Canonical Administrator – Thank you for the principal evaluations.

Principal – The diocese is offering meetings for facilitators of the Protecting God’s Children program; there will be another phase to the program with is offered to the children; letter read from Jan Friederich thanking board for compensation of her accumulated sick days.

Teacher Rep – Information brought forward about a situation in which some children have posted information and pictures about SJN on the internet.

Finance – We do not have an approved budget; last enrollment count is 300 children; some questions from board about Diocesan and Association fees; we now have to pay for background checks; some of our overage in cash includes $1000 grant to be used for a Scholastic Bowl.

Development – Handout given; final figure for Mardi Gras is $1000; some question about Annual Fund; do we use our same format as last year and give a presentation during Mass; date for presentation would be September 10 & 11; we will be having an informational meeting from Midland Fund Raising; more people need to participate in fundraisers since we’re losing students; looking to finalize new SJN brochures; we had 26 children attend Kid Fest; perhaps we need to add yard signs advertising next year’s Kid Fest; some teachers were not aware that we were having a Kid Fest.

Planning – 8^th grade surveys trickling in; we have 14 returned.

Grant Writing – Handout given; grant money will be given to the 6^th grade for the challenge course incorportated into their Ondessonk field trip; we should find out in April about the Illinois Clean Energy Fund.

April Forum Date – April 26 – 7:00 P.M.

Closing Prayer – Jeff Thompson