Members Present
	Joe Zins	Lynne Morris	Ann McMackin
	Bill Rice	Lois Neltner	Maria Meyer
	Donna Patterson	Mark Merz	Joan Haber
Ex Officio Members Present
	Bill Lonneman	Lisa Renken
Ex Officio Members Absent
	Bill Cavanaugh	Jodie Bender

Opening Prayer

Joe read the prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi.

 

Approval of Minutes

The members had already approved the minutes for the October 17, 2002 Education Commission meeting via e-mail.

 

Reports

Temporal Affairs - Bill Rice

 The Parish is in good financial condition.

Tim McManus has been hired to be the new parish development director.

Temporal Affairs Commission was looking into financial tuition assistance money for a family who is not a registered member of St. Vivian. Currently school tuition financial assistance is only for parishioners of St. Vivian Parish.

Lynne related that the Temporal Affairs Commission did talk about tuition assistance for non-parishioners with a guest at the last meeting. Other parishes near by all said they would work closely with non-parishioner families to help them with tuition but no money was given to the family from the parish tuition assistance fund. Lynne and Bill were confident that monies from the tuition assistance fund would be for parishioner needs only.

 

Pastoral Associate - Bill Lonneman

Bill sent a report earlier to the Education Commission members, which is added at the end of this report. Additional notes are as follows:

The Rainbow Program

The Rainbow program will start this coming Monday. This program was available at St. Vivian in the past and Jan McManus suggested we bring it back. This is a program that is assisted by Catholic Social Service for Second through Sixth grade students. Bill L, Mary Ann Nichols, Charlene Ponti and Mary Lou Zestermann have been trained. The response from the families so far is low, but there may be additional applicants from PSR that have not been forwarded, as well as late returns from the school. The plan is to have a day session and an evening session. This is a good program and more children may come in the future. The program lasts a total of twelve weeks. The program is funded through a grant from a fund formed after Mr. Bud Eveslage died and by the Tuesday night men's basketball team.

The Gospel of Mark

A class on the Gospel of Mark has met the last three weeks and will meet one more time. More classes about the Gospels will be given in the future.

On Tuesdays in Lent, after station of the cross, Bill would like to offer some sessions on centering prayer. The Poor Clare's may be able to help with the prayer sessions.

 

The Worship Commission

The Worship Commission has suggested having a teaching mass at St. Vivian. Father Paul Gebhardt will probably say the mass and it may be on weekends. More information will come in the future.

 

Springfield Township

There will be a meeting on Sunday February 23 at Northminster Church given by Mike Hinnekamp and other township trustees about the future of the community. The meeting will include a power point presentation. This is a good opportunity to dialogue with those in our neighborhood in a friendly atmospheric. All are invited.

 

AMOS

Bill will help publicize the efforts and educational meetings for the AMOS group. Lynne suggested Bill could contact the staff at McAuley because one of their curriculum goals is for more education for social justice.

 

Synagogue

The Northern Hills Synagogue is moving, probably in the fall. Father Jack and the Jewish community had a very good relationship. Bill would like to work on some educational programs with the Synagogue before they move.

 

Voice of the Faithful

Bill is on the coordinating committee for the Voice of the Faithful. The group is a national group that was formed after the recent church scandals. There is a liturgy of hope and encouragement on Wednesday February 26 at Xavier University Bellarmine Chapel. There is a group of people in the parish who have been working with Bill to help keep communication open about this problem.

 

Festival

Bill is going to have a St. Vivian booth at the festival to give out information about St. Vivian and the community. Bill has talked to Bridgett Raffenberg about a booth at the festival.

 

Director of Youth Ministry /Religious Education - Jodie Bender

As a follow-up to the October meeting, Joe reported that communication issues remain with respect to Confirmation and First Communion preparation. Donna wanted to know if we as the Education Commission need to look into the communication in the parish with respect to the families concerns being addressed or if a policy could be developed. Maria expressed concern about the attitude toward the preparation for the sacraments some have. The discussion was tabled because Jodie was not in attendance.

 

School Report - Bill Cavanaugh

Mr. Cavanaugh sent a written report and Joe and Mrs. Renken shared the following on his behalf.

 

Technology

Bridgett Raffenberg sent a copy of the curriculum for each grade per our request in October. Bridgett will be happy to come to a meeting or have the Education Commission come to the computer lab.

The insurance money has not come yet for the equipment lost in the recent burglary. The school is accepting any donations of computer equipment or money to help build the lab back up. Each classroom will be getting a computer although these will not be new. Carts are needed for classroom computers.

 

School Play

The play this spring will be Fiddler on the Roof. Ann was concerned with the amount of time that students would be practicing for the play during class time. Joan mentioned that the play is optional. Mrs. Renken said she has not seen a schedule yet and is not anticipating interruption of classes. Ann was also thankful to Mrs. Khamis for all of her hard work in putting on the school plays. Mrs. Renken said that the amount of work is why there is only one spring play this year.

 

Junior High Preparation

Joe talked about the need to keep the communication with the neighboring high schools about St. Vivian school curriculum and how it interfaces with theirs to assure that our students are well prepared for high school.

 

Staff Addition

Mr. Ralston was hired last fall to replace Mr. Kennedy to teach eighth grade social studies.

 

Discipline Policy

The discipline policy is generally working well. There has been an issue in a case where a student committed a combination of offenses. This caused contention concerning the number of demerits given. Mr. Cavanaugh would like to revise the policy, and Maria suggested the policy could read, "demerits are given per offense not per incident."

 

Wish List

Mr. Cavanaugh sent a wish list to PTA. He would like new desks for the school, help with the phone system, security, and money for the teacher wish list.

 

Enrollment

Total enrollment figures will be available in March. The Open House went well despite the weather.

 

Liaisons

Maria reported about FANS events.

Fiddler on the Roof is the weekend of May 16, 17, and 18.

Karaoke night is Saturday, February 22.

The Spaghetti Dinner was a big success and the band was such a big hit that there is interest in having the group return.

 

Lynne said the athletic boosters were giving a St. Vivian booster basket to Bid and Buy booth and the Basket Extravaganza booth.

 

Unfinished Business

Long Range Planning Report

The Long Range Planning group has issued a report. The report contains a cover letter, an update on the long-range study from 1995, a report on the status of the school and a report on the priest and teacher shortage. 84 percent of the 1995 parish goals and 68 percent of the school goals have been achieved. The report will be shared with the Archdiocese to help with the decision about a new pastor for St. Vivian.

This is a good report for all to look over and the community should feel good about what has been achieved.

The Long range planning report also will be use to inform new parishioners and staff about our school and parish.

 

Neighborhood Planning Update

A group of parishes in the community have been meeting to talk about how we as neighbors and friends can work together. The meetings started with a small group last spring and now participation has expanded to include more priests, DREs, PA, principals, business managers, education commission members, and so forth. .

The principals are going to try to coordinate the school schedule to have things like teacher in service days can be held on the same day and resources shared. More teachers making a larger group for would make it easier to get a better-known speaker and maybe share the cost. .

The Business Manager, DRE, Pastoral Associates are also going to meet with their respective groups to share ideas.

Another possible idea is for Pastors to say mass at different churches in the deanery, as a precursor of how we'll have to share priests among parishes in the near future

Bill said that the new Dean of the Our Deanery is Fr. George Jacquemin who lives at St.Clare is getting other parish priests together. Bishop Model has funded the group to enable Jim Brown to facilitate the process

 

Joe thanked Bill Rice for putting together the information from members of the Education Commission that was sent to Parish Pastoral Council regarding the qualities our parish desires to have in a new pastor.

 

New Business

None

 

Announcements

Next meeting Thursday March 20, 2003 in the Ursuline Hall.

 

Guests

None

 

Adjournment

Joan motioned Bill seconded and all members were in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 pm.