Members Present:

Joe Zins	Michael Villaboy
Anita Bidleman	Shirley Brunsman
Vivian Wagner

Ex Officio Present:

Fr. Jack

Kevin Vance

Chris Sicilliano

Members Absent:

Jodi Bender (ex officio)	Barbara Hogan	Patty Hadden
Amy Vonderhaar	Bill Benvie

Opening Prayer

Father Jack read Sunday's Gospel and then everyone reflected on the contents.

Minutes

The minutes from the January 20, 2000, meeting were read. Mike motioned to accept them and Anita seconded. Motion passed.

Reports

1. Pastor - Fr. Jack

a. Lenten programs are underway.

b. The Temporal Affairs Committee is scheduled to meet next Sunday. Their primary task is to approve a new school budget and tuition.

2. Finance- Michael Villaboy

a. The grocery fund is bringing in about $20,000 a year, and is expected to do better next year.

b. Almost all families have paid their tuition this year, and the new policy adopted by Education Commission was helpful in this regard.

3. Director of Religious Education and Pastoral Associate - Chris Sicilliano

a. The RCIA has a large group of participants this year. They attended a very impressive function at the Cathedral last Sunday in which the Archbishop welcomed them. They will enter the Church at Easter.

b. An Adult Faith Workshop will be held at the Atheneum on April 4 for parish leaders. Anyone who wishes to attend should contact Chris.

c. A local parish has begun a community outreach program. Members of the parish who are involved in various community service activities such as tutoring, soup kitchens, visiting nursing homes, etc., have their names in a registry. Other parish members who may wish to become involved in such activities may then be linked to current participants. Commission members expressed support for this concept.

d. The Archdiocese has asked each parish's Worship Commission to evaluate the quality of their liturgy by the first Sunday of Advent. The group has been meeting monthly.

 

4. Director of Youth Ministry and Religious Education - Joe Zins reported for Jodie Bender

a. Vacation Bible School will be held this year on July 10-14 for 3 year-olds through 4th grade. The cost is $15. Notices will be placed in the bulletin, and sent through the school and PSR. Members were appreciative of the fact that the program will be offered again.

 

5. Principal - Kevin Vance

a. A new pamphlet on St. Vivian School has been developed and it has been a great help for new families coming into the school. It may be expanded at a later date.

b. 90 - 95% of the 8th grade students reported that they were accepted at the high school that was their first choice.

c. 8th graders who took the Roger Bacon placement test and did very well, and ranked very high compared to other schools.

d. Registration is up significantly from last year, and currently was 401 including pre- school.

e. 5 new PC computers have been ordered and should be installed soon. They will be networked and connected to the Internet. If the budget allows, someone may be hired to run the lab. The long-term goal is to have computers in every classroom. Support was expressed for having computer classes available to the parish community.

f. The 6th grade may be departmentalized similar to 7th and 8th grades. This organization would allow 6th through 8th grade teachers to teach 2 subjects, thereby enabling them to be more specialized. It also is consistent with new State licensing that will be enacted in the next few years. The Commission expressed its support for this approach, and Kevin indicated that discussions would continue with teachers and parents. Questions and concerns should be addressed to Kevin.

 

6. Liaisons to Related Organizations

No reports.

Unfinished Business

1. School Mission Statement- Mike motioned to accept the mission statement and Vivian seconded.

 

2. Temporal Affairs - Commission officers (Amy, Patty, and Joe) and Temporal Affairs liaison Michael met with the Temporal Affairs Committee on March 7 concerning school enrollment and tuition. It was a very informative meeting for both groups, and it enabled them to better understand one another's perspective. They expressed interest in having such a meeting on a yearly basis.

 

3. Teacher Recruitment/Retention -Joe collected data from several professional sources regarding future trends and needs. He's in the process of summarizing it, and will share this information at an upcoming meeting of Education Commission and Temporal Affairs.

 

4. PSI - Joe spoke with the director of the PSI program at Catholic Social Services regarding our concern about the lack of a meeting for 7th grade parents. The PSI program would be happy to come to our school and speak to the parents if we're interested. It was suggested that parents be asked to sign up ahead of time, and if there will not be substantial attendance, the meeting could be canceled. Education Commission recommended that parents be strongly encouraged to attend and participate because of the importance of their involvement in preventing early sexual involvement.

5. Tuition/Fees- A copy of the revised policy was provided to Commission members. Kevin indicated that it was an easy policy to implement.

New Business

1. School Vision Statement- A draft was presented but it was decided to wait to discuss it until next meeting. Members should review the document carefully prior to the next meeting.

2. School Handbook - Kevin reported that the teachers were working on ideas for revising sections of the Handbook. He envisions most of them as being routine, and indicated that he would send proposed changes to the Education Commission before the next meeting so we have time to read them before the meeting. They will try to highlight changes for easy recognition.

Announcements

1. Next meetings on May 18th and June 15th in School Library at 7:00 pm.

2. There were over 60 people nominated for Education Commission. Vivian will head a committee that contact them and invite them to an informational meeting on April 13 at 7:00 p.m. featuring Mr. Ken Gleason from the Archdiocese office. Current members are encouraged to attend to help answer questions.

Adjournment

Motion to adjourn made by Mike, seconded by Vivian. Motion passed.

Respectfully submitted,

Shirley Brunsman

Acting Secretary