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

Opening Prayer

The Commission said the Our Father together.

 

Approval of Minutes

Donna moved to accept the minutes of the Thursday March 20, 2003 meeting and Bill Rice seconded the motion. All members were in favor.

Reports

 

Temporal Affairs - Bill Rice

The tuition for next year's students has been announced.

 

Director of Youth Ministry /Religious Education - Jodie Bender

Jodie was asked to describe how she communicates and collaborates with families and involves them in the planning process for the administration of the Sacraments

The Diocese sets guidelines for the parishes concerning the Sacraments of Reconciliation, First Eucharist and Confirmation.

Each Sacrament has written guidelines concerning family focus. Each parish follows the guidelines in different ways.

 

Parish Sacramental Goals:

The first goal for Reconciliation and First Eucharist is to involve and introduce the children in the parish school with those who are in PSR who are receiving these two sacraments. The second goal is to bring together the parents of the children receiving Reconciliation and First Eucharistic.

Confirmation goals are set up to involve the candidates and the sponsors.

 

In the past Jodie met with Fr. Jack to set the date for First Eucharist. First Eucharist has usually been the last Sunday in April. First Reconciliation has been the same day as Reconciliation for the parish in early December. After these dates are set Jodie can plan out the schedules for programs and retreats.

 

Confirmation

Confirmation this past year was in October so that the eighth grade could be part of the church ministries like Eucharistic Distributors and lectors. Next year Confirmation will be in May 2004. As soon as the schedules for the main parish calendar are set Jodie can hand out the dates and program days for the Sacraments.

The schedules for Confirmation candidates will be sent home with the present sixth graders and the schedules for Reconciliation and First Eucharist will be sent home with children in first grade. This includes those who are in the PSR program.

Confirmation will be every year for the seventh graders from next year unless Fr. Kroeger wants to a change.

Further discussion continued to make sure the Sacramental calendars will be given to different athletic booster groups.

Jodie was asked about the time commitment for the Confirmation candidates and their sponsors. Jodie reminded the commission that we are asking the families and sponsors to take an active role in the child's life and their preparation for the life long commitment to the church.

Jodie said the sponsors were asked to come to two meeting the practice and the night of the Confirmation. This past year Confirmation was in October and all programs started after school started and ended at Confirmation, October 25. Next year there is one program every other month for Confirmation.

Jodie was asked why parishes in our area have different time commitments and programs for the Sacraments. Jodie said that the Dioceses give us guidelines not rules. Fr. Jack asked Jodie to follow the guidelines.

Discussion continued as to the amount of time the children and the parents and sponsors are asked to be involved with the Sacramental programs. Members of the Commission agreed that the Sacraments are very important and are a life commitment, but that time for families on the weekends is important also. Jodie understood but the PSR students cannot come during a St. Vivian school day so the times are scheduled to accommodate them.

Ann asked how the Sacramental packets are sent home. Jodie said they are sent home through school children. The dates are also put on the parish website and are also listed in the bulletin for meetings that are happening in the parish during the week. The students also have a file at school with their packets for the sacraments.

Confirmation service hours for next year's candidates can be recorded beginning June I, 2003.

Blessed Mother Mass

Tomorrow is the first St. Vivian school May crowning mass at 8 am. This was Fr. Jack's idea. Lindsey Byrens was nominated to crown Mary.

Graduation

Mrs. Renken and Jodie will be meeting to coordinate the eighth grade graduation mass, which is on Thursday June 5, 2003.

 

School Report - Bill Cavanaugh

P.T.A. is paying for new chairs for sixth and seventh grades in the school.

High School Admissions for the Eighth Grade

Girls

Roger Bacon - 7

McAuley - 7

Boys

Roger Bacon - 16

St. Xavier - 4

La Salle - 1

There was some concern about the numbers who were admitted to St. X, Ursuline, and St. Ursula this year and whether most who wanted to attend were admitted. Legacy, as well as elementary school preparation, has an impact on admissions.

 

Bullying Program

The bullying program has been completed in grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and Kindergarten, the First, second and third grades, will be completed by the end of the year. Self-esteem and assertiveness were some of the topics discussed. Mr. Cavanaugh hopes this program will be continued next year, as he thought this was a good program, that the students got something out of it, and that they talked to their parents about bullying.

 

Staff Changes

Lindsey Byrnes is leaving to be a regional director for the Bush re-election campaign in Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan.

Jim Ralston is leaving as the junior high social studies teacher to pursue a full time teaching position.

Marianne Hodapp is leaving pre &endash; school and Mary Ann Nichols is taking over for her.

 

Terra Nova

Mr. Cavanaugh passed out the results of this year Terra Nova tests for the second, fourth, sixth and eighth grades. This is the second year for the Terra Nova tests but the first year for the grades that took the tests. Joe was hopeful that the school staff would track the scores for each year so the progress of the students at each grade could be monitored over many years to see how they perform in comparison to their predicted rates. Overall the scores were above the projected scores for each grade.

 

NCA Accra Test

Jodie said on November 10, 2003, the NCA Accra test will be given to students in fifth through eighth grades to test their religion knowledge.

 

Unfinished Business

Lois, Ann, and Maria will count votes for Pastoral Parish Council and Education Commission after the 11:30 mass Sunday May 18, 2003.

Next meeting the commission members will elect a new chairperson, vice-chairperson and secretary.

 

New Business

School Technology Plan

Mr. Cavanaugh presented Bridgett Raffenberg who spoke about the future of technology at St. Vivian. She has many concerns about our technology program and equipment.

Bridgett feels we are not getting the full use of the computer lab and that we are not moving toward the future as well as we could. She has been talking to Mr. Cavanaugh, Kathy Rothschild, and the Temporal Affairs, and now to the Education Commission to ask for help and support. Bridgett noted that we still have not received the insurance money and have not replaced the computers and software that were stolen on December 31, 2002. Bridgett and the members of the Education Commission are very concerned about the lack of resolution to this problem and wondered how it might be resolved more expeditiously either by St. Vivian or the Archdiocese.

Bridgett puts many additional hours working in the lab, and would like to have money to pay an outside contractor like Fuller to fix problems so she has time to teach classes. Mr. Cavanaugh would like to ask P.T.A. to help, but he feels that the P. T.A. should not be totally responsible for support of the school technology program and their money cannot be counted on from one year to the next. The families of the school should also share the support of the schools technology program.

Members of the commission believe technology is one element that keeps our school at the top in education. Joe reminded the members that the budget is kept very tight and giving more money to the technology program may mean less money to pay our staff. These are hard choices that do not come easily.

Bill Rice volunteered to write a letter to the Temporal Affairs Committee to include the Education Commission members support for the technology program. Along with this letter Bill would include the technology plan provided by Mr. Cavanaugh and Bridgett Raffenberg and an estimate of a budget that would be needed to carry it out.

Bill Rice was concerned that the school budget doesn't include a plan for depreciation of the computer lab or other areas in the school.

Lynne was interested to know if the staff has looked into other computer hardware and software companies. Bridgett said they applied for a grant and has looked into other computer companies.

 

Principal Search

Fr. Kroger is spearheading the principal search committee. He asked the teachers to elect a teacher representative. Also on the search committee will be Jodie and possibly Tim McManus or Kathy Rothschild.

Bill Rice was elected by the members of the Education Commission to serve on the search committee.

Joe will send out questions to commission members to help the member gives ideas for the new principal search.

 

School Handbook Revision

To better facilitate the Commission time a small group of members will meet to talk about the discipline policy and the handbook. They will report back to the Commission at our next meeting. Members were asked to send suggestions of revisions in writing to Joe. Feedback from one parent about the handbook was shared.

 

Liaisons to Related Organizations

Maria said the school's production of Fiddler on the Roof is this weekend.

 

Announcements

The next Education Commission meeting is Thursday June 19, in the Ursuline Hall. Jodie will be unable to attend because of the Youth Ministry work camp.

 

Adjournment

Bill Rice motioned and Joan seconded that the meeting be adjourned at 8:30pm.