Lumen Christi Catholic School

School Commission Meeting

Dominiak Hall-Thiensville

August 8th, 2013; 6:30 pm

Members in Attendance: Ted Duecker, Mary Lee Odem, Michelle Correa, Paul Kruszka, Mary Hauke, Kelly Fyfe, Sarah Bahr, Kim Althaus, Fr. Dan Sanders, Joe Cesarz, and Steve Gresham

Guests in Attendance: No guests were present.

1.  Mary Hauke read this Sunday’s Gospel.

2.  Open Session

a.  Fr. Dan informed the Committee that if you were unable to attend the Mass at Mequon this past Sunday he will be repeating his state of the parish presentation at the Thiensville masses this weekend.

b.  Fr. Dan also spoke about the building plans for the Mequon campus. Fr. Dan and three parishioners will have a meeting at the Archdiocese next week to start the planning process for the Mequon campus.

c.  Fr. Dan informed the Committee that a new chart of accounts has been put in place and should aid the budgeting process in the coming year.

3.  July Minutes

a.  Kim Althaus received some corrections from Mary Hauke to minutes; another correction is that the new associate priest will be assigned to Lumen Christi for 18 months and not 3 years as previously reported.

4.  Principals Update

a.  Kelly Fyfe began with an update on the new open position for a math teacher for the middle school. Kelly informed the Committee that a hiring committee has been formed that includes Ellie Quintero, Kim Althaus, Joe Cesarz and Mary Hauke. The search process began with Kelly contacting a nearby Catholic school that had just completed a recruiting process for a math teacher and received the resume of a highly qualified teacher. In addition, the communication to the parents resulted in another highly qualified candidate coming forward.

  1. Joe Cesarz and Kim Althaus provided their insights on the first round of interviews.
  2. Mary Hauke and Kelly Fyfe spoke about the hiring cycle and that decisions to leave and hire schools is now occurring later than before
  3. Fr. Dan asked about the work experience of each candidate and Kelly Fyfe informed the committee of each candidate’s experience.

b.  Kelly Fyfe summarized the data collected for student usage for Compass Learning

  1. K-5 students have logged 473 hours on Compass learning from June 15th through August 1st
  2. 6th Graders – 103 hours have been logged – 14 students have not used it
  3. 7th Graders – 19 students have not logged in
  4. 8th grade - 25 students have not logged in

c.  The Welcome Back Packet should be coming in the next week; this will include a letter from Kelly and signature forms

d.  Parents will now be able to pay for special lunch orders (i.e. pizza, subs) can now be paid through the lunch program. Kim Althaus researched implementing PayPal or other electronic payment systems and the cost would be $700 based on the payments processed. Kim pointed out that this is the amount that the Parents Association budgets for Rainbow Olympics and this processing cost was not worth the benefits given the alternative of utilizing the lunch payment program facilitated by the office.

e.  Kelly Fyfe will be participating in the accreditation process for St. Boniface in Germantown.

f.  Over this summer Mary Hauke and Kelly Fyfe met with Fr. Dan over the summer to clarify their roles so that parents know whom to address for certain questions. Mary’s new title will be Assistant Principal.

g.  Staff will be coming back to school on August 20th for welcome back activities and professional development with Jane Marko. The professional development will focus on learning strategies in the classroom and implementing the PBIS program. The first focus for the PBIS program will be “voice level” in the school. Once this goal has been met the next goal will be hallway behavior and then manners.

h.  Kelly discussed the draft “Bring Your Own Device” policy. Mike Spitz and Laurie Yingling are working with St. Robert’s to implement this policy. One of the major issues is with access to the internet (3rd party data plans) other than the school’s network. Another concern is how to make this program financially feasible for parents. The committee discussed a variety of issues related to increased device usage at the school.

5.  Assistant Principal’s Update

a.  Mary Hauke will be participating in the accreditation process for St. Mary’s Burlington.

b.  Mary discussed the planning she has done with Kelly to make sure that they are allocating time to each campus to work with teachers and parents.

c.  Mary talked about the Welcome Back day planned for incoming 6th graders. She also informed the committee that Kathy Smith would be organizing a fishing club for the school.

6.  Enrollment Update

a.  Enrollment is currently at 364

b.  Kelly informed the committee that there are a number of 5th grade (going into 6th grade) that have left the school. A number of these parents talked about bullying in that grade. Kelly Fyfe has spoken with the teachers and the parents to understand the issues and take corrective action.

7.  Other Updates

a.  Kim Althaus mentioned that the school is moving to schedule all events through Google Calendar.

b.  Kim Althaus mentioned that Laurie Yingling suggested using the CalenMob app to get connected to the School calendar

8.  Stewardship

a.  Fr. Dan summarized the changes in Parish governance, including the formation of a new stewardship commission, and the changes to the approach to stewardship in the parish. The parish has selected a new envelope company and will implement a more personal approach to stewardship. A new review and approval process will be implemented for fundraising and events. Fr. Dan solicited suggestions for the draft policy from the Committee.

9.  Committee Review

a.  Kim Althaus asked the sub-committees to review the successes of the prior school year.

b.  Members of the finance committee highlighted the timeline and well run budget process; the clearer understanding of resources which enabled Kelly to implement the new professional development program, the ability to fund the Compass learning initiative on short notice and the ability to get the tuition increase approved prior to the Parish budget being approved.

c.  Sarah Bahr spoke about the continued progress towards paperless, informative communication and the continuing initiatives to increase dialog between parents, faculty and administration.

d.  Michelle Correa spoke about the changes occurring in the faith formation ministry at the parish and the number of combined events that involved the Parish faith formation students and school students. A revised Catholic Identity statement has been prepared and will be sent to the Committee in advance of the next meeting.

e.  John Barlamant spoke about the work that was accomplished by the evaluation committee and the ad hoc work provided by him to administration. Kim Althaus also commended the parent survey that was prepared by the evaluation committee.

f.  Kim Althaus spoke for the technology committee and mentioned the support given to the budget committee, including the grading of assets and replacement cycles. The technology committee also provided guidance to Mike Spitz and Laurie Yingling on new technologies and the possibilities for the classroom for the 21st century.

g.  Fr. Dan spoke about other areas that are tangential to technology including the new media equipment that is being provided for production of LCTV. Fr. Dan also asked about the search for new chairs for Shamrock. Kelly Fyfe informed the Committee that a couple of individuals on the Shamrock committee were approached but all declined.

10.  Steve Gresham asked the Committee if there were older children would be available to assist with childcare at the Athletic Association golf outing.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:02 P.M.