St. Ann School Council Minutes: September 21, 2016

  1. In attendance: Father Keith, Mike Riley, Paul Bertrand, Heather Sullivan, Carrie McLiney, Joe Nolke, Sean Molen,

II.Absent:Christy Schoenfeld

III.Opening Prayer:Father Keith

IV.Pastor’s Report (Father Keith Lunsford):

  • Father Keith is out of town the week of Sept. 26th and Father Craig will be performing school Mass that week.
  • Each class in each grade will have a Patron Saint this and future years and this years’ classes get to vote on these Saints. Pictures of these Saints will be available for purchase at the Fall Festival.
  • There was a confirmation parent meeting the week of September 19th and things are very organized for confirmation.
  • There was recently a servers training meeting for new 5th grade serves and any others that would like to begin serving. Students from 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th attended this training.
  • We discussed the high school servers club that Mr. Lynch recently formed. They have 10-15 boys in the serving club already.

V.Principal’s Report (Mike Riley):

  • Mike’s report began with reading the new Vision Statement as follows: St. Ann Catholic School passionately provides a Christ-inspired education where Catholic Teachings and Academic Excellence prepare the whole child for a life of joyful discipleship.
  • One of the first field trips of the year was a recent leadership retreat to William Jewell’s outdoor challenge facility and this was a great experience for the 8th grade students, teachers and Mr. Riley.
  • The SHINE program was kicked off on Friday, September 16 with a school-wide assembly. Some 8th grade students participated in a “Fashion Show” to demonstrate appropriate uniforms in a funny way. The 4th graders were cheerleaders for this assembly. The SHINE program has been modified and each classroom will collectively determine 5 expectations for their classroom in order to SHINE. These 5 expectations will be represented on a St. Ann Tiger Paw.
  • The first coffee with the Pastor and Principal was a success and these will take place quarterly.
  • Mike has been in a lot of classrooms observing teachers and has observed all teachers that are new to St. Ann already this year.
  • PLCs by grade level are going really well. The common planning time that occurs three times a week during the teachers’ lunch periods has made a big difference in their ability to plan together.
  • Fitness Day is taking place on Friday, September 23rd.
  • As a community building event, in mid-October there will be an all school picture with kids in “Olympic Rings” and wearing different color shirts per grade level.
  • Another recent field trip took place with the 3rd and 4th graders joining some Brighton Gardens residents for a walk around Windsor Park.
  • The 2nd and 4th graders went to the American Royal on Thursday, Sept. 22nd. This field trip was partly organized by the PTO enrichment committee as their focus this year in on enriching field trips.
  • On Tuesday, Sept. 27th, the dance company Alvin Ailey is coming to St. Ann’s to put on a short performance for our students.
  • There will be an Excel Center open house on Tuesday, September 27th from 7 pm – 8 pm.
  • The Quarter ends on October 14th.

VI.Strategic Plan

  • We reviewed Prince of Peace’s strategic plan and discussed using it as a potential model for our new plan.
  • Further discussion centered around the specific goals/planks of the strategic plan (ie: Faith, Academics, Community, etc.) and corresponding sub-subjects.
  • Agreed upon dedicating the next meeting on Monday, October 10th to just the strategic plan with a goal of finalizing the specific planks and working on the sub-planks. Aaron Deacon, Natalie Hartman and Jennifer Hill will be invited to our next meeting to help us in this process.

VII.Next Meeting:

  • The council was asked to review the vision statement and core principals before the next meeting.
  • Monday, October 10th at 7 pm

VIII.Closing Prayer: