St. Andrew Apostle School Advisory Board
Minutes
December 6, 2007
St. Andrew Apostle School Advisory Board
Members Present: Andrew Price, Peggy Mazzola, Kathy Kilty, Fr. Mike Mellone, Angela Solomon, Tara Roche, Mary Ahearn, Dustin Watson, Robin Tomaselli, Tim Breen, Curtis McKay, Dot Primrose and Andrea Morgan
Members Absent: John Vittone, Nori Limarzi
Opening Prayer: was led by Fr. Mike (Isaiah)
Old Business:
September and October meeting minutes to be posted on St Andrew Apostle website this month. November minutes not done at this time. They will be emailed to members for comments and corrections. Once they are approved by Fr. Mike and Ms. Kilty they will be posted to the website.
CFC campaign- banner to go up in near future, new five-digit code to be posted in the bulletin and Mary will email it to Angie. Five digit code to replace old four-digit. There is a printing place in Wheaton Triangle to use for the new numbers on the banner.
Pastor's Report: Monsignor Mellone
Archdiocese Convocation on Education meeting update: The meeting in October addressed the closings of schools in the District of Columbia area and reasons why closing and/or consolidating the parishes. There are financial struggles among all the schools in the Archdiocese of Washington. In the inner city there are fewer people attending the schools. Administrators deemed it was important to notify parents and guardians of costs to educate students at each school. The St. Andrew’ s letter will go home tomorrow to our families. The letter was distributed to SB members at the meeting for review. Each parish that has a school is sending its own letter with its own figures. The cost of maintenance for the school building was divided into several different areas. Avenues are being explored to make up for difference for losses to the school because of the multi-family discounts or to decrease the percentage of the discounts. The Finance council approved FaithDirect for direct deposit of tithes to parish.
District of Columbia school closings- consortium schools regrouped and some taken over by charter schools. However in each quadrant of the city there will be a school that remains open to educate the students in that area.
Principal's Report: Kathy Kilty
Re-registration forms to go home December 10th and will returned by January 7th, 2008. There will be two open houses for new students. The first will be held on January 9th for PK, Kindergarten, and 1st grade. The second open house will be held on January 30th, during Catholic Schools Week, for grades PK-8th. The re-registration form has changed as far as requirements, etc. Ms. Kilty suggested that we think of eliminating that fee for existing families that are registering a child in the Kindergarten. The Board took a vote and this was approved unanimously.
Marketing: The Archdiocese selected St. Andrew to participate in a marketing program during the month of January and February. If you are riding behind a Metro bus in St. Mary’s county, Prince George’s County and/or Montgomery County, you will see St. Andrew students on Metro buses; (will put in Thursday notes before the holiday.) The pictures that will run in the Catholic Standard, El Pregonera and on the bus ads were passed around for the members to view.
As a result of its hard work and achievement, the St. Andrews Parish and School faculty received congratulations from Archbishop Wuerl on achieving the Blue Ribbon award.
School Board Report: Andrea Morgan
A letter was sent out to new parents from SAPA, School Board and Athletic Council as a follow up letter for contacts and welcoming them again as a follow up to the New Parent Orientation.
The legislative forum that was planed for the later part of November or the beginning of December was canceled. This was due to the emergency legislative session that was called. The three delegates that were contacted about mtg canceled due to timing of responses or lack thereof from three of the four delegates. Idea has been tabled by Archdiocese and in future they may go back to the large legislative session.
SAPA Breakfast with Santa/ Secret Santa was awesome this year. Rosario O should be thanked for doing a great job, especially as a new parent)
SAPA Report:
No report.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Development and Fundraising/Finance: Curtis McKay
The committee met and discussed the following goals:
Need new system for fire alarm system in library; old system is now defunct and inoperable; new control panel, paperwork underway and fire marshal is reviewing, need new parts and detectors at the total cost of $40,000. Suggestion was made to collect donations from parish and parents. Now students cannot be in the library unless there is a person on “smoke alert” while the students are selecting books. It was suggested that it might be good and noteworthy for Fr. Mike to do quarterly report that would explain to all (parents, guardians, and parishioners) all the expenses that are not covered in the budget. This could happen in a Thursday notes blurb or in the bulletin.
Alumni Committee: Tara Roche
See attached report
Contact person for each class, include alumni, and have them highlight academic and sports achievements. $2.00, donation from each class-look this up on agenda
Communications Committee: Dot Primrose
See attached report
Parent Survey
New Parent Orientation
Letter went out to new parents to direct the parents; luncheon socials; emphasis on parents; buddy system put in place…family sponsor
Ms. Kilty also prepared several framed photographs, Washington Post and Gazette articles and letters documenting the blue Ribbon celebration, which will be displayed in the school office.
PKS FUND Peggy Mazzola presented for Nori Limarzi
Voted on requests for funds
Mrs. Konieczka for $818
Mrs. Gomez/Sheehan $189 each,
Mrs. C. Chabolla, $193.93,
Mrs. Tobar, Spanish $199,
Mr. Andrew Price and Mrs. Lori Romig $85,
All the funds for the classes were approved and passed unanimously by the School Board members present.
NEW BUSINESS
January mtg will be held on the 3rd at 7pm, however the Principal’s report will be given at the end of the meeting. Robin will bring snacks for Mary
SB involvement in Middle States Accreditation. We will be very involved in the Community study aspect. This committee will be headed by Lisa Stacy and we will be doing more work on this after the 1st of the year. There was a proposal to investigate Zoomerang as the site for the depository of all the information collected from the surveys.
Announcements:
March 6th Legislative Forum in Annapolis from 9 am to 1 pm. See handout.
NCEA offers a webinar series. Go on the NCEA website for more information.
Closing Prayer Tim
Ps 46 calming prayer a source of strength.
Meeting Adjourned at 8:45 by Angie Morgan.