St. Joseph School
School Advisory Committee (SAC)
Meeting Agenda
November 13, 2002 

 

Committee Members

Sr. Christina Marie Luczynski, Principal

October SAC Minutes – No changes. M. Caito moved to approve; seconded by L. King; unanimous approval. 

Extracurricular Activities – D. Bellavia of Creative Themes reported on the current extracurricular activities. The program has experienced high enrollment of children in grades K-3, however enrollment falls off considerably for the upper grades. As such, the number of sessions was revised, adding some where interest was high and canceling where interest was low. Parents of children in these sessions are encouraged to volunteer for one class as their help would be greatly appreciated and will help keep the cost of these activities down. D. Bellavia will circulate a survey to measure interest in specific activities for the next group of activities . 

 
Budget Review – L. King reviewed the YTD actual vs. planned budget. 
The accounting for the magazine drive is complete raising approximately $27,800 for the school. The Entertainment Book sale has also been completed, netting approximately $2,600 for the school. K. Keenahan recognized that purchasing a small number of additional books allowed the school to receive the higher commission rate, thereby increasing the school’s overall profit. These additional books are available for sale in the office. The Sock Hop raised approximately $1,4 00 for the school. 

Sr. Christina mentioned the need to of rent more science lab kits from BOCES in the spring.  

SAC has allocated $2,000 in this year’s budget to cover specific security related items that would be considered beyond the routine repairs and maintenance that the Parish is responsible for. The Parish’s planned activities in response to the SAC security request does not require expenditures beyond routine building repair and maintenance. In their response, the Parish inquired about SAC’s willingness to donate this budgeted money. An interim vote on the Parish’s request was held, and since no extraordinary expenses are being incurred for security improvements, the request was unanimously disapproved. 

Committee Reports

Principal’s Report – Social Studies testing will be completed Thursday, November 14. This testing evaluates the school’s program, not the students. Report cards will be issued on Friday, November 15. Parent/Teacher conferences are scheduled for next week. The format of the report cards is new this year. Parents will return the report cards to the teachers during their conferences. 

The Parish Stewardship Survey resulted in many responses for the school. Sr. Christina will be contacting those who volunteered. The survey resulted in some pleasant, unexpected surprises, particularly in the areas of reading and art. 

Human Development Committee is currently collecting breakfast food items for the Penfield Food Shelf. This drive continues through Monday, November 18. Additionally, the second grade class has been baking pies for a homeless shelter. 

Make-up pictures were taken this week. Staff, children, Lunch Mothers and SAC members will be receiving their ID badges in the near future. The children will wear their tags only inside the school building and will be instructed to leave them in their desks or cubbies when the school day is finished. Children will NOT be wearing their nametags in gym class or when they are away from the school during the day (for example, on fieldtrips). Staff, Lunch Mothers and SAC members will be expected to wear their ID tags when they are inside the school building. ALL other visitors, including parents, MUST stop at the school office to sign in and wear a badge for every visit, including morning drop-offs and afternoon pick-ups. 

Development – An announcement asking Alumni to register on-line at our website or complete a registration form was in the bulletin for the weekends of October 26 and November 2. The registration f orms are available in the vestibules of the Church. Up-coming McQuaid and Mercy alumni news will include an alumni registration drive announcement . M. Malone would like to include a registration form in a future Wednesday envelope as there are a good number of alumni parents. The office has several forms which were mailed into the school. The website had received approximately 30 hits from alumni. D. Overfield will look into revising the format of gathering the alumni information off the website to make the transfer into a database more efficient. 

Enrichment – The Chess Club is the only extracurricular activity operating outside of the Creative Theme activities. Any parents who wish to volunteer to start a new activity should contact Sheila Accorso. 

Fundraising – The wreath and poinsettia sale is currently underway. 

The date for the Hockey Game/Silent Auction fundraiser has been set for February 8. Donations for the Silent Auction are currently being gathered. Donation forms are available in the office. The committee would like all donations in place by December 1. 

Public Relations – D. Dedee Doyle would like to be proactive in advertising events such as the Hockey Game/Silent Auction. Several other activities, such as the various Thanksgiving Feasts and the Handprint American Flag made by the Jr. Girl Scouts will be offered to media outside St. Joseph’s for possible coverage. The next issue of St. Joe’s Express will be used to preview coming events. 

There was discussion around why St. Joseph’s is not included in the Catholic Courier’s Back to School and Catholic Schools Week issues along with the other schools as the cost to be included is a minor amount. This was a decision made by the previous administration. L. King proposed that SAC provide funding to include St. Joseph in the listing of schools in the Catholic Courier’s Back to School and Catholic Schools Week issues; seconded by H. Wager; unanimous approval. 

Special Events – H. Wager stated that she has received only positive feedback on this year’s Sock Hop. Thank you notes have been sent to all those who helped with the Sock Hop. The Ice Cream Social is the next event. 

Technology – The first Technology Committee meeting was held on October 16. Significant progress in configuring the network server was accomplished with help from Jim Bevacqua (DOR IT support). The network version of the McGraw-Hill Reading Series for grades K-3 has been installed, but not yet completely set-up. All computers in the school will be configured with power on passwords to prevent unauthorized access during non-school hours. The set-up of teacher e-mail accounts, accessible from both school and home, is a priority. 

A Technology Night is tentatively planned for the January/February timeframe. 

Two new LaserJet printers are being donated to the school through the IBM matching g rants program. 

Welcoming – No activity. 

Other Topics/Discussion

Filling Open SAC positions – The Vice Chairman, Enrichment Assistant Chair, Development Assistant Chair and the PreK-3 Member-at-Large position are still open. Names of interested candidates should be forwarded to Sr. Christina Marie or G. Hebert. 

Health & Safety Committee – A parent requested that SAC consider establishing a Health & Safety Committee. Discussion ensued around what the responsibilities of this committee would be; what situations were within the SAC’s power to effect change; and whether addressing items on an ad hoc basis was sufficient. After much discussion, D. Dedee Doyle motioned that SAC not create a standing committee, but rather deal with health & safety issues on an ad hoc basis; seconded by K. Lechner; unanimous approval. 

As a result of the discussion surrounding the establishment of a Health & Safety Committee, the subject of adequate CPR and First Aid Training among the faculty and staff arose. D. Bellavia is a licensed CPR instructor and has offered her services to train the staff if someone could get the equipment necessary for the training. 

Renovations of Parish Facilities – Discussion centered on the four schematic designs presented to Parishioners after Masses last weekend. Concern was expressed regarding the placement of the playground in the courtyard between the school building and the Parish Resource Center. Playground noise would be disruptive to the children in the classrooms and the ground level windows pose a safety hazard should a running child trip and fall through them. 

Concerns of any nature regarding the proposed renovations need to be communicated to the Parish and the appropriate committees as soon as possible as the Parish is moving forward rather quickly. 

Security Update:

Meetings regarding the Rectory Rental – The attendance at the two meetings regarding the rental of the Rectory building to Heritage Christian Home (HCH) was much lower than expected . Concerns were raised regarding HCH’s screening of staff, the non-screening of program volunteers, access to the school building by HCH employees and volunteers, the use of the blacktop area by schoolchildren as a playground during wet weather, and the running of a business in such close proximity to a grammar school. 


• Sr. Christina explained that the school was the first choice of an organization to use the Rectory facility, however when the Parish approached the Diocese last year, it was not feasible. As Sr. Elizabeth Meegan has recently stated her commitment to “growing the schools”, SAC discussed the possibility of re-approaching the D iocese in this regard. 
  
  

Renovation of Parish Facilities – As related to security, the introduction of construction workers, etc. to the school campus was discussed. 

Security Survey – In an effort to better understand parental concerns related to school security, SAC will create a survey to be distributed to parents. Results will be summarized and communicated to the appropriate people. Given the current fast-changing environment at St. Joseph’s, the turn around time on this survey will be very short. 

Proposed Tuition Model – At meetings last week (Nov. 6 and 7) the Diocese proposed a new tuition model. This model would eliminate the Parish sponsored designation (and related discount) and the multi-child discount in favor of a Means-based Tuition Model. Families could submit a financial aid request form (the exact nature of which is still to be determined, however it has been equated to those used to request tuition aid for college) to an independent company engaged by the diocese to determine whether receipt of financial aid was justified. 

A follow-up meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 14 at Bishop Kearney High School. 

Discussion surrounded whether all school parents knew this information. The use of a phone tree will be employed to inform school parents of the meeting on Thursday night and to encourage their attendance. 

Early Dismissal Procedures – M. Lorenzo asked for clarification about procedures for early dismissal in the event of an emergency closing. Sr. Christina indicated that these procedures are in place and will be addressed in a Wednesday newsletter. 

Adjournment – K. Keenahan moved for adjournment; K. Lechner seconded. All approved.