Parish Pastoral Council Minutes - October 23rd 2023

Parish Pastoral Council Minutes
Monday, October 23, 2023

In Attendance: Fr. Guy Roberts, Deacon Tom Hosty, Patty Cain, Steve Looney, Ben Laker, Jeremy Schoettle, Ryan Schnarr, Mark Rund, Amberlie O’Toole 

Father Guy opened the meeting with a prayer and shared the Gospel with a reflection.
September meeting minutes approved with one correction: the Chin population just celebrated 7 years at St. Barnabas, not 5

Pastor’s Report:  Father Guy gave a lay talk about the United Catholic Appeal during Masses this past weekend. Some members of parish staff will have a Zoom call with another Parish on Friday. Our staff will be gathering ideas from them since they are a good example of promoting parish engagement. Father has decided to begin using the term Engagement instead of Evangelization for the new committee being started.  Engagement will also pertain to Stewardship. Father will be doing Mass at Fatima on Friday for the 8th grade retreat. Next week we will have All Saints’ Day School Mass on Wednesday. All Souls Day Mass will be at 6:30 pm on Thursday.  Small Communities Church Dinner is coming up and Father Guy will be the speaker. 

Principal’s Report: Ryan Schnarr shared that 8th grade has their retreat on Friday and the Roncalli placement test on November 4th. They have also been shadowing at Roncalli. Roncalli is having an open house Thursday November 2nd. It’s open to all ages of kids. Parent/Teacher conferences were successful. The number of translated conferences has been decreasing over the years. Only 1 translator was needed this year.  The Veterans day letter campaign is going on.  The school is asking for names of veterans for the kids to send letters to.

Financial and Operational Report:
• We are in good shape overall. $5000 better than budget on tithing and about $2000 better than last year. 
• 369 out of 449 students are receiving the choice scholarship compared to 311 last year. 
• The First quarter report will be published in the bulletin soon.
• Parishioners will be asked to turn in UCA Intent cards at the altar during Masses the weekend of November 4th and 5th. 
• In regards to the new funding model, overall the feedback received by Finance council has been positive.
• The parish HVAC will be delivered December 8th.
• The football field is being re-graded and re-seeded mid-November. Communication is coming out soon to make the parishioners aware.

Other Business:  Patty believed close to 800 people attended Larry Williams’ visitation. Many compliments were received about how it was done. The Mass had about 500 in attendance. Patty shared how this could be considered another approach to Engagement. It brought old time parishioners back into the church and welcomed new people in our doors. 

Feedback new funding model:  Feedback has been mostly supportive. Most have said it made sense.  Some just wanted clarification. Only 2 parishioners have expressed strong concerns, but one got on board after it was explained with them more in depth. 60-70 students are not eligible for Choice but some of those families have said they get the reasons why the school is making the changes.  Some have asked that the multi-student discount be reinstated.

The next Parish Council meeting will be Monday, November 27th at 7 pm.