Parish Pastoral and Finance Council Minutes
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
In Attendance:
From Parish Council:
Father Showreddy, Brendan Slovaceck, Amberlie O’Toole, Ben Laker, Ja-Deen Johnson, Theresa Roberts, Maria Hartman, Ryan Schnarr, Mark Rund
From Finance Council:
Donna Heinekamp, Rachel Miller, Robin McCurdy, Joe Coffman
The meeting was called to order at 6:30.
Father Showreddy opened the meeting with a prayer.
Finance committee approved their February minutes
Pastors Report:
Father Showreddy is spending time with families and parishioners discussing worship and faith.He has continued to visit the sick. He went to Roncalli and heard confessions there as part of their Lenten preparation.Father has also been teaching the sacraments and doing marriage preparations.
Principal Report:
Ryan shared that Enrollment continues to roll in. He is interviewing 2 St. Barnabas Alumni for vacancies. We have a lead on a Science Teacher as well. Rachael Mees has started as the new art teacher. We also have a candidate for the Assistant Principal position. Spring Break starts Friday March 22nd.
With increased funds from choice scholarship dollars, it was noted that there was a 12% salary increase for teachers last year, whereas across the archdiocese there was only a 4% increase. We are trying to close more of the gap between public school teacher salary and ours.
We have also increased funds going to outreach from 1.5% of tithing to 3%.
Parish Council Minutes from January and February approved.
Financial and Operational Report:
Finances continue to be strong. We are watching our operations cash. We will be putting the large bequest received into the ADLF account. This will give us a more accurate picture. We will be receiving $716,000 from school choice in the next month. Tithing was above budget in February by $2,000. Better than budget is somewhat due to saving with salaries (e.g. we didn’t have an art teacher, other teaching positions)
We are assuming we weren’t awarded the Homeland Security Grant since we haven’t heard anything. The regular grant will be due in April and we will apply for that.
A new bookkeeper will be starting on March 31st. Her name is Brandi Spindler. 4-5 teachers will be needed for next school year.
New Business:
Appointing Officers
Ben Laker is willing to stay on another year.
Ben Laker agreed to stay on as chair.
Mark Rund agreed to be vice-chair.
Those were approved by the council.
Amberlie is remaining as secretary.
A representative for Finance to the parish council is still in question.
Ongoing Business:
Engagement committee proposal:
Brendan shared his proposal to create a discipleship commission (this would encompass stewardship and hospitality and take the place of the engagement committee) He included a detailed plan of how this could be executed and what the responsibilities would be.
Discussion points amongst council members included:
• Is it too overreaching into other commissions?
• Would this be more of overseeing other commissions as a sort of consulting body?
- Faith Formation has taken on a lot of these items, which is too much and out of their area of focus.
- This should be seen as a Ministry partnership - bringing ministry leaders together and synchronizing all of them into a comprehensive group.
- The group would be formed first and then those members could shape the focus of what this would look like.
• Suggested that we start with managing one part of the plan and gradually add on each part.
Brendan suggested a 6 month study group to figure out what discipleship looks like. Council members were on board with the idea.
Men’s Club:
Mark shared that Men’s Club is spending $8,000 for trees. They will be planting 18 trees.
Mader Design did the landscaping plans. A poster of the design will be displayed in the narthex for the parish to see.
The father-son breakfast is coming soon. This is a fellowship event and is not considered a fundraiser.
Men’s Club continues to sell tickets for the May Super raffle. Mark shared that the men’s club covers CYO fees in the amount of $69,000, but they also contribute to more than just sports. Please encourage people to purchase a ticket.
Faith Formation Commission:
Maria shared that the Monthly holy hour attendance quadrupled for March. The plan is to have an intention behind each one. There has been a great response for the Lenten bible study.
The Lenten Mission is April 6-8 and reconciliation on the 9th.
They are waiting on determining their vision and goals until June when Father finds out if he will be staying with our parish.
The 60th anniversary will be August 23rd at the 5 pm Mass. We will invite former pastors and have a parish picnic.
Father Showreddy closed the meeting by leading us in praying the Hail Mary.
The next Parish Council meeting will be combined again with Finance on Tuesday, April 15th at 6:30 pm in the Hope Center. (moved earlier in the month because of Easter)