Parish Pastoral and Finance Council Minutes
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
In Attendance:
From Parish Council:
Father Showreddy, Brendan Slovaceck, Amberlie O’Toole, Ja-Deen Johnson, Theresa Roberts, Maria Hartman, Ryan Schnarr, Mark Rund, Steve Looney
From Finance Council:
Donna Heinekamp, Rachel Miller, Joe Coffman, Steve Looney
The meeting was called to order at 6:30.
Father Showreddy opened the meeting with scripture and prayer.
Pastor’s Report:
Father Showreddy shared that recently the priests offered a reconciliation service for the school students and one for the parish. We are looking forward to Holy Week and Easter.
The Finance Council approved the March minutes.
Parish Council held off on approving minutes due to not meeting the quorum.
Principal Report:
Ryan shared highlights. Students in grades 2, 3, and 4 completed IREAD. 15 students had not passed previously in grades 3 & 4. Three did not pass this time around. In 2nd grade out of 39 students, 26 passed.
I-Learn began today.
6-8th graders have their school play (Annie) next week.
All teaching positions for next year have been filled. We are bringing on 5 new staff members. Some current staff have been moved around.
The State Department of Education is making new requirements so for now, the administration is putting the brakes on curriculum.
Next week on Wednesday, we will be celebrating the canonization of Carlos Acutis. Sock Religious provided some swag items. Deacon Liam Hosty will be attending school Mass. The school will participate in adoration.
There is a teacher retirement party for Karen Miller, Terri Collins, and Julie Hosty on Sunday, May 18th from 12-2 pm.
With recent rains, there was flooding in some classrooms, but we were able to hold school.
Walls were inspected and everything looked okay. Affected classrooms were the Kindergarten rooms, computer lab, 2 upstairs classrooms, and Kidwell’s classroom.
Financial and Operational Report:
Steve shared that Tithing continues to be low, significantly in March but we are still favorable to budget. The fiscal year will finish at the end of June.
Ja-Deen shared that a sizeable donation came in today.
295 Covenant Renewals have been received.
Last year we had 540 submissions.
We are around $999,000 in pledges and last year was $1.3 - $1.4 million.
Ja-Deen is trying to get the budget done by the next finance meeting as the budget is due in May.
The school should still be able to do the increase in teacher salaries. Archdiocese recommended a 2-3% increase for all staff.
With the recent campus security incident, it was noted that no threat was made to anyone. Based on the conversation of a parishioner police officer with the archdiocese, it was thought as a precaution that police should be on campus for at least two weeks.
It should be noted that a lot of time and money have been put into safety. With a security grant received by St. Barnabas, bollards, window film, and new gates on the courtyard and back parking lot have been added. Drills are done regularly with the school students.
Rachel mentioned a follow-up message might be nice and highlight safety measure improvements. Ryan mentioned asking Archdiocese Communications for advice on the best way to communicate an update on the matter.
Ongoing Business:
Faith Formation: Ministry update
They have recently been organizing the Lenten Parish Mission and First Communion. The children and parents had an afternoon of reflection in preparation for First Communion. 40 children will be receiving first communion. For OCIA 9 will come into the church at the Easter vigil.
Youth Minister, Tina Schnarr, is coordinating a core team of adults, the High Schoolers had a retreat near Cincinnati. NCYC advertising will be hit hard in the fall.
We are building new core teams for men’s and women’s retreats. Looking at ways to improve communications.
Website launch - Amberlie spoke about the new parish website that was just launched this week. We worked with the company Solutio to set it up and design it. They have done websites for numerous area parishes. They are working on soliciting advertisers (approved businesses in the community). The ads will fund the project. (Much like how the bulletin is funded) Amberlie will add content and maintain the site.
Finance and Parish Councils will meet again on May 27th at 6:30 PM
Father Showreddy closed the meeting leading us in prayer.
