Parish Pastoral and Finance Council Minutes
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
In Attendance:
From Parish Council:
Father Showreddy, Amberlie O’Toole, Ja-Deen Johnson, Theresa Roberts, Maria Hartman, Ryan Schnarr, Steve Looney
From Finance Council:
Donna Heinekamp, Joe Coffman, Steve Looney
The meeting was called to order.
Father Showreddy opened the meeting with scripture and prayer.
Pastor’s Report:
Father Showreddy shared that on Holy Thursday we had a presentation of oils. There was Adoration after Holy Thursday Mass. Father thinks we should advertise this more to increase participation. There were many good things said about the Easter liturgical services.. For Easter Masses, it was brought up to designate more handicap spots so people don’t try to make their own. We discussed having the same Mass times for the church and the gym since it didn’t seem to alleviate parking congestion.
Principal Report:
Ryan shared that there are 47 8th grade graduates.
2 are heading to a seminary high school in Wisconsin
5 are heading to Perry (4 of those are non-Catholic students)
40 are going to Roncalli
Bawi received the Presidential Scholarship
St. Barnabas had 2 of the top 10 placement winners - Lucas Stephon and Sam Uk
Most likely we will have 58 students for next year in 8th grade. 2 potential students have visited from Franklin Township.
Clint Weiss held a robotics showcase May 19th. He is committed to continuing robotics for next year.
3 teachers retired this year and there was an open house for them.
All teaching vacancies have been filled
New 7th and 8th grade teachers are Melissa Sylvester and Andrew Miller.
5th and 6th grade has a new dedicated science teacher - Mrs. Christine Woodruff. Abigail Davey will be the new math teacher.
2 teachers that just graduated are former Warriors - Peyton Jones and Emma Goss - have been hired.
A Vice Principal has been hired - Ronda Schwartz. She has 15 years of admin. experience.
The Office of Catholic Schools has recommended having special education in-house instead of through Perry because of not having some of our kids qualify. We have had hurdles with Perry Township. We have kids that should be qualifying. Only 1 student in the last 4 years has qualified. Non-public schools were more secondary so it’s been challenging to use our benefits to what we saw was best. We will continue to have Speech/OT. We will receive direct funding federally (CSEP- Choice special education plan) to hire our own people for special education. Erin Skartvedt and Amy DeArmond will work in this area. Erin is finishing her masters in special education. Amy DeArmond has a special education degree. We are the third or fourth school to make this transition. Now that IN will be universal choice, more non-public schools may start looking at this.
IREAD - All 3rd grade students and 1 4th grade student that were on the bubble all passed.
We do have a quorum so a Motion was made to approve March parish council minutes. The motion was seconded. Minutes were approved. April minutes were approved as well
Financial and Operational Report:
Ja-Deen shared that Father Showreddy will be with us for the next 6 years and is now a US citizen.
Tithing for April was below budget by about $41K. We did receive $182K. YTD we are about $118K below budget and $154K below last year at this time. Salary expenses were way down though - We did have several months without a YM coordinator and we were down one teacher.
A large bequest just came in the previous week with no restrictions on these funds.
New vestments are needed for deacons so this might be used for those.
Father would like a larger nativity scene for inside the church. A family may donate one.
Ja-Deen shared the proposed budget. Donna questioned the administration difference. Ja-deen will go back and check.
Ja-Deen felt it important to decrease our expected tithing amount.
We have received 400 Covenant Renewals as of today. We had 587 last year. If you average it out, we have a higher $ amount even with the fewer quantity.
Warrior grants are $2700 for the year. 23 students have requested a grant. $62,000 in these scholarships from the school. That is an increase of $27K. With the new tuition model, salaries have increased with an average 9% raise for teachers and a total payout of $110K. (Their raise depended on their degree/experience.) Those that have their teaching license get a higher percentage. The goal is to be at 90 % of the local township school teachers’ salary.
It’s important to continue the messaging of being a good steward so that we are able to support those salaries if choice scholarships go away.
School enrollment is currently down. 470 this year. 449 for next school year. Pre-K is much smaller with 17 enrolled. We had 30 students this year. Kindergarten will be a smaller size.
Ongoing Business:
Faith Formation: Ministry update
No updates - unable to meet this month.
Outreach - Connie shared that Sherri Meyer, a missionary from the archdiocese, Stationed in Uganda, will be here for a visit. Our parish has supported her for 15+ years in a wide variety of ways. There will be a pitch-in dinner and- this year Connie is inviting parish council members to come. The dinner will be Wednesday, June 18th at 6:30 pm in the cafeteria.
Repairs - waiting on a proposal to fix the roof issues. The aesthetic of the ceiling in McNally hall was mentioned.
Security issue - nothing to report. Bands have been taken off doors as a precaution. Individuals should text someone at a meeting to be let into the building. Meetings should have a contact person.
Parish Council will meet again on June 24th at 6:30 PM.
Father Showreddy closed the meeting leading us in prayer.
