Parish Pastoral Council Minutes - August 21st 2023

Parish Pastoral Council Minutes
Monday, August 21st, 2023

In Attendance: Fr. Guy Roberts, Deacon Tom Hosty, Matt Sierp, Joe Sheehan, Steve Looney, Ben Laker, Connie Merkel, Amberlie O’Toole, Ryan Schnarr 

Father opened the meeting with prayer and shared the Gospel and a reflection.

Since quorum wasn’t met at the May meeting, approval for the April minutes was motioned and approved.  Minutes from the May meeting were approved. 


Pastor’s Report - Father Guy:
1) PARISH ENGAGEMENT -  Father Guy shared an update on the Stewardship committee. Claire Jackson has had to step away from the committee.  He suggested the possibility of changing Stewardship to Parish Engagement and shared a page of notes he had written. Father Guy matched our four pillars with the four dimensions of member engagement from Gallup and how they relate to the New Evangelization.

PILLARS       NEW EVANGELIZATION

FORMATION  —  (WHAT DO I GET?)    —       ENCOUNTER JESUS

SERVICE        —  (WHAT DO I GIVE?)   —      PERSONAL CALL (SAYING YES)

HOSPITALITY —  (DO I BELONG?)       —      ONGOING TRANSFORMATION

PRAYER         —  (HOW DO WE GROW?) — SENT BY JESUS / MISSION

His notes also listed how/where we engage with each other as a parish. 
Father Guy shared a parish from MN that is a great example of explaining member engagement on their website:  https://stbeagan.org/parishioner-engagement

An Engagement Committee here at St. Barnabas would Invite (not just new members but all to participate), Assist (individuals and ministries with finding each other) and Inform.

2)  SCHOOL TUITION -  Right now school fees are $1600 for participating parishioners. We revisited the subject of expanding this to utilize the full voucher amount. $4500 is kept by the government per student.  It was decided that finance council would put simple modeling, facts and figures together to explain what this would mean to the parish.  Then   a discussion group could be formed concerning switching over.  Father Guy suggested creating a video with Principal Schnarr with questions and answers:  How this would benefit the school and the larger parish, how this is good stewardship, etc.  80 percent of school families receive voucher/scholarship.  (270 school families= 201 receive it / 69 families either aren’t eligible or don’t use it.)  Idea of a subcommittee with additional research. The deadline for making a move for next school year is January. 

Principal’s Report – Ryan Schnarr:
Ryan shared that we have 483 students enrolled.  St. Barnabas has switched over to using Powerschool as the information system. This was an Archdiocesan wide move.  The school has a 3 year partnership with Tools for success, a professional development opportunity. We have added 6 new staff members. Two of those being for music:  Miss Jackson is teaching 4th-8th grades.  Mrs. Jody Treadwell is teaching PreK – 3rd grades.
Breakfast club is new this year and starts this Thursday.  It is a meet and greet with the principal and vice principal and coffee and donuts. It’s an opportunity to share what is going on with the school and an invitation for parents to go to Mass afterwards. Grandparents Day is on September 8th. 

Financial Report – Steve Looney:
End of fiscal year report has been emailed to the group.  In summary, we are still in a good position.  $205,000 above budget. Tithing was $63,000 above expected. A Fiscal Year end report will be shared with the parish soon.

Our next meeting will be Monday September 25th at 7 pm