Parish Pastoral Council Minutes - September 25th 2023

Parish Pastoral Council Minutes
Monday, September 25, 2023

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

Father Guy opened the meeting with a prayer and shared a reading with reflection.  June meeting minutes now approved since quorum was not met at the August meeting. August meeting minutes also approved.

Pastor’s Report: Father Guy’s Final Carmelite session is this Thursday.  The Blessing of Pets is Saturday.  Sunday Faith Formation started last weekend. Holy Hour First Thursday of the Month is next week. Candlelight Rosary will be every week on Thursdays in October.  On October 8th, Archbishop Thompson will hold a 1:00 pm Mass with the Chin Community.

Principal’s Report:  St. Michael School Mass will be on Thursday with blessing for the First Responders. Parent-teacher conferences will be next week.  Pre-K had a visit from the accreditation group.  Kona Ice was treated to all of the students today by PTO.

Financial and Operational Report:  Everything looks good. Through August we are doing better than budget on tithing. 369 students are receiving the Choice scholarship compared to 311 last year.  The annual financial report was filed with the Archdiocese.  The United Catholic Appeal is coming up November 4th and 5th.  A new funding model for the school has been proposed. Church HVAC delivery has been pushed back by the manufacturer to December 8th.  A Safety grant in the amount of $148,000 has been awarded to our parish and school.  These funds are expected to be expended in 2024.

Pastoral Vision Update:  Father Guy is forming an Engagement Committee. Father and other staff members are creating the structure and format. This won’t be under a specific commission but rather it will measure engagement, how we implement the pastoral plan and aid stewardship.

Ongoing Business:  Matt Sierp shared that the Faith Formation Commission has set-up bylaws with terms for members.

New Business:  Steve Looney is the St. Barnabas basketball coordinator. He discussed gym use for non-parish based youth athletics, as this pertains to Holy Name’s Basketball League. St. Barnabas 2nd and 3rd graders participate in this league and have in the past requested use of the gym for practices. Tom Hosty had checked with the Archdiocese and they said in terms of Insurance liability it would be allowable for our own school/parish kids to use the school gym. Steve said CYO teams would get first priority for gym use.  The parish council approved letting the St. Barnabas teams for the Holy Name League use the gym when it’s available.

School Commission and Finance Council Proposal – The current model leaves approximately $1.3 million on the table by not fully using the Choice scholarship dollars. The proposal is to implement the new fee over 3 years, or perhaps 4 if needed. The participating parishioner tuition fee would increase gradually from its current amount of $1600 to $6400.  We want to be sensitive to history and the way we look at stewardship. Parishioner support is still needed, asking for 10 percent of funding to come from the parish. Families would still be asked to tithe and file an intent card. Excess dollars will help free up money from tithing to help outreach, youth ministry, technology, music, and facilities. The 69 families will be notified first that don’t take or qualify for the Choice scholarship. We will offer financial assistance should some need it during the transition.  We will revisit numbers on an annual basis and will reserve the right to tweak numbers if needed.  School Commission and Finance Council have approved the plan.  The Parish Council voted unanimously to support this new increase. Proposal moves to Father Guy for approval. Our current school budget is $2.5 million.  The Archdiocese gives us a discount for being a stewardship school so they may increase our fee.

Other Business:  Patty updated on funerals coming up.  Connie Merkel shared that Outreach will have a different Respect Life focus for each week of October for Respect Life Month.
Patty shared that October 15th is believed to be the 7 year anniversary of the Chin Community. They will be present at 11:00 Mass and will be hosting Coffee and donuts after Mass.

The next Parish Council meeting will be Monday October 23rd at 7 pm.