August 16, 2017

Time: 4:00 pm
Place: St. Francis School

Present:
Fr. Steve Zabrocki, Parish Representative
Leo O’Brien
Bucky Heringer
Mary Susan Fishbaugh
Ryan Huppert
Brian McGovern
Brittney Souza
A.J. Miller
Bob Cerkovnik
Alex McCready
Shaun Harrington, BCS President
Jan Haider, Foundation President
Kaitlin Overton, Finance Officer
Danielle Watson, Education Director
Kathy Harris, Marketing Director
Shel Hanser, Principal BCCHS
Deb Hayes, Principal SFCS

Opening Prayer: Fr. Steve

Approval of  Minutes: Vote: Bob made a motion to approve the August 2, 2017 minutes. Alex seconded the motion. Motion carried unanimously.

Foundation Update: Golf Tournaments: The Ram Scramble will be held Friday, August 18, 2017 and the Full Moon Open will be Saturday, August 19, 2017. There are still team and sponsorship opportunities available.

Ribbon Cutting: The St. Francis Catholic School ribbon cutting rehearsal will be Tuesday at 2:00 pm and the Ribbon cutting will be Wednesday at 8:00 am.

Fortin Foundation Tour: The representatives of the Fortin Foundation, Danielle Moore and Lesly Smith, were given a tour of the St. Francis School last week. They were very impressed with the school and the Capital Campaign Team is hoping for a favorable response to the grant request.

Cash Flow concerns: Bob Cerkovnik is concerned about the loan with the diocese and what impact it will have on the schools if it becomes permanent and we need to make yearly payments. He has been working on a “worst case” scenario if we are unable to raise any more funds. He and Jan reviewed it with Kaitlin, who will be working on a different calculation. The Foundation should know in September if two grantors are going to significantly fund the project.

Fratt Building: We are nearly ready to file the complaint. Ken, Jan, Jessica, David Charles, and Jock will meet in a couple of weeks to discuss talking points for both Boards.

Business Committee Report: The July financials will be reviewed at the next Board meeting.

Tuition has a major impact on the budget. For the budget, St. Francis tuition was projected with a 5 percent increase and the high school with a 1 to 2 percent growth. Those numbers have been exceeded. There is discussion going on with ACE Scholarships concerning BCS’s ability to reassign the ACE Scholarships that were awarded but not used. In the past, the scholarships could be reused if the recipient did not attend BCS. This is a concern with the budget. An additional Kindergarten teacher had to be hired which added to the expenses but will be beneficial in the future.

Marketing Enrollment Report: Upcoming Events: August 21st – Freshman orientation at Central.
August 23rd – St. Francis ribbon cutting
August 29th – Open House – Grades 5-8
August 30th – Open House & Town Hall Meeting – Central
August 31st – Open House – Grades K-4
September 10th – Jog-A-Thon
September 15th – Homecoming
September 29th – Round Table
October 2nd – Turn the Table

Jog-a-Thon: The Jog-a-Thon will be held at St. Francis School and there will be a change in the event this year. Instead of counting laps there will be a 3K race and instead of donations per lap it will be just straight donations. The participants will not be on the street at any time and teachers will be standing along the route. The jog-a-thon logo has been updated and the event will be called Running on Faith.

Running on Faith will be September 10th, 1:00 pm at Rose Park. The BBQ and cake auction will probably continue but there may be some other changes made to JAT. A group of high school kids have been designated to be at the end of the race so the younger students don’t come in last.

Enrollment: Since August 1st there have been 27 new students enrolled. Kathy is feeling good about the Kindergarten numbers. There are 49 more students registered at St. Francis than was projected. The graduating class in 2017 was large so the high school enrollment numbers were expected to be down to around 300. Enrollment at the high school today is 321.

A lot of the increase in K-8 registration is due to the new building. Even with the large number of people registering early, there are always families that register late. Part of the time they are waiting for scholarship and tax information. Sports is a driving factor at the high school to get registered.

President’s Report: Remodeling and Smoke Detection at SFI: The remodeling, firewall, and fencing at SFI expenses are up to about $133,000. That does not include the gravel around the playground equipment. Shaun applied for the temporary certificate of occupancy and he has not heard back from the city. The hope is that the work will be completed by Friday and we will be able to move the preschool daycare to SFI this weekend. If the smoke detectors and firewalls are not in, BCS will have to have a person in the hall with a fire extinguisher.

If the move cannot be made this weekend, the director of Head Start will allow us to stay at the little house until the 28th. The good thing is that preschool does not start until the 28th of August. Construction in the daycare wing is our major concern.

Staffing: Danielle Rovig has been hired to be the 4th Kindergarten teacher because of increased enrollment.

The teacher’s hours have been defined as 7:30 am to 3:30 pm.

Moving: St. Vincent De Paul donated the use of their truck and some of the high school students assisted. There will be another move with the daycare. Dumpsters were being emptied as fast as they were filled. Shaun called the city sanitation department supervisors and told them what a great job had been done. Anything left at SFU will be moved to SFI and sold at a garage sale.

Owner Training: Administration and other staff have been participating in owner training on all systems at St. Francis such as; sprinklers, alarms, HVAC, etc. These trainings were conducted by the sub-contractor responsible for each system in the building.

St. Thomas Parking Lot: The St. Thomas parking lot will be ready by the first day of school.

Ribbon Cutting: There will be a rehearsal for ribbon cutting on Tuesday, August 22nd. Many dignitaries, and members of the Catholic community have been invited to the ribbon cutting on August 23rd at 8:00 AM. This will be a great celebration and we hope everyone can make it.

New Board Member Recruitment: Missoula/Loyola provided some paperwork for recruiting School Board members. Please submit suggestions for Board member candidates.

Commendation: Mary Susan stated that the Board owes Shaun a lot of gratitude for his work this summer and calm demeanor through this busy time.

New Business:
High School:
The high school has been cleaning, painting, planting grass, and tinting windows in preparation for the new school year. All of the lockers will not be in before school starts. The students that don’t have lockers will have to keep their things in their back packs for a couple of weeks. The rest of the lockers will have to be put in during the weekends now that school has started.

Commendation: The high school boys that aided with the moving project were cordial, very polite, and a great help.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 5:05 pm.
Respectfully Submitted: Shaun Harrington, Billings Catholic Schools President