January 4, 2017 4:00 pm

  • 1January 4, 2017 4:00 pm

    Place: St. Patrick’s Co-Cathedral Conference Room

    Present:
    Ken Frazier, Chair
    Karen Fagg, Vice Chair
    Carlos Arce
    Leo O’Brien
    Bucky Heringer
    Mary Susan Fishbaugh
    Ashley Harada
    Ryan Huppert
    Brian McGovern
    J. Miller
    Bob Cerkovnik
    Shaun Harrington, BCS President
    Superintendent Tim Uhl
    Jan Haider, Foundation President
    Kaitlin Overton, Finance Officer
    Kathy Harris, Marketing Dir./Enrollment Mgr.
    Shel Hanser, Principal BCCHS
    Deb Hayes, Principal SFP

    Opening Prayer: Karen

    Approval of Minutes:
    Vote: Mary Susan made a motion to approve the minutes from December 7, 2016.  Bob seconded the motion.  Motion carried unanimously.

    Foundation Update:

    • Year-end Appeal: The Foundation office was very busy during the Christmas break.  There will be no totals from Year End Appeal until the next Board meeting.  Among the donations were twenty-one deferred gift annuities, which is comparable to last year, and several people paid off their Capital Campaign pledges.  A generous donor started a scholarship fund which may have more than one recipient.  The details will be worked out in the next couple of months.
    • Jessica Heldt was featured in the December “Look Who’s Happening”.  The article was viewed by 4425 people on Facebook with 650 additional people reacting to the article by liking, sharing, or clicking through the link.
    • Capital Campaign Update: BCS was not invited to apply for the ALSAM grant for February but hopeful to be placed on the June agenda.  Bucky invited the director of ALSAM to tour St. Francis school in February.
    • The final draft for the Diocesan loan is now at the Diocesan Counsel for final review and will proceed to the Capital Asset Support Corporation Board as soon as possible.
    • Karen Petermann and Jan Haider will meet with Father Jose to discuss the possibility of taking some of the iconography from Holy Rosary to the new building.  The Chuck Heringer family donated 2 stained glass windows to the St. Patrick’s Parish for the adoration chapel many years ago.  The windows have been in storage and will become part of St. Francis School.
    •  Lia Keller and Kris Koessl of A & E Architects toured the Intermediate building.  Kris and Ric Heldt are creating a proposal for bringing the building up to code for a daycare/preschool. Kris is also reviewing change orders and costs associated with getting the new building up to code for pre-school and daycare.

    Business Committee Report:

    STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION – MONTH ENDED 11/30/2016

    Cash on hand is about $2.2M which is down about $199,000 from last year. Current assets are about $3.7M which is up about $23,000 from last year. Tuition, parish and bus receivables reduced in the current month by payments received. A/R BACET consists of November credit card expenses. Other A/R is mainly due from Scrip for last year’s profit due from BCCHS Activities Fund.

    Current liabilities are about $3.4M which is up $168,000 from last year. Accounts payable reduced in the current period however there are some November bills that have not been entered. Therefore this number is expected to increase. Agency funds are about $50,000 higher than the previous year.

    STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES – MONTH ENDED 11/30/2016

    Revenue before special projects is about $2.5M which is consistent with this time last year.  Tuition and registration fee revenue is about $11,000 under budget. Revenue before special projects is under budget by about $45,000.

    Expenses before special projects are about $2.6M which is up about $42,000 from last year.  Admin/education supplies expense and technology expense are over budget. Plant operations/supplies expense and transportation are under budget.

    Net loss year-to-date is $500k which is down about $390k from last year. The difference between current year and prior year net loss is explained by the BCCHS Boiler expense and the IPad project

    CASH FLOWS – MONTH ENDED 11/30/2016

    Tuition revenue, registration fees and interest income received for the year is approximately $2.9 million. Cash paid for Dorothy Porter, Mayfair Special project and Gergen Trust for the year is nearly $370,000.

    The cash flow from iPad repairs and the rental property for the year is currently negative.

    Comments about Meeting: The main topic with the Business Committee was tuition and the projection of enrollment.  The plan is to base tuition on a very conservative enrollment count.

    There is no news about the audit.  Kaitlin will contact the auditors and she hopes to have an answer by the next Business Committee meeting.

    Marketing Enrollment Report

    • Leadership Billings: Leadership Billings was at BCCHS today.   Some of the people were experiencing their first view of Catholic schools.  Levi Osborne was able to show Leadership Billings how the Promethean works for class instruction with the students on the iPads and how the instructor could control the iPads while teaching
    • Awards Ceremony: The Awards Ceremony will be February 3rd.  There is a new category this year for support staff.  The Legacy Award will be presented so it would be nice to have as many of the Board members there as possible.
    • Alumni Basketball Tournament: The BCS Alumni Basketball Tournament had 10 teams.  The teams are charged $100 and the expenses include players’ T-shirts, referees $25 per game, and trophies.  This is a break even tournament just to keep the alumni active in BCS, there are 30 to 50 spectators, and some of the families that rarely see each other are able to sit together and visit.
    • Tuition: There will be some tuition schedule changes this year.  The current families can start to register on January 25th and all others will start on February 1st.  The tuition amounts will be reviewed by the Board and voted on by email.  The changes will start to be communicated to families right away.
    • Exit Survey: The exit survey was distributed to the Board.  Superintendent Uhl recommended that a task force of 2 or 3 people review the surveys.  Carlos, Brian, and A.J. will assist Shaun with the survey analysis.

    According to Kathy BCS is losing students because many parents are both working and need Pre-K and daycare.  Some parents did not send their student to Pre-K because they could not have them in daycare the rest of the day.  The available time for Pre-K has not changed in 20 years.  Parents with students in Pre-K should be guaranteed daycare.  Lack of space and employees have been an issue in the past.  There will be more space in the new building and the daycare worker pay has been increased.

    President’s Report

    • ACE Visit: There was an ACE delegation visiting our system on December 9th.   The group toured the new school, then visited SFU.  The students were awesome.  Some of them recognized Mr. Gianforte and shook his hand when he was introduced.    The high school did a musical presentation and Noah Smelzer spoke on what it meant to him to have an ACE scholarship to attend BCS.
    • Director of Technology: Bruce St. Clair was hired to be the new Director of Technology.  He will start on January 9th.
    • School Calendar for 2017-2018: The 17-18 school calendar was presented to the Board with a notation that there will no longer be 2:00 pm early out days.
    • Vote: Carlos made a motion to approve the calendar with discretion allowing for any changes that may need to be made at a later time.  Mary Susan seconded the motion.  Motion carried unanimously.

    Pre-K and Daycare: SFI was looked at to see what it would take to bring it up to code for a preschool/daycare facility and the cost of the upgrade.

    Parent/Stakeholder Informational Meetings: Meetings will be held concerning the new school.  The schedules are as follows:

    • Francis Primary – January 10th – 6:00 PM – In the Church
    • Francis Upper – January 11th – 6:00 PM – Classroom
    • Francis Intermediate – January 12th – 6:00 PM – In the Gym

    Furniture Meeting with Integrus: There will be another meeting with Integrus on January 24th to determine what furniture can be moved to St. Francis school and what will need to be purchased.

    Met with the Kiwanis: Shaun has spoken to the Heights Optimists and Kawani’s and will speak at the Downtown Exchange on January 17th.

    SFP Sale: Head Start is planning to buy St. Francis Primary.  The funds from the sale will go toward building the new church.  BCS invested $150,000 in the little house.  Shaun will talk to Mary Queen of Peace about the BCS investment in their property.

    The playground equipment that is on SFP property will not withstand being moved.  There will need to be new playground equipment put at SFI for the preschool and daycare students.

    New Business:

    • Board Meeting Change: Discovery Night is February 1st and that is also a School Board meeting night.  The Board will meet at BCCHS and then attend Discovery Night if they wish
    • Staff Christmas Party: Board members were thanked for their contributions to the staff Christmas party.  The party was well attended with approximately 100 guests.  There were several door prizes and everyone had a good time.
    • Boiler at BCCHS: There are a couple of small issues with the new boiler that will be easily remedied.  It works very well and is very efficient.  It is unknown how much savings there is in fuel expenses due to the newness of the system and the exceptionally cold weather.

    Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 5:43 pm.

    Respectfully Submitted:  Shaun Harrington, Billings Catholic Schools President