October 18, 2017

Time: 4:00 pm
Place: BCS/BCSF Conference Room

Present: Karen Fagg, Chair
Bucky Heringer, Vice Chair
Ken Frazier, Past Chair
Fr. Steve Zabrocki, Parish Representative
Leo O’Brien
Mary Susan Fishbaugh
Ashley Harada
Brian McGovern
A.J. Miller
Alex McCready
Stella Ziegler
Nate Haney
Shaun Harrington, BCS President
Superintendent Timothy Uhl
Bruce St. Clair, Director of Technology
Danielle Watson, Education Director
Kathy Harris, Marketing Director
Shel Hanser, Principal BCCHS

Opening Prayer: Alex

Approval of Minutes: Brian made a motion to approve the October 4, 2017 School Board minutes. Tim seconded the motion. Motion carried unanimously.

Foundation Update: No report was given.

Business Committee Report: Statement of Financial Position: The cash position from last year is down approximately $200,000. That number coincides with some things that were anticipated. There were some things in the last few months that mitigated the BCS cash position. The receivables increased $83,000. The Business Committee is making sure the receivables are collected and they are not writing off as many things. More debts are being collected than in the past.

August was a good month and hopefully BCS could do some things to mitigate the cash flow long term. It is critical that we continue to operate like in July. Prepaid expenses decreased from last year and that is just an annual adjustment made on the financial statement to write off licenses, software, and similar items. The remaining balance of $12,000 is a license fee.

Annually the schools pay a lot of licensing fees. The iPad repair line item is collection for repairing damage to iPads.

The accounts payable is higher than last year due to the cost of the new lockers at Central. There is approximately $80,000 in payables related to the lockers. Deferred revenue is tuition set at the first of the year and 1/12th of the amount is recognized every month.

Statement of Activities: $451,000 is recognized in revenue for tuition in July. That is the way to recognize revenue and tuition support. The preschool and daycare revenues were not recognized at the committee meeting. This will be discussed later in this meeting. The preschool and daycare revenue are up from last year and last year was up from the previous year.

Other special projects line item is the sale of old lockers and scrap metal at Central and that came to $4,074. Revenues over expenses is $56,266 which is the final wages of teachers not returning. Personnel expense is down as compared to the prior year because more staff left the school system this summer and their contracts were paid out on June 15, 2017.Technology expenses and Administration and Educational Supplies expenses include the amortization of numerous prepaid items.

Parish assessment is billed at the first of the year but recognized over 12 months.

Cash flows will be presented at the next meeting.

Bruce is going through what hardware and software is necessary in the IT department. There will be a savings of about $50,000 a year due to the unnecessary things that were canceled.

There will be a meeting November 6, 2017 with the Foundation executive committee to review the budget before presenting it to the Business Committee and then it will be brought to the full School Board.

Marketing Enrollment Report: Turn the Table: Turn the Table went well. There were alumni in attendance as well as some who were there for the first time.

The WCEA review will be the first week of December 3rd through the 7th. On the 3rd, there will be a social hour and would be nice to have the Board represented.

A survey was sent to the Board and Kathy is requesting they redo it by Sunday.

A video was presented on the International Exchange Student 2-week visit by the Chinese students. The visit was followed by a conference call from EEG. The international students were very excited about the snow. The students loved their stay and 2 or 3 stated that they would like to come here to study. The sponsors said BCS received the best feedback they have ever had after a visit.

There is an app used in China to post reviews of schools which influences student desire to come to that school which will be monitored by EEG. EEG will also use the video and pictures for advertising.

Enrollment: Some new families enrolled in the last couple of weeks. Exit and start-up surveys will be sent out.
Jog-a-Thon: The jog-a-thon awards will be presented tomorrow at St. Francis in the gym.

Committee Preferences: Karen has received emails from some of the Board members concerning committee assignments. The urgent need is the 2 (two) task forces. Bucky is chairing the Coaches Benefits Task Force. Bucky is reviewing the information Kaitlin gave him then he will call the task force members and set up a meeting. The Tuition Task Force will be made up of the Business Committee, John, and Ashley. Leo will chair the task force.

President’s Report: Early Childhood Center (SFI): The final Inspection by the city and fire department is tomorrow at 9:15. Hopefully everything goes well. There was a gas leak there Monday morning. The students were evacuated until MDU completed their work. A pilot light went out in one of the ovens in the kitchen. That oven can no longer be used.

Strategic Planning with the Foundation: We will be having a combined Executive Board meeting on November 6th at 8:30AM. One of the agenda items at that meeting will be a presentation by Rita Turley of the “Pre-Strategic Planning” information that Rita would like to do before the planning session. Between that and our budget, the school board executive committee wanted to have the combined meeting before the Strategic Planning session.

Montana Catholic Schools Conference: The whole staff will be in Butte for the Catholic Teacher’s Conference. Superintendent Uhl did a great job of planning the conference. There will be a half day of school Thursday then the teachers will drive to Butte that afternoon. The Butte Chamber of Commerce secured rooms for the Catholic teachers across the state. There will be a social gathering that evening. The next morning will start with Mass and the work sessions will end about 2:30 pm. The event will include awards for teachers that have taught in Catholic schools for 25 years or more. There are 8 staff members, with that distinction, from BCS. Pictures will be in the Harvest.

Mayfair Special Project: – The following are Mayfair Special Project suggestions from the administration in order of priority:
• Elevator at Central
• Gym Floor at Central
• Reading/Language Materials for K-8
• Bleachers at Colton Field
Information is still being gathered on the cost of each project before a final decision is made about the special project for this year.

New Business: Daycare employees and limits: The breakdown ratio of staff and students in the daycare is:
• 3-year-old students 8 students 1 adult
• 4 & 5-year-old students 10 students 1 adult
• At least 1 staff member must be a “primary” which means 2 or more years of experience in daycare or is a certified teacher. We employ 5 primaries, one of them is part-time.
• To cover breaks 23 students 3 adults in one room for naps
o We also have 3 part-time employees that come in to help during heavy times
(lunch, before and after school)
• Heaviest load during the day is 52 students
• Wednesday is the busiest day

Sue would like to have one more full-time primary employee. If someone calls in sick, the facility is out of compliance. Because of the new building, capacity at the daycare is now 71, including adults. The previous capacity for the daycare was 39. Currently the staff is putting in a lot of overtime.

Shaun had Jay Zygmond look at the daycare camera and button system for the doors. Right now, someone must be there to let people in. It would cost $604 to put in a key code and monitor. In the long run, it would free an employee from door monitoring.

Families that owe for last year’s daycare and are on ACE this year had a small amount built in to cover the daycare bill. We do not have information on the normal expenses and income for the preschool daycare since moving into this building. BCS is not charged rent on the building by St. Pius.

We need to look at the preschool and daycare as a feeder to the next 12 years at BCS and can’t subsidize people that do not plan to be in our school system. The aftercare requires busing this year where next year it will be at St. Francis and the busing of those students will be eliminated.

New Business:
Task force: Shaun requested a task force to review the possibility of having a full day preschool. The Early Childhood Education Task Force will be comprised of Shaun, Leo, Alex, Ashley, Kathy and possibly Craig Barthel.

Executive Session: There was an executive session to discuss a student issue.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 5:00 pm to an executive session.
Respectfully Submitted: Shaun Harrington, Billings Catholic Schools President