October 19, 2016 4:00pm

  • 1October 19, 2016 4:00 pm

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

    Present:

    Ken Frazier, Chair
    Karen Fagg, Vice Chair
    Leo O’Brien
    Mary Susan Fishbaugh
    Brian McGovern
    Brittney Souza
    Shaun Harrington, BCS President
    Superintendent Timothy Uhl
    Jan Haider, Foundation President
    Kathy Harris, Marketing Director
    Shel Hanser, Principal BCCHS

    Opening Prayer: Brian

    Approval of Minutes:
    Vote: Leo made a motion to approve the minutes from October 5, 2016.  Brian seconded the motion.  Motion carried unanimously.

    Foundation Update:

    • Update on St. Francis School: Jan presented pictures of St. Francis School construction progress.  Student drop offs will all be from the right side of the vehicles.  The students will be at the back side of the school to wait for the bell so they are away from the traffic.  Students can be dropped on 2 sides of the school.  There will be some things that will be adjusted once the school is operating.
    • Capital Campaign Update: The capital campaign team continues to work on raising funds.  Furniture samples will be available at the parent/teacher conferences in early November enabling parents to see what will be used in the classrooms.  Volunteers will provide information about the displays from 5:30pm to 7:00pm.  Alumni volunteers are making calls and signing letters asking their classmates to participate in the “Furnish Our Schoolhouse” campaign.  Another 3.5 million is needed to have St. Francis School completely paid for when the school opens.
    • Annual Giving Campaign: The Annual Giving Campaign’s 1st mailing will be sent out by the end of the week and the 2nd appeal is scheduled for January.
    • Grant Applications:  The Foundation is working on 2 grant applications that are due October 28 and they submitted a letter of inquiry for a large donation this week.

    Business Committee Report:

    • Statement of Financial Position: Total cash and cash equivalents at September 30, 2016, was 2.7 million and was 2.9 million at September 30, 2015.  The current assets were 2.6 million this year and last year. The tuition, bus, and parish receivables have been reduced by the payments received. The current liabilities stand at 4.1 million and last year they were 4 million.
    • Statement of Activities: Total revenue is down $140,000 from last year. Tuition and registration fee revenue is down nearly $65,000 due to enrollment being down this year. Advertising sales revenue is lower than last year due to a timing difference. Last year sponsors were billed in September and this year they were billed in early October. The actual change from last year’s revenue number is ($46,000).

      Expenses before special projects are $18,000 higher to prior year. Personnel expenditures are higher than prior year due to wage increases for all employees and increased health care costs.  Also, technology costs are higher than prior year. Marketing expenditures, paper and office supplies and plant operations are lower than prior year.

    • Cash Flow: Tuition revenue, registration fees & interest income received as of 9/30/2016 is approximately $2.5 million. Cash paid for Dorothy Porter, Mayfair Special project and Gergen Trust as of 9/30/2016 is $289,454. The operating cash is down about $10,000 from last year at this time.
    • 2016-2017 Budget: Kaitlin presented a balanced budget for the FY 2016-2017 period. The principal’s budgets will be monitored and there will be budget meetings with them to discuss their expenditures throughout the year.  Additionally the entire budget will be monitored closely.  If anything drastic happens, cuts will be made elsewhere.

      In the past iPad repairs expenditures were not tracked appropriately. This year a separate account was created for iPad repairs expenditures and reimbursements to facilitate the monitoring of this activity. Since families are invoice for all iPad repairs this account should be zero at the end of each year.

    Vote: Mary Susan made a motion to approve the 2016-2017 budget.  Leo seconded the motion.  Motion carried unanimously.

    Discussions at Meeting:

     There were 4 main issues discussed:

    1. Our cash position is declining. This decline includes the cash reserve that was set aside years ago. The committee is working on a cash management policy for BCS that will include maintaining a cash reserve of $250,000 to $400,000 at all times.
    2. The business committee has strengthened internal controls over agency funds. Agency funds are cash accounts that are in the BCS’s accounting records however the cash is managed by other entities (Home & School, BCCHS activity fund, Scrip, etc.). Kaitlin obtains reconciliation information from the other entities each month and then reconciles the accounts in the BCS accounting software. The reconciliations are reviewed by Shaun.
    3. The Business Committee is working on 2 concerns with its operations; to maintain transparency and provide privacy for individuals and issues that require confidentiality. The committee will make a decision by next month on how to handle it and then move forward cautiously.
    4. The BCCHS activity fund is owned by several groups (football, cheerleaders, etc.). The cash account is reconciled monthly by Kaitlin and the account records are maintained at the high school.

    Marketing Enrollment Report:

    • Turn The Table had 20 more participants than last year.  The alumni ranged from graduating 4 to 54 years ago.  There are 3 advertising signs that have not been sold.

    Catholic Culture Committee:

    • There was a planning meeting held Monday to prepare for PIR day on October 20th.  Fr. Steve will be unable to attend; however, Fr. Wayne and Fr. Jay will assist with the CCC presentation.

    Mayfair Special Projects:

    • Many people would like to see an elevator put in at the high school and Shel presented the possibility to the board.  There is a donor pledging $100,000 which would be approximately 25 percent of the cost.  It would create a structure on the outside of the building because of the required built in rescue area.  The elevator will be explored further.  Preliminary architectural drawings and budgets have been explored but will need to be refined as we look at a decision on the MayFair Special Project.

      There will be some expenses setting up the current SFI for preschool/daycare which was brought up as a possible MayFair Special Project.  Other suggestions for Mayfair Special Projects will be considered.

    Presidents Report:

    • October PIR Days: The plans for the PIR Days were given to the Board.  There are staff volunteers that will help with the technology portion of the day.  In the afternoon the high school will work on their accreditation documents and the SF staff will go to St. Thomas for discussions on moving to the new school and then there will be a “field trip” to the new school so the staff can tour the building.

    Technology Update:

    • Honcoop did the initial selection for the first interviews for a Director of Technology.  Honcoop had the candidates score themselves on a list of qualifications and then asked them follow up questions based on those stated abilities.  The plan is to conduct an “Organizational Interview” to make our final decision.  Shaun was impressed with the candidates and felt 4 of the 5 candidates will be invited to a follow-up interview.  Anna is working with Honcoop to remediate problems in our network and some Wi-Fi issues.
    • Principals Meeting Minutes: The principal meeting minutes were sent to the Board.  The Board had no questions.

    Service/Professional Organizations:

    • Shaun would like to speak to various professional groups around Billings promoting BCS.  The Board was asked to help him contact them and arrange to speak at their meetings.

    New Business:

    • There is no new business at this time.

    Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 5:25 pm.

    Respectfully Submitted:  Shaun Harrington, Billings Catholic Schools President