Welcome to the St. Felix School Board

2011-2012 Officers are: Alison Springer (Chairperson), Paul Busch (Vice Chairperson), and Chris Wise (Secretary)

Additional Members are: Father Cook, Tisha Frost, Jodie Schmoker,  Leah Wodele, Tracy Sholing, Wendy Stumpf, Nicole Solberg,, and Anna Graner.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 Agenda

- Beverages and Snacks.

- Call to Order & Prayer.  

- Roll Call,

- Approval of Agenda.

- Principal’s Report.

- Pastor’s Report.

Committee as a Whole:

- Adopt-A-Child Update.

- Staff and School Board Christmas Party.

- Catholic Schools Week Dinner.

- MNSAA: Discuss School survery and philosophy/mission statement.

- School uniforms.

- Executive Session

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 Minutes

Members present: Paul Busch, Alison Springer, Chris Wise, Tracy Sholing, Leah Wodele, Nicole Solberg, Wendy Stumpf, Father Cook, Tisha Frost, Jodie Schmoker

Members absent: Anna Graner, John Miller

Prior meeting minutes approved with deletions.

Agenda approved

- Principal’s Report: Tisha Frost reported meeting with MNSAA on November 7, which outlined the accreditation assets. Marsha Stenzel, Michael Deiss and Laura Cooper also attended.  The meeting was VERY informative. Tisha wants to review all policies and have them approved, so that all of our policies can be posted and made public.  Also discussed the timelines for completion of all of the accreditation processes.

a. Donations: Received from the O’Neil foundation to be used for technology.  Received from the Knights of Columbus to be used to purchase Bibles for 4^th-6^th grade classrooms.  Received from Mildred Pierce to be used to purchase religious textbooks and supplies.  Received from Catholic Aid Association.  This was earned as a result of St. Felix Parishioners opening investment accounts with Catholic Aid.

b. Fundraising – Received $1,000 in playground equipment through the Campbell’s Soup label program.  Discussed designating candy bar proceeds to fund field trips for school year 2011-2012.  Money that was raised last school year went for operating expenses.  Catholic Aid car raffle generated an additional amount.  Discussed designating monies for substitute teaching fund and/or religious textbooks.

- Pastor’s Report: Father Cook reported that he had nothing formal to report, other than working with the new Missals and the new English translation

- Review School Flyer and Adopt-a-Child Flyer: Discussed and made updates to the flyers.  Decided to mail with Alumni flyer only if it would be mailed out by Thanksgiving.

- School Board and Staff Christmas party: Discussed dates and venue, but tabled decisions until December meeting.  Leah Wodele offered to host party in her home.

- Catholic Schools Week: Discussed filing out the proper forms and bio information for our Distinguished Alumni and Volunteer awards.  St. Felix will once again be included in the Catholic Aid Association car raffle for 2011-2012.  We will be given $5,000 in raffle tickets.  Discussed having a short 10 question survey that can be administered during Catholic Schools Week.  This is a great time of year to gather information from our stakeholders.  Questions and format will be discussed at the December meeting. Spaghetti Dinner scheduled for 1/28/12.  Youth group volunteered to help with clean-up and set-up.  Clarification made that the Spaghetti Dinner is chaired by the School Board.

- Chair Elections: School Board voted to maintain the status quo.  Alison will remain as chair, Paul as Vice Chair, and Chris as secretary. Paul Busch stated that the previous year went so well, we should forge ahead without a change being made in our chair positions.

- Executive Session

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 Minutes

Members present: Paul Busch, Father Cook, Tisha Frost, Jodie Schmoker, Tracy Sholing, Nicole Solberg, Alison Springer, Wendy Stumpf

Members absent: Anna Graner, Chris Wise, Leah Wodele

Prior meeting minutes approved. It was noted that Anna Graner & Jodie Schmoker were present at the September meeting and need to be added to the ‘members present’ list.

Agenda approved. The Spaghetti Dinner was added as a discussion item.

- Principal’s Report. Grants: Applied to Casey O’Neil; Will apply to Doffing in December Religion Curriculum: Mrs. Frost is currently reviewing religion curriculum.  Suggested there is room for improvement. Substitutes: Trying to utilize in-house subs.  Works fine with older grades, but not younger grades. Donations:  54,000+ Campbell’s soup labels have been turned in. They will be used to purchase phy-ed equipment.  This will be posted in the bulletin.  Mrs. Frost will research how this translates into dollars. The bowling alley donated money to be used for any youth activities. MNSAA: Teachers all assigned a standard; they may be contacting board members for assistance. Publicity: School brochure and Adopt-a-child brochures were available for preview.  Brochures will be e-mailed to board members for review and suggestions. Volunteers: All volunteers will be required to have a background check, sign a code of conduct and have virtuous training.  Mrs. Frost is assembling volunteer packets explaining this new diocesan-wide requirement.  Completion date January 1, 2012. Spirit Day: Board reviewed new spirit day tye-dye t-shirt option. Board members liked the design and reasonable price.  School will proceed with ordering. Bucks for Jeans: Administration ‘cracking down’. Students must bring $1 or required to change into uniform pants. Donations this year go to Wabasha Food Shelf. Vocations Week: January 9-13.  Monstrance will be at St. Felix for parish activity on Jan 8 and student activity on Jan 9. Wish List: Mrs. Frost was encouraged to post her wish list on the school website and in the bulletin.

- Pastor’s Report. Father Cook thanked Tisha Frost for the job she is doing.  He also expressed his appreciation to the Fall Festival Committee for the successful fall festival.

- Fall Festival  Father Cook has been working with Sara to finalize the format for the net profit information and thank you that will be posted in the bulletin the weekend of October 15/16.  Net profits for this event are approximately $98,000.  With the Fall Festival and Marathon both coming in over budget, the Board decided to eliminate the frozen food fundraiser typically held in February/March

- Spaghetti Dinner  Dinner will be on Saturday, January 28 after 4:30 Mass serving as the kick off to Catholic Schools Week.  The Board agreed to have Slippery’s provide the spaghetti dinner.  We will again offer and sell wine, sell car raffle tickets and sell chances on the basket raffle.  New this year will be a dessert auction

- Scrip  Mrs. Frost thanked to Jodie Schmoker and Libby LaRocque for staffing a Scrip table during conferences and meeting with parents.  Jodie noted that scrip sales have increased.  To further encourage people to try scrip, there will be a raffle each week in November.  Prize will be a $25 scrip certificate.  People can enter the drawing by purchasing $100 in scrip for the week.

- Nominations for Distinguished Alumni and Volunteer Awards. The board approved nominees.

- Executive Session.

- Meeting adjourned at 9:27 pm.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011 Minutes

Members present: Paul Busch, Alison Springer, Chris Wise, Tracy Sholing, Leah Wodele, Nicole Solberg, Wendy Stumpf, Father Cook, Tisha Frost

Members absent: Marsha Stenzel, John Miller

Prior meeting minutes approved with additions.

Agenda approved

Principal's Report:  NWEA testing – currently running a bit behind schedule due to the new format - should be completed by 9/20. Marathon fundraiser to begin on 9/19. Grant writing – Grants need to be written and submitted to the O’Neil and Doffing foundations by 10/1 and 12/1 respectively. Pre-K and K license has been renewed. Current enrollment for all grades at St. Felix is 109 students.

Heating And AC System:  Installation of the new heating and AC system running behind schedule.  Electrical installation taking longer than anticipated.

Fall Festival Update: Have received donations from St. Felix Alumni. To date, only a few tickets remain for the Ranger Raffle. Voted to add a School Board Dinner and Father Cook’s Dinner to the specialty auction. Fall Festival Committee members stated they were having a difficult time finding enough volunteers for various booths and raffles.

Scrip: Currently 10-12 School families using Scrip regularly.  The Board decided to have a mandatory scrip meeting with all parents as part of the parent-teacher conferences on 9/22.

Distinguished Alumni and Volunteer Nominations: Several names submitted – tabled until next meeting when more names can be submitted for discussion.

Adopt A Child : Board voted and passed unanimously to allow W2 form Spot Checks beginning with the 2012-2013 school year.  Board voted and passed unanimously to offer one discounted scholarship rate for the Pre-school and Pre-Kindergarten scholarships.

MNSAA Update: St. Felix is beginning its 2-year accreditation program.  There are 8 standards to be met for fulfill the requirements.  Each teacher member will take on 1-2 areas  and compile the required information.  Laura Cooper, Tisha Frost, Michael Deiss, and Marsha Stenzel to spearhead the accreditation process.

Executive Session.

Meeting adjourned at 9:24 pm.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011 Minutes

Members present: Paul Busch, Alison Springer, Tracy Sholing, John Miller, Jodie Schmoker, Leah Wodele

Members absent: Chris Wise, Marsha Stenzel

Previous minutes from July 12, 2011 meeting approved

Agenda approved

Board Elections:  25 nominations/ 5 accepted nomination. Elections Aug 13 and 14, 2011 at Masses. Any nominations not contacted will be done prior to printing ballot. Possible 3rd position open; depends on how many positions can be filled at one time. Results given on Monday, August 15, 2011.

Butterbraid Fundraiser:  Discussed and decided to turn over information to the teachers assigned to oversee fundraising.

Fundraising: Scrip usage: looked at many different ways to increase usage by each family member. Scrip can be an easy moneymaker and could eliminate having to do some of the other fundraisers. Spaghetti Dinner will be kept at the beginning of Catholic Schools Week, good parishioner event. Car Raffle confirmed. Verify with Marsha. Generate a list of Foundation, Alumni, etc. to be sure they are contacted on time and accordingly.

Fall Festival: Raffle tickets available at back of church for pick up. All plans and arrangements are on schedule.

Alumni Association: Vicky Johnson is taking over; she is need of and updated list.

Weather Bug Program: Mr Deiss proposed this program $1500 grant was available for this particular program. Item was tabled by the Board until more information was provided from other schools that have used the program.

Principal Search: August 8, 2011 meeting with Marsha and teachers, board members and principal search committee members was held to discuss that no principal has been hired at this time. In the interim each teacher was assigned a duty and each teacher will get a stipend in pay for those tasks. Marsha will try and be at school on Mondays in the afternoon and attend the staff meetings (with the Bishop's Approval). Father Cook will be available at sc.hool on Tuesday mornings and for Mass at 11am (new time). Open House: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 from 6-7:30pm

Executive Session.

Meeting adjourned at 9:45 pm.