Weekly Update 3/30/2012

If you are looking for a good way to kick off your weekend tonight there is no better way than watching some very talented Assumption students perform Guys and Dolls in Sunderbruch auditorium.  Shows are at 7:30 March 30^th and 31^st, and 2:00 on Sunday, April 1^st. Tickets will be available at the door.  I look forward to seeing all of you there.

With the busyness of the last couple of weeks, it was nice to have a bit of a reprieve this week. That certainly doesn’t mean that a lot wasn’t accomplished.  Here are some of the happenings:

This week I presented on a SCRA grant to complete the second phase of a three phase plan, creating an energy efficient hot water system at Assumption, with the replacement of 500 feet of domestic hot water piping.  We should hear whether we were successful or not in the next month or so. 

I met with Kevin Murphy on Tuesday to discuss some of our technology upgrades and some of the steps we need to take to prepare for next year.  One of the things we discussed was creating a student technology team to look at our implementation plans and offer suggestions on how to improve them.  We will are currently in the process of developing such a team.

We published our second online newsletter this week and it is much improved from our last attempt.  As is the case with most things, after we get the process down the product improves significantly.  Check out the newsletter here.

Weekly Update 3/23/2012

Students, teachers and staff were back this week along with the comfortable hum of noise that accompanies them.  Like all weeks back after a long break, it seemed like there was a lot to be accomplished.

The Scott County Catholic Schools Advisory Board met this week and we spent a lot of time discussing the current state of tuition assistance, as well as the difference between teacher salaries at the public and private institution in the county, specifically ways to bridge the gap between the two.  We spent some time discussing the Wichita model, and how it has impacted that diocese.  

The Assumption Foundation continues on with the Embracing our Future 2.0 campaign.  A special thanks to all those who have taken time out of their busy schedules to meet with me and who have pledged to support our Scott County Catholic Schools. It is great to hear people’s “Assumption story,” and share how their education has impacted their lives. We spent some time discussing this at the Foundation meeting Tuesday, along with several investment policy changes.  Make sure to check out last week’s update for more on what this campaign is all about.  

The 2012-13 budget was approved at the school board meeting on Tuesday Thanks to the finance committee and the Board of Directors for giving due diligence to the budget.  It takes a lot of time to look over all of our projections and ask challenging but necessary questions, and we greatly appreciate all your effort.  Among other things, next year’s budget contains huge technology upgrades to Assumption.  In the past several weeks I have discussed the bandwidth increase that was essential for us.  That bandwidth increase was approved with the passing of the budget.  We have also budgeted for 1:1 computers for our juniors and seniors.  This project will put a laptop in the hands of every junior and senior student to use for the entire school year.  While the details on how this will work are still in development, we are so excited to be able to provide this opportunity to our students to prepare them for not only college, but to be a contributing member of the workforce.  

On Wednesday Erica Grubbs, Bradley Grothus, Jacob Guisse, Katelyn Shultz, Eric Ries and I attended the Iowa Advocates for Choice in Education event in Des Moines.  It was so much fun to watch our students talk to their legislators and the governor about the importance of Catholic schools and the STO program.  On the way home our students stated again and again how neat it was to experience this type of event, and I was very proud of our students and their willingness to take part in such an important cause.  When we returned I sent an email to all of the diocese administrators encouraging them to take part next year.  We really need the support of all schools in the Diocese of Davenport to make a major impact on our legislators.  

Chuck and I met with Bishop Amos on Thursday to discuss several opportunities for Assumption.  Part of the discussion pertained to the possibility of having a priest at Assumption.  We will be working on the feasibility of this with the help of the Bishop and Msgr. Hyland.  The second part of our conversation focused on religion curriculum and scheduling. Chuck and I felt great about this conversation, and we believe that we have an understanding of ways to address the challenges we face. One of the things discussed was some of our current practices which incorporate the Catholic faith into the everyday lives of Assumption students.  The Bishop complimented us on our efforts. 

We will be having our monthly Scott County principals meeting this afternoon.  It is another full schedule of issues for us to partner together on, and I look forward to attacking these head on. 

Discussion will include:  5th and 8th grade coming to AHS for the musical, algebra testing,  5th grade band transportation, diocesan assessments, Mediacom and Trinity Lutheran, Teddy Bear Preschool at AHS, band teachers, AD meetings, and special ed. resource.

Whew!  What a full week.

Don’t forget to purchase tickets for next weekend’s performance of Guys and Dolls! Shows are at 7:30 March 30^th and 31^st, and 2:00 on Sunday, April 1^st. Tickets are available online via the Assumption website, and will also be available at the door.

Have a great weekend.

Andy

Weekly Update 3/16/2012

With spring break this week it has been awfully quiet around the office.  The normal hum of activity has a certain comfort, and I look forward to it returning next week. 

I thought a lot about what to write about this week.  Although the week has been quieter than most, there were several good meetings, including two with members of the Assumption Foundation and another with John Cooper, Vice President at St. Ambrose.  We also held a Finance Committee meeting Friday morning regarding the budget for the upcoming year.  It has been a good time to get caught up on some things that were pushed to the backburner when dealing with the day-to-day activities of Assumption.

However, instead of focusing on this week’s activities, I would like to focus on something very important to me and to our Catholic schools:  tuition assistance.  

Now before you hit the red X in the corner of this window because, “I’ve heard this before,” give me a couple more lines.

I’ve spent a lot of time looking over a plethora of numbers regarding enrollment at our local schools, tuition assistance, number of Catholics at local parishes, baptisms at local parishes, etc. to paint a picture of what has happened in our schools over the last 10 years.  The information is staggering. 

I won’t make this this update overly complex by throwing out a bunch of numbers; instead let’s look at one number:  35%.  This is the percentage of students in our Scott County Catholic Schools who are currently receiving some type of financial assistance.  Many of you have heard me use this number before, but let’s put it into perspective.  Of the 1,830 students enrolled in our schools, 648 students receive aid, including 30% of Assumption students.  What would happen if that aid were not available?  Assumption alone could potentially lose 130 students, substantially decreasing enrollment.  Teachers and programs would be cut. Tuition would increase at a significant rate.  Morale would suffer.   Things would be very….very….challenging.

Luckily, through the generosity, hard work, and determination of many individuals, these things have not happened. 

What has happened?  We have been able to provide tuition assistance to 648 students this year.  The ten year average for Assumption enrollment is 420 students; starting this year we had 437. Approximately 130 Assumption students receive the financial aid that enables them to receive a great education.  Instead of cutting teachers and programs, we are constantly exploring ways to increase offerings.  Parish subsidy has decreased at 1% annually over the last seven years.  The average Catholic high school tuition in the United States is $9,000. Assumption tuition for the 2012-2013 school year is set at $4,570, roughly half the national average.  The senior classes will receive well over $3 million in scholarship money this year.  Year after year we celebrate successes throughout our many academic, athletic, and fine arts programs.  To summarize, what has happened? Too many great things to write without making this a 6 page update.  

In short, things are good.

That certainly doesn’t mean we should sit back and relax with the “we’ve made it” mentality.  There are still challenges ahead, challenges which will necessitate continued support of the success of all Scott County Catholic Schools.  Together we can overcome these challenges and continue to move forward celebrating the many successes along the way.   

I look forward to many years of celebrating success with all of you.

Weekly Update 3/9/2012

Before I get into the updates for the week, I have some congratulations to extend: to Emma Simmons, Mundo Cadena, Patrick Kakert, Kevin McCabe, Andrew McCabe, and A.J. Skinner for their participation in the St. Ambrose Honor Band; to the boys basketball team on a wonderful season; and to the girls’ basketball team on back-to-back state championships! It has been an exciting winter for all our students.  I am sure there are many more successes to come as the school year draws to a close.

A couple of updates from the week:

I spent Monday at an AEA meeting with area schools on the 1:1 initiative and how to best revise Acceptable Use Policies to meet the ever changing landscape of technology. There was a lot of great information exchanged, including best practices for 1:1 initiatives and examples of Acceptable Use Policy changes that we will reference as we refine our own policy.

 

The board continued the evaluation process with a work session on Monday night.  I truly feel the process they have implemented for administrator evaluations is productive and accomplishes the task of helping us to grow.

  

We have finalized a plan to increase bandwidth at Assumption.  No more wasting time waiting in class for a YouTube video to load. Our bandwidth will expand from 1.5 mbs to 10 mbs on July 1, 2012.  This was a tremendous team effort on the part of our grade schools and Assumption.  In partnering together, we were able to decrease everyone’s monthly costs and possibly create some new ways to communicate information between schools.  I am so glad this was able to accomplished, and thank all of our grade schools for their patience and support as we pursued this agreement.

 

We were presented with a new challenge this week, when we discovered that we have about 500 feet of domestic hot water line that needs to be replaced. Eric Leuth was nice enough to snap some pictures of the lines and the deterioration is very evident - I really have never seen anything like it!  Not to worry, we have already received two bids and they are not as scary as first anticipated.  We will continue to explore our options.  

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Update 3/2/2011

Anyone tired of making the trip to Des Moines yet?  I hope not!  We have another exciting week of state tournament play coming up - let’s hope we have to make four more wonderful drives. Good luck to the girls on Saturday night in the state championship game.  Let’s go Knights!

Special thanks to the Century Club, Booster Club, Trish Zinger, Wade King and all who made the girls basketball sendoff successful.

During the administrative meeting this week we spent a lot of time talking about the future, technology upgrades, and how best to prepare our students for the world they will be working and living in.  Since we are knee deep in the budgeting process we will be placing added emphasis on finding ways to give our students not only the best education, but also the education most relevant to their future lives.  

Speaking of budgeting, the process is progressing well.  We are going through all requests, discussing adjustments that should be made, and finalizing numbers.  Thanks to Carey Jones for the hours she puts into the budget, and also for having patience when I cause her more work with out-of-the-box budget ideas.  

I have recently had a couple meetings with the World Leadership Organization.  This organization coaches executives on ways to improve and also works on strategic development of organizations.  I am hoping that we can develop a relationship that will not only help me grow as a leader, but also help Assumption move forward as an organization.

The K-12 marketing meeting met Thursday and had a great discussion about current marketing initiatives at each of our schools.  We will continue to explore ways to market all of our Catholic schools together.

We held another meeting on Friday about internet speed.  I am very excited about the most recent quote we received, which opened up a ton of new possibilities for partnerships between Assumption and the grade schools.  We have one more hurdle to overcome and hopefully that will all be cleared up in my phone conference this afternoon.   

Looks like the snow is really starting to come down now!  Be safe on the roads this weekend and I hope to see you all in Des Moines.  

Have a great weekend.