Friday Update 12/29/2011

I hope everyone had a great holiday and is looking forward to the New Year.  This always a hectic time of the year down in the Business Office, so here are a couple updates from the last two weeks.

The Mississippi Valley STO board had its annual meeting Thursday, and we are happy to report that we once again were able to meet the cap set for us by the state of Iowa.  This tuition assistance program is such a valuable resource for the Scott County K-12 Catholic Schools and other private schools in the state, providing aid in a time of need.  Congrats to Linda Duffy, Liz King and Carey Jones for their hard work on this program.  

I attended a 1:1 computer meeting at the AEA and learned a great deal from the other schools that were in attendance.  It seems that the surrounding schools are in various states of technology upgrades, some much further along than others.  It was interesting to hear from the schools that are already knee deep in the 1:1 computer initiative, and also those who are wrestling with the challenges of starting such a program.  

Over break we made a couple significant purchases.  One of these purchases was a practice AED machine and manikins and to train all our students in CPR. This should be a valuable program and I look forward to seeing it completed annually.  

The second purchase was a mobile laptop lab for our students and teachers.  With the request for computer usage increasing significantly over the last several years this purchase should help alleviate the computer shortage issue by increasing our availability by 30 computers.  

Carey and I spent some time this week working on our eRate forms.  This is something we fill out annually to receive affordable telecommunication and internet services.  The process was made a little more difficult this year when we received word that the AEA would no longer be providing a free aggregate line from Assumption to the AEA.  This created the need for us to bid out through something called a form 470 for a line to the AEA to retain internet access. In the end it will all work out fine, but it did create some short term stress for all of our Catholic school administrators.

Hope you all have a great New Year!

Friday Update 12/16/2011

We should have an exciting close to the week tonight with the Wall of Fame Induction Ceremony and the class of 2011 pizza party in the cafeteria during halftime of the girls basketball game.  It is a huge year for the Wall of Fame, with 22 athletes and 17 teams being inducted this evening.  We started hosting the “class reunion” pizza party on this evening several years ago, and it has been a great opportunity for me to keep in touch with our young alums.

Monday I assisted Linda with an Embracing Our Future presentation.  After spending a lot of time on the numbers over the last several weeks, it is great to see how the Family Tuition Plan has helped our local schools remain a viable option for area families.  While we have changed the pattern of decreasing enrollment with the EOF and STO, there is still a lot of work to be done and challenges ahead.  Also, remember that in order to receive the 65% tax credit on your Iowa taxes this year, donations to the STO need to be made before January 1^st.

I had a fun opportunity this week to speak with some religion classes about the history of Assumption.  They are currently learning about the history of some Catholic colleges and universities, and Coach Barrer asked me to speak briefly on Assumption’s beginnings.  It was fun to talk about Saint Ambrose Academy and Immaculate Conception Academy’s importance in the history of Assumption.  I also spoke about the first year of Assumption and some of the all priest school board discussions including:

•        Tuition was set at $125 for Catholic students, $250 for    Non-Catholic students

•        The decision that both principals would receive the same salary

•        First talks regarding tuition assistance

•        Concern over paving of West Central Park

•        Providing a pension plan.

•        Lay teacher salary was set at $3,700 per year

•        Hourly pay was $1.73 per hour

•        First discussions of parish assessment

The finance committee met Friday morning to go over our annual audit, which will be presented to the board on Monday.  Once again, things look good for Assumption and we were complemented by the auditor for strong fiscal management.  The meeting ended with the committee voting to recommend a subsidy and tuition for next year.  Both of these issues will be brought before the board for a vote on Monday.

The Scott County Catholic School Principals met on Friday and discussed the following topics:  5th grade band festival, non-parishioner/non-Catholic tuition rates and board action, career fair, summer math for teachers, and algebra.

I hope to see everyone tonight at the game and Wall of Fame Induction and 2011 alumni reunion!

Have a great weekend. 

Weekly update 12/19/2011

Our students certainly had a busy week with Immaculate Conception mass, RSVP leadership group and Summit training, the Christmas band concert, wrestling meet and basketball games.  It is tough to believe that we are only a few weeks off from final exams and the end for the semester.  In talking 1with some of our students this week, it seems that finals are a big focus of their lives right now.

This week began with some great news for not only our employees, but also Assumption.  Carey and I had a meeting with our insurance agent regarding our health insurance increases for this year. As many people did, we saw a hefty increase to our rates last year and were expecting the worst.  The great news is that our standard plan did not change at all and our HSA plan saw a decrease!

The Assumption Foundation Board met Tuesday and spent a lot of time discussing the impact of the tumultuous European situation on our investments. The conversation then turned to a discussion of the Family Tuition Plan and the current state of EOF funds. The board was also interested in the current state of education and the impact of the Iowa Blueprint not only at Assumption, but at  all schools.

 

I had lunch with Lourdes’ school board President, Jim Kersten, Wednesday, and we had a great discussion about Catholic schools in Scott County.  I was able to share some of Assumption’s major initiatives over the past 10 years and we spoke at length about the challenges our schools face and some ways we can partner to help each other in the coming years. 

 

I had a very exciting meeting with several of the Deans and President of Scott Community College this week about exploring ways Assumption can offer additional college classes on campus, increasing the number of college credits our students can graduate with.  It seems that SCC is open to an increased partnership and there are many affordable options for us to expand this relationship.

 

The other highlight of my visit to SCC was a tour of their career and technical programs facilities.  I was amazed at the variety of programming offered - everything from culinary arts to mechanics and diesel engine technology.  This tour led to a discussion of ways to provide some of these opportunities to Assumption students.  There is a lot of work to be done to make these programs more accessible, but if there is a need we will do what we can to make it happen. 

I spent a couple of hours on Thursday morning with local State Legislators Roby Smith, Mary Smith, Shawn Hammerlink, Jim Lykam, Mark Lofgren, Linda Miller, Cindy Winkler, and Jim Hahn about upcoming legislative session and the impact it could have on the tone of education in the state. I was most interested in conversations about the fiscal state of the state, the Iowa Blueprint, and state control of educational standards. There seems to be a feeling amongst some of the superintendents that reducing local control and increasing state control would solve some problems.  I think we should be careful when asking for that, as we may lose the ability to address unique situations that occur at all of our schools. 

On Thursday Carey Jones and I hosted the annual subsidy luncheon with the priests of our supporting parishes to approve the coming year’s parish subsidy. Carey gave a wonderful presentation to the priests and business managers, and the subsidy amount was approved for the upcoming year. It is so wonderful to have supportive priests in our local parishes and it was great to hear their positive thoughts on Assumption.  One thing that helps is we have reduced subsidy for 7 years in a row, opposed to increasing it each year as we had in the past.  If we had continued on the path we were heading down 10 years ago, total subsidy would currently be $300,000 more than what it was this year. We had a discussion about this, and I credited our previous administrators, especially Linda and Carey, for managing our expenses and income in fiscally responsible way. 

We are interviewing Friday to fill a recent vacancy in our English department.  We are planning to have this vacancy filled by early next week. 

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Update 12/2/2011

After a refreshing Thanksgiving break it is great for all of us to be back at school.  With the start of winter sports, upcoming Christmas band and choir concerts and children’s show, and finals in a month, it is tough to believe that we are almost halfway through the school year!

The best experience of my week was getting to speak with the seniors in Mrs. Luton’s English classes.  I asked the seniors to think back on their experience at Assumption and come up with some things to be celebrated as well as areas where they feel there were missed opportunities.  I was very impressed with the maturity, focus and insight of our senior class.  They were able to provide a unique perspective on where to focus our efforts to improve Assumption.  Some of the things mentioned were easy fixes and we have already started to address them.  Other ideas for improvement included additional foreign language offerings including sign language, engineering and science classes, job shadowing or work experience programs and increasing access to technology.  Many different ways to improve the educational experience at Assumption were discussed, and each senior is to write a one page summary of their ideas.  I assured them that I will read every single one of them and I can’t wait to get each student’s perspective.   

We have been working on a way to implement Microsoft’s Live@edu program for testing.  This would provide our students with online access to the Word, Excel and PowerPoint for a great cost: free.  Teachers are already using the GoogleDocs programs and we would like to see how Microsoft’s free program access compares.  

In preparation for our Foundation meeting next week, we had an Investment committee meeting on Wednesday.  There were concerns about the recent state of the market with the problems in Europe, and we wanted to ensure that we were well positioned for recovery from this credit crisis.  I believe we all feel a little bit better after the presentation from US Bank. 

The administrators from the Scott County Catholic Schools met this week.  Topics discussed included: tuition rates, registration fees, pre-school, daycare rates, SAU STEM, I Have a Plan, middle school math teacher collaboration, salary information , science curriculum, EOF/FTP update, and technology.

The Scott County K-12 Marketing Committee met Thursday and there are a ton of great things going on at our schools!  I was especially impressed with how much new All Saints principal, Jeanne Von Feldt, has already done for that school.  She is a tremendous addition to our already strong group of elementary school administrators.  We are also preparing for our annual “marketing blitz” that occurs during Catholic Schools Week.  If you remember last year we had the cutouts of students at various places throughout Davenport and Bettendorf. 

The Scott County K-12 Finance Committee met Thursday night. We spent a significant amount of time discussing the historical numbers from our schools and parishes, along with the current state of tuition assistance, tuition rates for the elementary schools and ways to be more consistent with our fee structures.  It was great to see the group working together to ensure the financial success of all of our schools. 

Friday I spoke at the April Knight Christmas Luncheon and as always it was a great experience.  It is so nice to speak with such a great group of people who really care about Assumption and the future of Catholic education in Scott County.  The highlight had to be the performance by are Jazz choir.  They sounded incredible!

Congrats to the KKD on their new state championship, this makes 15 straight years!  Also, congratulations to Coaches Barrer, Youngblut and Bush on their wins this week.  Congrats to Lynn Day and the rest of the spiritual life team on planning and executing a successful reconciliation service.

Have a great weekend!

 

Friday Update 11/18/11

This has been a fantastic week for fine arts at Assumption!

Congrats to our students who participated in the Iowa State Thespian Festival this past weekend.  872 students attended the festival where there were 10 judged events.  Our AHS students placed in the top three in three different events:

Large Group Musical Theater: Congrats to the cast of “Canaan Days” on receiving 2^nd place and a superior rating.  Liam Baldwin, Mundo Cadena, Sam Fer, Sam Jones, Jake Hannon, Patrick Kakert, Tanner Konrardy, Caleb Neff, Jacob Neff, Ben Pashon, Andrew Skalak, and AJ Skinner!  

Duet Acting: Congrats to Jacob Neff and Sam Jones who received 2^nd place and an excellent rating for their piece from Arthur Miller’s All My Sons!

Costume Design: Congrats to Bailey Hager for winning 3^rd place and receiving an excellent rating for her costume design for The Tempest!

Sam Jones is also now the co-Chair of the Iowa State Thespian Student Board, an awesome accomplishment.  

Congratulations also go out to Alex Underwood for winning a blue ribbon in the Quad City Area high school art display at Festival of Trees.

Finally, we received the great news just this afternoon that Emma Simmons is sitting 13^th chair of 21 on Clarinet, and AJ Skinner is sitting First Chair Euphonium at the All State Band Festival this weekend. In laymen’s terms AJ Skinner is the Top Euphonium player in the STATE of Iowa!  They will perform this weekend in Ames, but you can catch their performance the Sunday after Thanksgiving at 5:30 p.m. on Iowa Public Television.

I attended the Scott County Catholic Schools Advisory Board meeting on Monday.  We spent a lot of time hearing about the Iowa Education Blueprint and the challenges Catholic schools may face if the proposed salary structure would go through.  Hopefully everyone’s concerns will be lessened by the news this week that the governor’s office will not pursue this reform this year.

We also had a discussion about 1:1 computer initiatives and how this would impact the schools in the Diocese and learned that the Diocese will be working on a strategic plan this winter focusing on Catholic identity, enrollment and funding.  

There was lively conversation at our administrative meeting this week about ways to improve the educational process at Assumption.  While we all feel that we currently do many things well, we also know that we must continue to look for ways to best prepare students for their lives after they leave the halls of Assumption.  I will meet with our senior English classes after Thanksgiving break in order to hear firsthand where they feel the strengths and weaknesses have been in their education at Assumption.   

The marketing committee met on Wednesday and we continue to work on “ways to afford a Catholic education.”

The Annual Appeal is at the printer, and it should arrive at most houses after Thanksgiving.

We have been working on upgrading the sound system in the large gym.  The seniors have expressed interest in using the profits from the Spaghetti Supper to help with this process and student council would also like to donate some of their dance proceeds to this project.  It is great to see our kids get behind a project and work to see it completed.     

The President’s Appreciation Dinner was held at the Blackhawk hotel on Wednesday night and was a huge success. thanks to the hard work of Liz King.  We had a great turnout and the speeches by Mrs. McGuire and Coach Barrer were fantastic.  It was a great chance to celebrate the generosity of our donors to Embracing our Future, the STO and the Annual Appeal.  It also was a great chance to highlight not only the accomplishments of our students, but also all of the facilities upgrades we have completed in the last year.  

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Update 11/11/11

We have entered the part of the fall that is definitely the “calm before the storm.”   Winter sports are just beginning, the weather is starting to turn much colder and the dark seems to be starting earlier and earlier.  It seems crazy that in two weeks we will by celebrating Thanksgiving, watching our wrestlers and basketball teams compete and worrying about how much snow we will get.  

A couple of updates for the week:

We have hired David Pai to take over as our replacement for Sharon Deyo as kitchen manager.  Sharon accepted as a position in the Davenport schools.  We wish Sharon the best in her new opportunity and we are excited for Chef David to begin his new position.  He seems to have a lot of new ideas on how to improve what is already a solid lunch program.

I attended the Diocesan administrator meeting at Iowa City Regina this week.  I don’t usually attend these meetings, but Cedar Valley Schools was there to present on their 1:1 initiative.  I learned so much about the entire process of implementing one computer for every student.  I feel very confident that we are taking many of the correct steps in moving toward this goal.  

Moving in this direction of innovation always comes with concerns about student’s access to technology.  I happened to run across a study entitled: Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Network Sites:  How American Teens Navigate the New World of "Digital Citizenship."  I found the information in it absolutely intriguing.  I encourage all of you to check it out at http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2128/social-media-teens-bullying-internet-privacy-email-cyberbullying-facebook-myspace-twitter

In the development department Annual Reports have been mailed and I hope everyone has received their copy.  Please let me know if you did not get one.  I hope everyone agrees that the design of the report and layout was beautiful.  This week we also put the finishing touches on the Annual Appeal.  Liz King has come up with an incredible idea and her execution of that idea is flawless.  I look forward to being able to send it out soon.

Lastly, we are trying to fix up the lobby to the gym prior to the basketball season.  Eric has removed the cracked tiles.  We are repairing the cement around the entrance doors and are rehabbing the doors by fixing the crash bars and weather-stripping.  

Have a great Veterans Day and weekend.  God Bless those who serve our country and protect the freedoms that we hold so dear.