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!
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