Weekly Updates 11/30/12

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving holiday and is getting back into the swing of things. At Assumption we have hit the ground running with all our winter athletics competing this week and over the upcoming weekend.  Congrats to KKD on their state championship in jazz and pom, and good luck to all our students in their competitions this weekend.

In the development department Liz continues her hard work on the annual appeal.  The plan is for these wonderful mailings to be in your mailboxes in the next couple of weeks.  The annual President’s Appreciation dinner will be held next week, and we are putting the finishing touches on our presentations.  It should be a great night and we look forward to celebrating the generosity of our supporters. 

The Development Office also welcomed Jordan Gizzarelli (’99) to our staff this week as Alumni Relations Director.  Jordan holds a B.A. degree in journalism and mass communication from Iowa State University, and comes to us with experience as a coordinator of Marketing and Communication at Northwestern University.  Jordan is off to a good start and is proving himself to be a valuable addition to an already strong staff.  Along with his Development responsibilities, he will also be helping out with the school yearbook.  

On the business side of things, we are preparing for Assumption’s Annual Priests luncheon.  This is the time of the year when we discuss the parish subsidy for our 9 supporting parishes.  Once again we are doing our best to take some of the burden off of our supporting parishes by budgeting for another 1% decrease in subsidy.  This will be the 8^th year that we have decreased subsidy, direct benefit to our parishes.  

I attended Rotary meetings this week in Davenport and North Scott. Carey and I also participated in an insurance meeting for the Diocese of Davenport.  The Diocese is interested in pursuing a collective group plan, and the meeting was to discuss what that would look like.  

Have a great weekend!

Updates for the week 11/15/12

With a short week coming up, there have certainly been a lot of things to accomplish before the Thanksgiving holiday.  Since we have a short week next week, , I’ll try to not only hit the highlights of this past week, but also upcoming events for next week.

Here are some recent happenings:

Our 2011-2013 Annual Report should be arriving at your homes very soon.  Thanks to Liz King for all of the hard work she puts into this terrific and essential piece of communication.  It really is a ton of work to get everything put together and make sure it is close to perfect as possible.  This year will not disappoint in terms of aesthetics and information about the previous year.

We have been working on switching our beverage supplier over from Mid-Continent to Pepsi.  At this time we feel this is a solid choice, and we look forward to having a full service vendor for our soft drinks.

To go along with the switch, the Booster Club has agreed to manage our winter sports season concessions.  Thanks to Chris Martens, Booster Club President and all of the members of the Booster Club for agreeing to take the lead in this tremendous service to our families and visitors.  They have some great ideas to make this winter sports season exceptional for all game attendees.   

The Scott County Catholic Schools Advisory Board met Monday and discussed, STO status, recent developments at the state level on teacher pay, religion textbooks, the Year of Faith, technology in schools, 8^th grade math curriculum, Catholic Schools Week, career fair for 8^th graders, formation of a 6-12 choir to sing at Catholic Schools week mass, and ways for our schools to partner to solve some of the challenges we face.

A lot of effort has been invested in securing funding for improvements in our fine arts areas. This effort was helped along this week when we received a grant from the Scott County Regional Authority.  A grant request has also been completed and submitted to the Knouse Trust. Additional funding from the general fund and Band Boosters will help make this significant project possible. 

I attended the Association of Illinois Fundraising Professionals Conference on Wednesday, and it did not disappoint!   Presenter, Tom Ahern, imparted a lot a lot of useful information, and I look forward to attending the IFPC’s next conference in the fall.   

Just a reminder, we will have our November Board meeting on Monday.  Please let me know if there are any items that need to be added to the agenda as soon as possible so we can prepare any pertinent information in advance.

Next weekend we will welcome the Class of 2002 for their 10 year reunion. I will be giving a tour of the school, and look forward to meeting and getting to know more of our alumni. 

Have a great weekend!

Updates for the Week 11/9/2012

Congrats to Leslie LaCorte and the Assumption Knight Players on their wonderful performance this past weekend, and break a leg as they head to UNI to perform The Pitman Painters at Iowa Thespian Festival!  

Our ad hoc facilities committee held their final meeting Monday night, and we are working to put together a summary report. The committee’s recommendation committee will be presented at next Board meeting on the 19^th of November.  

Tuesday brought an in-service for our teaching staff. Bridget did a nice job of framing the Career Development Plan, which is required by the State of Iowa for all of our teachers.  This was followed by a technology in-service on use of our electronic whiteboards.  I then spent the afternoon at All Saints presenting on technology resources to use in their classrooms.  If you are interested in viewing the presentation, click here.

Congrats to Emily Coryn on her hard work putting together another great Information Knight.  It is always wonderful to have our grade school students visit Assumption.  This night provides a tremendous opportunity for students and parents to learn about all of the great things Assumption has to offer, while getting a look inside the school and having the opportunity to hear about the Family Tuition Plan.

We had our Scott County Administrator meeting on Thursday morning.  Items discussed included: Iowa Core Math, 8th grade career fair, STEM conference for teachers at St. Ambrose, tuition for the upcoming school year, Catholic Schools Week mass, and bandwidth changes for the upcoming school year.

I attended our first round game at state volleyball on Thursday.  Congrats to these talented young women on their accomplishments this season.  I also attended North Scott Rotary on Friday

We received some great news on Friday!  Some of you may remember me mentioning several months ago that I was preparing a grant for the Scott County Regional Authority.  Our SCRA grant request was for funding for improvements in the band and choir area.  These improvements included:

1.      Install sound paneling in both band and choir rooms to eliminate the “echo chamber” effect.

2.      Install a sound system in the band room which allows for the recording and playback of performances. 

I am pleased to announce that we have received a grant from SCRA to help with these projects.  This should be a great enhancement to our band and choir facilities.

Have a great weekend!

Andy