St. Christopher School

St. Christopher School

Advisory Board Meeting

September 13, 2011

Members Present: Cindy Clarke, principal, Mary Carr, chair, Fred Daniels, vice chair, Carol Laplante, Ken Lawson, Linda Imhof, Mike Eckmann, Mark Roy, Jack Richman, Mark Sheehy, Paula MacLellan, Mary Jane King, Marta Nissen, Director of Development, Father Richard Kelley

Members Absent: Nick Dahl

We began the meeting with the opening prayer and followed that with an official welcome to Mrs. Clarke.

Finance Committee:  Financials show that we are in the black and should finish the year that way, although there are some significant unknowns with heating, health insurance increases, fundraising and development and financial aid.

Principal’s Report: Current enrollment for this year is 325, which is five students above the budget.  Our opening days have gone well; there is a good “vibe around the school’, the new front desk area is a gathering place.  We are conducting s survey of new parents this fall.  There are 42 new families at St. Chris this year!  Each classroom is working to identify room parents and their responsibilities for the year.  Teachers’ pages have been updated for the beginning of the year and teachers will be adding or have added September activities.  Pages will be updated monthly.

Marketing

New Logo: The new logo that was developed at the end of the last school year has not been well received. Many people (parents, parishioners, alumni) do not want to see a change.  Fred Daniels will draft a letter explaining why a new logo was even attempted last year.  Further discussions to be held with a wide variety of stakeholders to decide where to go from here.

Advertising: In the past, we have devoted a significant part of our advertising budget to print advertising.  That no longer seems to be the best venue.  We have also done a lot of work on the website and using Google ad words.  Last year we obtained information about doing some advertising at Cinemagic.  The advertising would be shown while people are arriving and before each movie.  Mike Eckmann got more information about pricing.  The spots are 15 seconds, 22.5 seconds or 30 seconds.  Based on the message that we need to get across, 15 seconds is probably not enough.  Nashua Catholic is using it and has found it beneficial.  We need to decide whether it would be helpful for St. Christopher’s School and whether building awareness in this way and using our advertising dollars there would be dollars well spent, given that it is the parents who make the decision for elementary school.

Diversity: Marta is going to prepare diversity statistics.  One statistic we do know is that we have 15 different religions at St. Christopher’s School.

Facilities:

Space Constraints: We are very strained for space.  We use the church hall for music, gym (when it is held inside), and the after school program.  There are times when the church hall is not available—during bereavements or blood drives.  Also, with all of the activities—band, book fair, drama club and more, there is no meeting space.  We are looking to see what alternatives we have.

Facilities: We have several needs for updates/repairs/renovations.  They include:  new windows, roof, snow removal, seal coating, safety equipment, updated phone system/lines, updating bathrooms and a potential stair lift.  The Facilities Committee, led by Mark Sheehy, will update the list and prioritize items—getting estimates on costs.

Fundraising:

Fall Fundraiser: Infant Jesus is the lead school this year for the fall fundraiser (calendar raffle).  Last year, each school received more than $15,000 from the calendar raffle.  Our goal is for St. Christopher to sell 2,000 raffles.  Last year we sold more than 1800.  We have a long way to go!

Annual Fund Drive: Letters will be going out in November.

Technology: The technology committee will be meeting on 9/22.  Looking for volunteers.

Next meeting: Our next meeting is Tuesday, October 11 at 8:00am.  Finance Committee meets at 7:30am.