St. Christopher School

Members Present: Cindy Clarke, principal, Mary Carr, chair, Carol Laplante, Mike Eckmann, Mark Roy, Mark Sheehy, Paula MacLellan, Linda Imhof, Marta Nissen, Director of Development

Members Absent: Fred Daniels, Father Richard Kelley, Ken Lawson, Mary Jane King, Nick Dahl, Jack Richman

We began the meeting with the opening prayer.

Finance Committee:

Financials show the school continues to do well.  Approximately $4,000 in outstanding tuition from the prior school year was collected in the current school year.

Principal’s Report:

Current enrollment is at 324.  Mrs. Clarke plans to work on building the teachers’ technology base (see further discussion under Technology Committee).  In order to make up for two of the four days missed because of the October snowstorm, school will be held on Martin Luther King Day and Presidents Day (previously these were days off).  Parents will be notified of this via the Wednesday news.  Parents will also be reminded via the Wednesday news that generally St Christopher School follows the Nashua schools for school closings, i.e. for snow, but that this may not always be the case.  When checking school cancellation notifications parents should look for St Christopher School specifically.

Mrs. Clarke had to leave the meeting early, but wanted to make everyone aware that curriculum is of utmost importance at St. Christopher School.  Teams of teachers meet on a weekly basis to discuss issues and review current use of curriculum including how Enoboards can be used in conjunction with textbooks.  Currently we are looking at updating the literacy curriculum in grades 3-6 and should be receiving samples to explore in the next few weeks.

The Diocese has mandated principals make a State of the School report to the parents before the end of the year.  Mrs. Clarke will be making her State of the School presentation on December 5, 2011 at 6:30pm.  A copy of Mrs. Clarke’s presentation will be submitted to the Diocese.

Space Constraints:

Discussion postponed until December.

Fundraising:

Final totals for the fall fundraiser are still pending.  There was some discussion about whether or not to have the calendar raffle in future years.  Further discussions will be held with Nashua Catholic and Infant Jesus to determine interest in continuing this combined fundraiser.

Due to the recent snow days the annual drive has not been mailed out yet.  The requests should go out in the mail in the next week or so.

Technology Committee:

The technology committee defined their goal.  They will focus on technology in support of the school’s mission – education.  The goal has three parts:  1) make sure technology works; 2) identify ways to extend current use of technology; 3) investigate new technology.

All teachers will be receiving further training in email, power point, excel, word and Eno technology.  Training will include weekly meetings with teachers.

Marketing Committee:

The board viewed the ad for Cinemagic.  The ad will start to run on November 16.  Plans are still in the works to have a school movie night at Cinemagic.

The school Twitter account is up and ready.

Open house will take place on December 2, 2011 at 9:30am.  Other open house dates are January 5, 2012 from 9am – 11 am and 6pm – 8pm and January 8, 2012 from 11:30am to 1pm.

Next meeting: Our next meeting will take place the evening of December 14, 2011, exact time and location to be determined.