Principal Report – February 11, 2019
Maternity Leave: Congratulations to Courtney and Kyle Kraft on the birth of their son, Christopher
Michael. He was born on Sunday, February 10, 2019. Mom and baby are doing well. Ben Garrett will
be stepping in as the substitute teacher in 3K.
Snow Days: GSCS currently has one more built in snow make up day (April 22). If we miss one more
day, we will make it up on April 22. If we happen to miss two or more days, they will be made up on the
day of utilizing eLearning. The Indiana Department of Education has approved the school’s application
for virtual learning days. Teachers have been working to prepare for this if needed and parents have been
notified via the Ram Gram.
Kindergarten Orientation: Our Kindergarten Orientation is scheduled for Wednesday, February 20 at 6
p.m.
Family Life: The Family Life supplement to the religion curriculum will begin the week of February 25
for grades 4-8. A letter will be sent to families explaining the program. Copies of the materials will be in
the school office for parents to review.
ILEARN: ILEARN is the standardized test that is taking the place of ISTEP. Teachers have been
receiving training on best practices to prepare the students for this new assessment. Training will
continue until the testing window. The testing window for ILEARN is April 22- May 17.
IREAD3: IREAD is a required standardized reading test for grade 3. The window for administering the
test is March 18-22. All third graders will be testing online.
Math Bowl: GSCS students will participate in the annual Diocesan Math Bowl on February 21 at the
Catholic Center
Lent: The Spiritual Growth Committee is currently making plans for Lent. Ash Wednesday is March 6.
War on Hunger: GSCS will participate in a War on Hunger the week of February 18. All donations will
benefit the St. Vincent DePaul Food Pantry.
CSW: Catholic Schools Week 2019 was held the week of January 28. Students celebrated a different
theme each day with alternate dresses and a variety of activities. The 8 th grade class celebrated Mass with
the Bishop at Good Shepherd on Tuesday, January 29.
Diocesan Open House: GSCS hosted a “Come and See” Open House on Thursday, January 31 from 5 -7
p.m. We had 15 prospective families attend with the possibility of 19 new students for next school year.
Thank you cards have been sent to all the families in attendance.
Respectfully submitted by: Kristen Girten, Principal
Good Shepherd Catholic School Council – January 10, 2019
Call to Order
Attendance:
School Council: Principal Kristen Girten, Father Zach, Brandee Schnarr, Sara Brown, Sara Rogier, Dawn
Bowen, Michael Schaefer, Greg Rawski, Brian Kessler, Mark Schuler, and Joanie Pohl were in
attendance. Maren Smith from the Parish Council also attended. Dan Deeg, Jen Blackburn, and Beth
Keck were absent.
Prayer: Father Zach opened the meeting with a prayer.
Mission Statement: Our Mission Statement was read aloud by all.
Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the last meeting on November 29, 2018, were approved as
written.
REPORTS:
President’s Report: No report.
Pastor’s Report: Father Zach reported that he is trying to put information about new parishioners on the
website. One of our new families is a former Holy Redeemer family with 2 high schoolers and a 12-year-
old. It turns out that Morgan Lamberton will not be able to help coordinate the restart of Vacation Bible
School because she has too many other obligations. Please provide names of other potential persons who
might be able to help with this task. He is in the process of choosing the Maria Goretti award winners;
usually juniors in high school are picked and there are several great candidates so the choice is not an
easy/clear one. The different classes handling hospitality at the weekend masses has been a good thing.
Principal’s Report: Kristen submitted her written report to School Council members via email prior to
this meeting. Highlights include: The Diocesan “Come and See” Open House will be Thursday, January
31 st from 5-7 pm. Catholic Schools week will be January 27-February 1. GS will be hosting the Diocesan
CSW Mass on Tuesday, January 29. Letters will be sent to GS parishioners who have children age
appropriate for Kindergarten in 2019-2020. The Kindergarten Orientation meeting will be on
Wednesday, February 20 th . All faculty and staff were given a letter of intent on January 3 rd ; the forms are
requested to be returned by January 25 th . The Spelling Bee winner on November 28 th was Jack Schnarr.
The Geography Bee winner on December 5 th was Reece McCutchan. Madeline Schneider from USI will
be a student teacher in Mrs. Kessler’s classroom during 2 nd semester. We are excited to offer two new
academic teams this school year. Our 4 th and 5 th graders have the opportunity to participate in the Battle
of the Books. Our 6 th through 8 th graders have the opportunity to participate in the Academic Super Bowl.
Both competitions take place in the Spring.
More information can be found in Kristen’s complete written report on file with these minutes.
Preschool Report: Brandee’s report was submitted to School Council members via email prior to this
meeting. Highlights include: With the help of parishioner Greg Pence, who has some background with
marketing and design, we were able to create a special Little Rams brochure/pamphlet that can be used
with our prospective families and info packets we give to new families. Preview Night on Jan. 9 th was a
success. We had 22 families attend. Of those 22, we have applications from 15 of those families. In
looking at numbers for next year, we currently have 20/20 current preschool students who have applied
for our Pre-K class, and 10 applications for the remaining 4 Pre-K spots. For Preschool, we currently
have 18 applications for 20 spots, and we are expecting applications from an additional 6 families that are
parishioners or employees of GS. We have extended our application deadline until after the Diocesan
Open House on January 31 st . Last year, we had 8-10 families that were interested in spots that came
through during the Open House.
It was brought up that people are almost begging to get into our Preschool and PreK. Discussion was
held as to how we can find/build/acquire more space. Are trailers still allowed to be used for classrooms
like other schools have done in the past? Kristen will call Joe Holtz at Holy Rosary to find out who we
could call regarding building codes, etc. This is something that probably couldn’t happen for next school
year because it has to be approved by the Diocese and we would possibly have to have a capital
campaign. Right now we need to begin “building our case” as to whether we should increase the size of
the Preschool and PreK, where the funding might come from, what are we losing right now by telling
people we are full, etc. There was not a lot of interest in adding afternoon classes because most families
want full-time. It was determined that a subgroup/committee will be formed to research this issue. Brian,
Michael and Greg offered to help with the information gathering. Brandee anticipates that by February
15 th , we will have to tell some applicants that we have no room and for them to look elsewhere.
On other topics, our students will be taking a field trip off site to CMOE on January 18 th . The Little Rams
will be hosting the hospitality mass during the masses at the end of Catholic Schools Week (2/2 and 2/3).
Brandee is working on a Professional Development opportunity for our entire staff, learning more about
the brain, ADHD, anxiety, and sensory processing needs. This will take place after school at GS.
Legislative Liaison Report: No report in Beth Keck’s absence. Beth is attending an INPEA event
tonight.
Athletic Committee Report: Mark Schuler reported that wrestling practice starts next week; winter
sports are wrapping up. In 1-3 years, we will need to do an assessment of our bleachers for safety issues.
There current bank balance is between $40K and $45K. The concessions & gate income has been good.
Tech Team Report: Mark Schuler distributed copies of several documents: Highlights of the 1-9-19
Tech Meeting; an iPad Funding flow chart; and Technology Register ’18-’19. Mark went over the details
of these documents and graphs. Financially, there has been $33,412 in expenses, with approximately
$14,792 remaining in the technology budget. $2000 will be moved from Apple VPP to Ink and Toner.
There will be further discussion on printing needs on campus. Discussion was held regarding raising the
per student iPad fee from its current $50.00 to $75.00. A motion was made and seconded that we will
increase this fee to $75.00 next school year.
Marketing Report: Greg Rawski had no new information to report.
PTO Report: No report in Jen Blackburn’s absence.
Financial Report: Michael Schaefer reported that the building of the cry room is in the works. Tuition
is to be discussed very soon; working on gathering data for that.
ITEMS FOR DECISION
7 a) School Calendar 2019-2020. Kristen previously emailed the proposed calendar to School Council
members. It was compiled with the other east side principals and is based on the MHS calendar, even
though MHS always has their graduation the weekend before our last week of classes. It has 90 days in
first semester and 90 days in second semester, with 4 built-in makeup days. This 2019-2020 calendar was
officially approved by School Council members.
ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION
8 a) Enrollment 2019-2020. Michael Schaefer distributed a 1-page handout regarding enrollment for the
current school year at 2018 SY start and 2018 SY 2 nd semester, and also a projection for 2019. We have
lost eight (8) students between the start of this SY and the end of 2018. He reported that Kristen, Sarah
Gahagen, and he met this morning.
9 a) Tuition 2019-2020. Michael stated that he, Kristen and Sarah Gahagen will be meeting a couple
more times soon. He is still in the process of gathering data in order to have sufficient information to
make a proposal regarding next school year’s tuition. We are anticipating an $87K increase in expenses.
We had a $35K increase last school year.
A suggestion was made that maybe GS should partner with MHS somehow to help increase our
enrollment. Father Zach noted that the current high school assessment that GS pays for students attending
MHS is $1,500.00 per student. Should we have “stipulations” attached to the payment of that assessment
per student, or should it continue to just be more like an “entitlement”? That topic will be discussed with
the Parish Council in detail very soon.
The tuition proposal will be completed soon and will be discussed and voted on at the February 14 th
School Council meeting.
The Come Holy Spirit prayer was prayed at the end of the meeting, which adjourned at
approximately 7:12 PM. The next regular meeting will be Thursday, February 14, 2019, at 6 PM.
Respectfully submitted: Joanie Pohl, Secretary