Minutes from Coffee with Fr. Bill
3-4-07

Fr. Bill welcomes everyone and explains that he hopes to host a coffee once a month to share ideas because “This is not my parish, it is our parish.”

He opened the meeting with a prayer

D’Ann White from the Pastoral Council shared some information about the council:

• Started 2002 as an advisory board for Ft. Bill
• Current Focus is Strategic Planning
• Concentration is on the surveys going on at the parish and almost all ministries have participated so far
• Council has 9 elected members with 1 rep from the school, 1 rep from the Finance Council, 1 rep from the parish office, and Fr. Bill
• Council gives feedback to ideas and concerns raised by the parish and Fr. Bill

Dave Lemar from the Finance Council shared an updated budget in the packet handed out and said the council monitors the parish budget (expenses and income). It is their job to “Safeguard your gifts.”

Lisa Huetteman from the School Advisory Board shared the following:

• Current focus: Accreditation – first 5 steps
• March 28-30 will be 3-day accreditation visit
  

Expansion:

• Added second kindergarten this year
• Next year will add second first grade
• Modular building for next year planned

SAC:

• Establishing budget for next year
• Ahead of current budget
• Angels being ahead of budget helped with school finances
• Elections in April – 2 openings for parish

School Strategic Plan – working with accreditation and parish

Next year:

• 366 enrolled for next year; 2 others possible
• 5-day a week EC3 program next year – 1 space left

Other openings:

• EC4 – 1
• 1 st grade – 1
• 2 nd grade – 2
• 4 th grade – 1
• 6 th grade – 3

Person commented on great teachers.

Fr. Bill’s comments about the school …

Working on:

• B-Ball field
• Mary Garden
• Fencing entire area

School waiting list is prioritized by: siblings of current students, parishioner’s children, other Catholics, at large enrollments

• Financial reports available when requested
• “School is doing extremely well”
• “Accreditation is gong well”
• Our school has high standards and our graduates are doing very well

Mark Ugo from the Strategic Planning Committee shared information about their current and future projects:

Currently collecting data about our area and future growth trends: what kind of people will be living in the area – age groups and family structures – to know what kind of church to build

If missed recent meetings or have not taken a survey, please visit the Strategic Planning link on the website at www.ststephencatholic.org. They are seeking:

• What people want
• Stay focused on current needs and look forward to future needs

They want to “ Taylor to parish needs.”

Next step: take data gathered and determine what it all means and how to address it.

Fr. Bill’s state of the parish:

• Over budget this year due to growth and addition of new staff
• RE and School very important to parish
• Added some new part-time employees in RE to help with huge numbers in that program
• “Is a small school in itself”

Elementary kids

• At 1,300 now with one part-time employee – Kelly
• Determining how to expand this program to fit the needs of the children
• Maybe expand to full-time employee next year

Middle School kids

• At 300 now with one part-time employee - Kim
• Next year will break up sessions by grade for 1 hour each
• This age group includes confirmation classes, as well

Biggest challenge for those age groups is to get them to church on Sunday – also working to reach out to kids who are parishioners but not registered for RE or at the school

Youth Ministry
High School

• At 100 attending on average each night
• Want to expand this program and may need more staff to do it
• Current staff are Ed Lugo with help from Jeff Falanga

Our 1 failure is the college program

• Hope that by building Elementary, Middle School, and High School, it will build from the bottom up and college program will grow

Also added part-time adult education program – Jeanne Schneider

• Will focus on adult needs and support programs
• Annulments

His challenge to RE and School for next year:

Reach kids of divorced home and who have lost a parent

Other Notes from Fr. Bill:

Painting building

• Also added to going over budget this year
• Structurally needed for safety of building

Boyette widening

• Not official yet, but county said can purchase other property for holding pond and will only need a length across the front of our land – not estimated 5 acres – to go to 4 lanes
• Will eventually go to more lanes and buy more land then

Next year

• Planning to purchase kneelers for chairs missing them in the church – found wholesaler to purchase these from

Biggest challenges right now:

• Scheduling our building with current space and so many ministries needing space
• Keeping up maintenance and cleaning with so much use of current space
• School helping by opening doors to parish activities
• New modular will be built to support ministries with lockers and desks that can be moved to accommodate groups
• More space does create need for more maintenance and cleaning – will have to plan for that
• Need to know when there are things wrong and what we need to make things better – so tell someone so it can be addressed

Spring Jubilee update:

• Frank Wuco is the chair this year
• Event will be different with a fresh approach
• Area businesses will provide food this year
• BINGO will be added this year inside
• Focus will be on St. Stephen and this being a Catholic event
• Raffle tickets and sponsors are important part of making the event successful
• Sell tickets for the event and ask area businesses to be sponsors
• Money will go to RE, School, and local charities

Fr. Bill’s Concerns:

APA – Annual Pastoral Appeal

• Only 1/3 of the way to assessment
• Would like to be over
• Only 205 of the 3,500 families have given
• Please share suggestions about how to do this better – all are welcome

Next Year – Goals

Hire someone for

• Stewardship/outreach
• Additional RE employees
• Hire for next step in strategic planning – architect with experience
• Look at need for additional Saturday night Mass to provide for those who may not stay on Sunday when they see the full parking lot – want everyone to feel welcome and have space to worship
• Next year is 20 th Anniversary of the parish – need to plan celebration with style
• Will move Mary to left side of church soon – where she traditionally stands in churches

Since last Pastor’s Coffee:

• Working on surveys for strategic planning
• Training staff for growth by sending them to seminars
• Starting to look for development director to hire for strategic planning
• Started to look for architect with experience

Clergy update:

• Deacon Dan – was brought here on a 1-year contract; hopes to renew this
• Deacon Rick – helping as much as possible and valuable to parish
• Deacon Tom – has sold his house and will be moving after Easter. Farewell party will be at the church on Palm Sunday
• Fr. Mike – Fr. Bill hopes he will decide to stay with us and join our diocese. Hopefully we will have him with us for more than the traditional 2-year appointment because of his home in the area

Floor was opened for questions:

Question from Mary Ellen – the FCAT and ACRE are at the same time this year. FCAT causes extreme stress and concern for students and they see the ACRE as the religious FCAT. Anxiety is a concern for us as teachers in the school system and catechists at the church.

Answer from Fr. Bill – that is a great point and he hadn’t put the two tests together that way. He will look into our parish giving the ACRE at a different time than the FCAT – even if that means we do not give it at the same time as the rest of the diocese.

ACRE is a 2-part standardized faith evaluation –

• Faith knowledge
• Faith experience

It is given to all RE and School kids

Kids knowing their faith is a great concern for Fr. Bill –

He finds that most kids do not know their basic prayers and this is a fundamental problem

Their faith experience is very good – they know God loves them

He knows FCAT is a huge concern for children and causes a lot of stress and will look into this.

Comment from Rose – It is a huge blessing to have Fr. Bill and Fr. Mike here. Liked that Marilyn Stockelman was recognized for her amazing gifts- can’t we do that more often, like once a month?

Answer from Fr. Bill – We are blessed to have a very talented group of lay people letting all this growth and change happen – who all provide the presence of Christ to everyone. He likes the idea of a volunteer of the month and will look into that idea further.

Fr. Bill closed with prayer.