Blog
Education Commission Meeting, September 3, 2020
Attending: Zoom: Deacon Paul and Marilee Poulter, Karri Brauman, Monsignor Mak, Vicki Irsik, Kelly Hamrin. In-person: Linda Adams, Linda Bukalski, Barb Steinman, Karen Blevins, Mel Graessle
Prayer led by Monsignor Mak.
Hospitality by Linda A
PSR (Vicki)
- PSR classes start next Wednesday, September 9, 2020.
- Vicki asked Linda A to be a substitute teacher for 4th grade next Wednesday for Kim Dulle who will not be able to attend. Kim’s daughter will be Kim’s assistant for the school year.
- Tote bags for each student will be in next Wednesday and ready for use at Wednesday evening classes.
- Teacher binders will be printed Monday and ready for Wednesday classes.
- Volunteers, two groups of three, will be needed for next Wednesday’s PSR classes, one for Bestgen and one for main building. One to monitor traffic, one to take temperatures of students, and one to record temperatures/collect registration packets. Mel and Karen volunteered to help, Kelly will be there as well.
- Grades 3, 4, and 6 will be in Bestgen Hall; K, 1, 2, and 5 will be in the Religious Education rooms.
- Kelly will make signs to help with directions.
- Karen and Kathy C. will work on getting drop boxes for paperwork.
- There will not be a parent meeting during Wednesday night’s meeting as posted earlier. In the bulletin. Vicki plans to call households, send emails, and use Remind to let parents know of the cancelled meeting.
- Student temperatures will be taken from inside vehicles and recorded on preprinted rosters in accordance of diocesanprotocol.
- PSR classes will be limited to last name letters A-K and L-Z, every other week. Sept. 9 will be last names starting with A-K and Sept. 16 will be last names starting with L-Z, alternating weeks from then.
- Registration forms will be put into tubs and left undisturbed for the set time of protocol.
- Both Kindergarten and 1st grade will meet on Sept. 9. One grade in library and one in regular classroom. Those classes will then alternate weeks.
- Fifth grade will enter the building through the St. Theresa room so they won’t bother other classes.
- Confirmation will start on Sept 13 with a parent/student meeting of grades 7, 8, and 9.
- The education commission is excited for PSR/Confirmation to start. Let’s get the kids here!
- Some parents have requested curriculum to help their kids who will do PSR classes at home right now. Monsignor mentioned this is a great opportunity to get family/kids connected with mentors, like the “Franciscans at Home” program offers.
- Barb and Vicki have been meeting to get ideas for parent meetings during PSR time. Probably will not occur until mid-October. Some ideas and resources they are considering are Formed, Catholic 101, Saints, 77 Ways to Pray. Barb and Vicki see this program as long term and ongoing. They want to present things that parents are interested in. They will ask parents what they want and then present on the ideas given.
- Monsignor stated the Pastoral Plan Stewardship pillar is getting ready to roll out. Stewardship is a way of life. Linda A. commented Fr. Jones did a great job in last week’s homily at mass talking about stewardship.
- Karen B reported about the High School get together in August. 9 of the 27 attended. These students are in grades 10, 11, and 12 who were confirmed in May. Students went to mass and then out to the Wolf’s house for fellowship and fun. There was dinner and scavenger hunt based on last year’s confirmation class survival tools. Monsignor Mak talked with the students about dealing with the current issues in the world, all wrote down things they wanted to leave behind on sheets with ship images on them. The images were then burned in the bonfire while the song “Burn the Ships” was played. Feedback about the class was also collected. One comment was that the class was so large it was hard to build relationships. With the Covid protocol, this year’s class will be divided in half, which will help this. Days that involve a guest speaker or other special events, the whole class will meet together. There was great discussion about NCYC and what they would like to see in this year’s High School program. The Wolf family offered to host the “Homeless Nights” sleepover.
- E-Learning went okay on Monday. There were six students in the morning and four in the afternoon. Kelly and Steve Janetti were adult supervisors and Joey Adams helped as high school tutor/mentor. Students were in the library as wifi was not good in Fellowship Hall. Monsignor will have his hotspot available to use going forward. This will allow e-learning to be held in Bestgen Hall.
Hispanic/ESL (Vicki)
- Nothing to report.
Adult Faith Formation (Barb)
- Barb has a couple books she would like to try and use for adult book studies, Doing Business for the Good Book and 9 Words.
- Four ladies are going to the White House retreat in south St. Louis on September 10-13.
Life Planning (Karri)
- There is one wedding, a wedding validation, and two baptisms set during September.
Formed/Library (Kelly)
- The Library database is down. Monsignor is working on building an in-house server.
Renewal Movement (Mel)
- October 24-25 is the Welcome Weekend for ladies of the parish. The team is meeting twice a month now since the weekend is close. There are two ladies signed up as participants. There was a huge thank you to those who worked on getting the Welcome page set up on the website. It looks amazing.
- Advent By Candlelight that was scheduled for December 8 has been cancelled due to Covid restrictions. The 2021 date will be set soon. There was discussion about possibly doing something around Lent. This will also be based on Covid restrictions but Mel will look into this option.
New Evangelization (Linda B)
- 33 Days to Morning Glory was a great success. It was completed in August. Consoling the Heart of Jesus, the second part of the series, may start in January. There could possibly be two groups for that study, one group would consist of those ladies who just finished 33 Days and the second group would be of those who have completed the study already but would like to go through it again a second time for a more in depth study.
- Monsignor said the Consecration to St. Joseph program was well received. He is looking into getting another study started very soon for the men. Linda B stated, “Maybe the men like the zoom meetings better than in person.”
- Do Something Beautiful for me, Essential teachings of Mother Teresa will be given to each household at Christmas.
- Starting Point is a program for baptism. Linda B will give the book, etc. to Karri.
OCI/Catechesis (Deacon Paul)
- Next Wednesday, there will be a Q & A session for last year’s group, via zoom.
- There are four people interested in RCIA.
- For now, all meetings for people in this group will be held through zoom.
Core Team and Positions for 2020-21 year (Linda A)
- Need one more person for Core Committee.
- Positions need to be filled: chairperson, vice- chairperson, and secretary. Members were asked to discern these positions. Decisions will be made at the October meeting.
- Linda A is finishing her second year as chairperson. Barb just started as vice- chairperson, Mel finished the two year term as secretary.
Other announcements
- Karen B will be prayer/reflection for October meeting. Mel will do hospitality.
- Oct. meeting will be a hybrid, zoom/ in person.
- Next meeting date is October 1, 2020.
Monsignor closed the meeting with reflection and prayer.