Holy Redeemer Parish Council Minutes

January 21, 2009

7:30 p.m.

1.      Attendees:  Fr. George, Rita Thompson, Rosemary Allender, Ellen Davis, Dave Fortuna, Mollie Huitema, Rob Pannell, Bob Pizzano, Mark Russo, Robert Shaulis, Joe Theis

2.      Father George opened the meeting with a prayer.

3.      Both the president and chair reserved their comments for appropriate times during the meeting.

4.  Minutes of the November meeting were approved.

5.      Committee Reports

Social Justice - No report.

Liturgy - Joe Theis (for Mary Katherine)

a.       The next committee meeting will be February 3^rd or 7^th.

b.      Simple meals and the RCIA will be discussed.

School Advisory Board - Rita Thompson

a.       See Attachment 1.

b.      In response to a question, Rita explained that the requested walkie-talkies will     replace the ones used by the maintenance people, the office, and the after- school staff.

Youth – Nikki Keller (for Elise Uhn)

a.       The Youth Group had a lock-in last Friday.

b.      The group has been doing movie night once a month.  About 15 kids attend.

c.       A food fast to benefit Catholic Relief Services is scheduled for February 6th and 7^th.

d.      The spring retreat will be at Camp Maria.

e.       The group is going bowling this Friday.

f.        They hope to use the convent space.

      Christian Formation – Marie Winterson (for Lynn Baker)   

a.       They are thinking of moving SOR to Sunday. Only 10 students participate now.

b.      A day of reflection will be planned for students who are preparing for Confirmation.  The inscription mass will be celebrated in February.   

c.       First Eucharist preparation starts at the end of this month.  There are only seven children in the class who are not attending Holy Redeemer School.

Finance - Ellen Davis

a.       The school budget has been approved.  There will be a 5% increase in tuition and aftercare.  The projected school enrollment is 235, with 70 in aftercare.  There will be no increase in staff.  K-3 enrollment is low.

b.      The committee will look at the parish budget at its next meeting.

Facilities - Bob Pizzano

a.       See Attachment 2

b.      The committee is getting proposals for lights in the parking lot.  There may be zoning issues and complaints from neighbors. 

c.       It will cost about $200,000 to pave the parking lot.

6.      New Business

a.       Presentations for use of the convent

·        Six parish groups expressed interest in using available space in the convent and/or space resulting from the relocation of the parish offices.  These groups are the School, Quilters, Bereavement Ministry, Crafters, White Elephant Stand (see Attachments 3–7), and Youth Ministry (see Nov. minutes, Attachment 2)

·        Bob Pizzano reminded the council that the original goals were to provide adequate offices spaces and to make three rooms available to the school.  Mrs. Bovich said that, starting last year, families have been assessed a yearly facilities fee to help fund a school expansion.

·        Father George will decide how the space will be allocated.

b.      Parish security

·        Mark Russo presented several suggestions for improving security on the parish property (see Attachment 8).

·        The Council approved a motion to form a group to address security concerns.  Mark will head this committee.

7.      Old Business

Ellen Davis distributed a summary of issues that have been raised about the Parish Pastoral Constitution (see Attachment 9).  These issues will be discussed at the March meeting.

8.    The next meeting is scheduled for March 18, 2009.

9.    Father George led the closing prayer.

Respectfully submitted,

Mollie Huitema

Attachment 1

Holy Redeemer School Advisory Board Mtg. 1/12/09

• Giving Tree has bought in over $2,600 in cash and donations of items on the tree
• A parent has volunteered to take on a project and a suggestion was made for the Alumni database.
• Plant repairs, painting, etc. did not work over the holidays. Looking at other possible times.
• 5 or 6 Walkie Talkies were donated to the school
• School was audited in December for the United Way program
• The grant writing was completed for a Resource teacher, we asked for $50,000.00 and if we get at least half of what we asked for, we might still be able to manage a Resource teacher.
• Received a donation from the Catholic Business Network in the amount of $500.00
• The school has sent in requests for two $1,000.00 grant requests for technology from the Catholic Business Network.
• There are 80 students in aftercare and last year there were 65. Based on the new numbers aftercare had to be restructured. The new program is working well. Aftercare is using more rooms in the building, has more structure, activities and discipline.
• The weekly Thursday folder starts going home on 1/15/09.
• Catholic School’s week is coming up and there is a full week of events planned. I will bring a copy of the sheet with all the events planned to the meeting. The events will be in the church bulletin and an ad will be placed in the Catholic Standard.
• The Junior Honor Society has held several community service projects to include, SOME, food baskets and St Ann’s Infant Home.
• The Book Fair bought in $1,700.00 more than it has done in the past. Half of the money will be going to software in the fall.
• There will be an assembly for all ages on Bullying.
• There will be a guest speaker on St. Paul in the spring.
• Acapella group from University of MD coming for free to perform a school concert for the students.
• Mr. Holland coming to speak to the 8^th graders. He wrote a book on the building of the Capitol and the involvement of the African-Americans in building the U. S. Capitol.
• The HS Placement Test results were just received, and the initial results looks like it went well.
• Exams are happening this week and are going well.
• The Junior Honor Society starts tutoring this week.
• Mrs. Bovich attended a conference for new High School principals and there were 17 other schools in attendance. Only Trinity and Holy Redeemer were holding their own out of the 17 schools. Lots of reasons, less Catholics, less enrollment in K-3, economy, good alternatives. The Friends school that was in attendance is a preK-8 school and has only 183 students (off Kenilworth). They were amazed we had 240 students.
• Holy Redeemer’s numbers are now up to 240, which is what was budgeted for this school year.
• Holy Redeemer is considered a good model for Middle School.
• Holy Redeemer is considered a good feeder for the High Schools.
• The 2009/2010 budget is based on 235 students.
• There will be a 5% increase for the 2009/2010 school year. There was a 7% increase for the 2008/2009 school year.

Attachment 2

Facilities Report

• The planned self-help work over the holidays did not get off the ground as we (I) had hoped. I accept full responsibility for this. There was simply too much going on over the Christmas holiday. I should have known this beforehand. One of the maintenance persons whom we had hoped would help remove the old ceiling tiles went on vacation and it was too much for the one remaining maintenance worker to complete. We did not inventory of the leftover materials from our earlier ceiling work, consequently we did not purchase any additional materials to continue the project. The lead for our painting crew already had a planned vacation, so no painting work was done. And, the remainder of the new carpet on the landing did not get installed either. (I need to follow up on that and will try to have an answer by Wednesday’s meeting). We (I) will try again during spring break.
• We did engage the services of a small, minority-owned, electrical engineering firm, J & Z Engineering in Beltsville, to prepare a concept design for lighting the school parking lot. I have attached a copy of the statement of work. This as a result of the tragic Christmas Eve incident. When I met with Mr. Gulam, its president, we discussed the idea that lighting could be provided on the perimeter. This may still be possible, but his initial feeling was that the distance from the east side to the west side of the lot (and to a lesser extent the north-south distance) was too great to “throw” any meaningful light. Probably, the light standards will have to be in the middle of the lot. This, of course, is less desirable. We also discussed the need for timers and manual override of the lights. The company has been preparing a scale drawing of the lot and, as a result of their analysis, they will recommend the number and location of  the light standards, the wattage, etc. They will also identify the location from which we could obtain the necessary power. Permits will likely also be required. Hopefully, nothing more…except money!
• Ginny or Father probably know which organizations responded to the request to use the convent. Mrs. Bovitch did say she responded and I assume Marie Winterson did also. We probably need a decision very soon if any work is to be done over the summer to accommodate classroom or office  rearrangements. Father’s suggestion to me that the parish office could be relocated to the teacher’s lounge (less climbing of stairs, etc) and, in turn, the teacher’s lounge could be relocated to room #2 conflicts with the school’s plan to relocate the kindergarten to room #2 and use the existing kindergarten as a pre-school which has already been certified by the County. Father’s plan would leave the parish offices with insufficient room (no private offices for Father or the Deacon, no additional space for the parish office, no private office for Ginny, no more room for the music director, etc) and the same low quality of life. I recommend against this plan.

Attachment 3

Proposd Use for Convent Spaces – School  (This file requires the Adobe Acrobat© Reader for viewing and printing.)

 

Attachment 4

Proposd Use for Convent Spaces – Quilters

 

Attachment 5

Proposd Use for Convent Spaces – Bereavement Ministry

 

Attachment 6

Proposd Use for Convent Spaces – Crafters

 

Attachment 7

Proposd Use for Convent Spaces – White Elephant Stand

 

Attachment 8

HOLY REDEEMER PARISH COUNCIL ISSUE PAPER

PARISH SECURITY

January 21, 2009

ISSUE

Personal safety and security of parishioners should be assessed and actions taken improve security, as needed.

BACKGROUND

The brutal assault and robbery of a long-time parishioner in the church parking lot on Christmas Eve highlighted the vulnerability of parishioners to such incidents, particularly during evening masses, prayer services, and other events, such as Youth Group activities.  While the attack was unusual in terms of its severity, the neighborhood surrounding Holy Redeemer is certainly not crime-free.  Within less than a week of the incident on Christmas Eve, for example, a parishioner interrupted another robbery only 2 blocks from the church (48^th Ave and Ruatan Street).  In the interest of preventing such incidents in the future, an assessment should be conducted of current security vulnerabilities and cost-effective solutions for addressing them.  There are simple and low-cost measures that can be taken to improve parish security.  Among the potential solutions that should be considered are:

• Lighting improvements
• Volunteer parking lot security/observers during nighttime activities
• Parishioner education such as personal security awareness seminars
• Literature/handouts on security issues in the parish bulletin several times a year
• Announcements in the parish bulletin and during mass related to security issues
• Assessment of and procedural changes to physical security (e.g., locking school entrance shortly after mass begins)
• Interaction with City contract and County police officials and relevant civic organizations such as the Berwyn Neighborhood Watch

Impromptu efforts have been made to provide security for the rear parking lot at all night masses since January 2, 2009.  A number of spontaneous volunteers have assisted.  This activity should be encouraged until a more systematic approach can be developed.

RECOMMENDATION

1. For an ad hoc working group to assess parish safety and security and develop recommendations for improvements.  The working group would consist of 5-8 members and would work with other groups (e.g., Facility Working Group, Youth Group, etc.), as needed, on issues of mutual concern (e.g., locks, lighting, cameras).  The work group would report back with proposed membership, a draft charter, and initial findings and recommendations at the March parish council meeting.
2. Institute a program of volunteers to provide security, primarily in the form of parking lot watchers, during evening liturgies and prayer services.  Mark Russo is willing to coordinate this effort.

Attachment 9

Parish Pastoral Constitution

Issues Raised:

1.  Quorum is 8 members.

            Quorum is required to permit any action.

            Proposed Action:  Put Quorum call on each agenda.

2.   Composition of Council

            15 members

                        9 Community Members            -           3 year term

                        1 Youth Member                      -          1 year term

                        5 Advocates                             -          1 year term – 2 consecutive terms

                                    Liturgy

                                    Christian Formation

                                    Social Justice

                                    School Board

                                    Finance

We currently have 2 community members serving as Advocates.

Proposed Action:

Invite new members from the school board and the social justice ministry.

We have some advocates who have served 2 terms. 

Proposed action:

Identify other members of these groups and invite them to be advocates for term beginning in July.

3.  Facilities Committee

This is not a specific advocacy area in our Constitution.

However since this is an area that Father George has asked for input on it is appropriate to put it on the agenda.

Non-Council members can be asked to speak to this item, but should limit their comment to this agenda item during meetings.

4.  Major Decisions should be placed in the Bulletin