School Board Blog | Holy Spirit School

School Board News 11/08

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:07:10 -0800

The Holy Spirit School Consultative School Board is made up of several committees that work on items to enhance our parish school. The committee highlighted in this news brief is the Building and Grounds Committee.

Over the summer the B&G committee teamed up with parishioner volunteers to convert the old computer lab into a teachers lounge complete with a sink and refrigerator. Mrs. Buchanan’s office moved into a larger space (where the teachers lounge was previously.) The old principal’s office is now the Tech Room where Mr. Velasco works and the mobile computer labs are parked.

What’s in the works for this coming school year?

Smart Key System

Upgrade Light Fixtures for energy efficiency

Plan to Convert Space under Church for School Use

Ceiling Fans for Classrooms / Office

Student use of the field area behind the Preschool

Additional items pending grant funding would be:

· New Windows for All Classrooms

· Prayer Garden

If you would like more detailed information on progress with this committee or action items please check out our website at HolySpiritFmt.com click on “Groups” from the home page and then “School Board” and you’ll be able to find the “Monthly Committee Updates”.

As always, thank you for your continued support and prayers!

Look for more on the Technology Committee news & progress next month.

School Board News

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:01:56 -0700

As you may already know the Holy Spirit Consultative School Board is made up of several committees that work on items to enhance our parish school. The committee highlighted in this news brief is the Finance Committee.

Having helped the principal, Mrs. Buchanan, deliver the school budget for the 2008-09 school year, the Finance team is concentrating on fine tuning our parish school financials. Currently the team is in the process of transferring the financials to the school server using Mac QuickBooks. Also, they have started investigating certain expenses to see if they can be reduced via negotiation with vendors.

Some projects for the year include developing a five year financial forecast with a specific focus on cash planning. Additionally, the Finance Committee is looking into maximizing return on cash by perhaps moving some cash to higher yielding investments which are, of course, FDIC insured. Plus the committee has been assigned the task of evaluating the financial impact of enlarging the preschool. Developing an overall financial model for the school that is capable of running multiple long-term planning scenarios is also on the committee’s action item list.

For more details or projects status please visit us online at holyspiritfmt.com under Groups and then selecting School Board.

As always, thank you for your continued support and prayers!

Look for more on school news & progress in next months biannual Development Newsletter.

New Appointment for School Board

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:58:41 -0700

Gloria Del Rosario has been appointed Chair for the Missions, Policy and Enhancements Committee. Congratulations! And, thank you, Gloria, for supporting our parish school in this role.

New Committee Chairs

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:31:18 -0700

The new Committee Chairs have been appointed for next (’08-09) School year. They are:

(Incumbents from ’07-08)

Stewardship & PR: Vanessa Barrett

Technology: Tim Riener

Buildings and Grounds: Jeff Van der Sluis (John Barron to assist)

(New)

Executive: Jeff Van der Sluis

Finance: Barry Slivinsky

Grants: Lucia Pena

Safety: Rob Paglieri

Policy/Mission Enhancement: Elise Ajawara

I deeply appreciate their willingness to serve the School community in these important areas, and congratulations to each member!

-Jeff V.

Election of Officers

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:33:37 -0700

Election of Officers:

The new School Board officers were voted in at the March meeting for next year. The results are: Charmaine Zamora will be Secretary, Frank Cannizzaro will be Vice-Chair, and the new Chair is Jeff Van der Sluis. This vote took place earlier than previous years to allow more time to transition, with the goal being members will hit the ground running for next year!

-Jeff V.

What’s New with the School Board Tech Committee -

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:52:06 -0800

In the last few months, the Technology Committee has completed an effort began last spring to get laptops into the hands of our teachers. In conjunction with the new server system, the laptops allow our teachers to work in a much more flexible and adaptive manner that suits their schedules and needs.

Teachers are not the only ones with laptops. We are now well underway towards the goal of having a "mobile computer lab." The mobile lab would consist of a bank of laptops (eventually 36) stored on a portable cart which could be moved from classroom to classroom. In the fall we added 7 laptops to the existing Computer Lab at school for the eventual mobile lab. The recent grant funding awarded to the school has allowed us to accelerate our plans. We already placed an order for 10 more laptops from those monies.

We started 2008 with a newly designed school website. Crafted from the ground up, the new website is hosted on the new servers and what you are reading is, hopefully, but a sample as we continue to take advantage of the rich features.

Educational standards are an item presently necessitating input from the Technology Committee. The Oakland Diocese has a thick binder of documentation that Mrs. Buchanan's staff is required to complete by documenting, explaining, and illustrating the role of technology in the school's curriculum. The good news is that, relative to the expectations of technology in our curriculum, our technology planning over the last year has created a ready-to-use archive of materials related to current and future planning, deploying, staffing, and utilizing technology.

What’s coming for the Tech Committee? Right now we’re working on assessing options and making recommendations for interactive whiteboards for classrooms.

If you have any questions or wish to contribute in some way to our Tech Committee please contact the committee chair, Tim Riener at triener@pacbell.net or leave a message at the school office.

Safety Committee News

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:25:55 -0800

Holy Spirit School provides a safe environment for our parish children through the continuing efforts of the faculty and the School Board Safety Committee.

Our EPP, Emergency Preparedness Plan, was created and implemented many years ago.

To keep our children safe plans and procedures are in place for basic daily processes like traffic flow and recess procedures. Additionally, our EPP covers all emergency situations from campus lock downs to natural disasters. There are enough supplies to provide for half of our student body for 72 hours! New this year is a portable first aid backpack, which accompanies classes when they travel off-campus on field trips.

Sgt. John Liu from the Fremont Police Dept. completed a campus risk and safety assessment with our team in November. After inspection Sgt. Liu approved our plans and procedures. He reinforced our new school policy to keep the main lobby door on Parish Avenue locked even during school hours.

The Safety Committee is comprised of volunteers from law enforcement, nursing, our teachers and doctors. If you have a medical or safety background, or are interested in serving on this Committee Please contact the school. Parishioners are encouraged to join the committee as an active volunteer or on a consultative basis.

Do you have any questions for our Safety Committee regarding the school safety program? We will address any questions at the Annual Emergency Preparedness Meeting for Parents (date TBA) as well as here in the Sunday Bulletin.

To volunteer or submit questions please email Barney Chan at barney168@sbcglobal.net, Frank Cannizaro at frandrew@mindspring.com, or leave a message at the school office – 793-3553. We would love to hear from you!

- PR Committee

Grants Committee News

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:25:54 -0800

The Holy Spirit School Board Grant Committee procures funds for the school through a lengthy process. Initially members search resources which profile foundations all the while targeting possible donors for the school. The Grants Committee then matches possible grants with specific project needs around campus. Formal letters of request are then mailed to prospective organizations.

From here the waiting begins as the committee awaits the foundation’s response. At this point a letter of denial, acceptance or inquiry can be returned to our parish school. Inquiries can be a request for additional information or an onsite visit. The school hosted a few campus visitations in October and November.

The Grant Committee’s hard work has really paid off for the parish school. Three grants have been awarded so far this year:

Crescent Porter Hale Foundation - $15,000 for the capital improvements

Carl Gellert and Celia Berta Gellert Foundation - $5,000 for Technology Program

Trust Funds Inc - $10,000 for Technology Program

Congratulations to the Grant Committee on achieving this terrific grant funding for Holy Spirit School!

To volunteer to serve on the Grant Committee or to submit questions please email Charmaine Zamora at charmaine.zamora@nolte.com or leave a message at the school office – 793-3553.

-PR Committee

HSSCHOOLBOARDEVALRESULTS

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:01:44 -0800

We recently completed a School Board Self-Evaluation. This is to assess areas of strength, and opportunities for improvement for the Board. The results, along with an action plan (see tab at bottom of the spreadsheet) to address those areas of opportunity, can be seen by clicking on the link above, which will download the Excel spreadsheet. As always, we welcome your feedback.

-Suzanne

This week the Board is working on updates to the Website

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 20:57:07 -0800

This week the Board is working on updates to the Website. The updates will help us communicate on a more timely basis, and offers some other exciting possibilities for the future. Look for those changes soon!

-Suzanne