Education Committee changes name to "PSF Committee"

Hoping to get more young parents involved in the parish and the family education activities, the parish education committee has become simply the "PSF Committee."

Serving as a consultative board, the parish PSF Committee meets monthly with the Director of Religious Education (DRE). Using a consensus-style of discussion, the committee helps to set policies, determine goals, plan programs and generally guide the education plans for children and families and for the good of the parish.

If you are a registered member of the parish and are interested in being part of this committee, please contact Kathy Nicklaus (at the parish office). Cindy Sjolander,  John Horman, Mike Hoffman, Kate Escher, Pat Carpenter, Steve Duffrin, Kathy Nicklaus.  

The November 3rd meeting was postponed. The next PSF committee meeting is Tuesday, December 8 at 7 pm in the conference room, lower level

PSF Committee

M I N U T E S

October 6, 2009

Present: Mike Hoffman, John Horman, Kate Escher, Pat Carpenter, Steve Duffrin, Kathy Nicklaus

Absent: Cindy Sjolander

The meeting began with prayer at 7:00 pm

The prayer source: Families and Faith book

Special Note: Steve Duffrin was attending his first PSF committee meeting. Sandra Suchla had also indicated an interest in joining the committee meetings. However, she was unable to attend this evening.

PSF Report

Kathy reported that the annual PSF parent meeting was well attended with 58 of the 80 families represented at the meeting.

Sacramental Preparation

The parish has 16 students in the PSF 2^nd grade preparing for First Eucharist and 6 other preparing in the Aquinas Catholic School system. Therefore, there will be 22 children receiving their First Eucharist at our parish.

Confirmation candidates will be participating in the annual Confirmation recognition Sunday, on October 18^th.  Presently there are 26 high school sophomores preparing for the sacrament of Confirmation.

There will be two parent meetings for 4^th grade PSF parents on November 1 and November 4 to let the parents know the plans for a communal reconciliation experience for 4^th grade PSF students and their families. The annual workshop for the communal reconciliation experience will be held Saturday, November 21^st.

Registration Fees, 2010

After sharing information about Religious Education fees from area parishes which she gathered in late summer, Kathy opened the discussion about PSF fees.  The fees have not been adjusted for many years, as a result Newman’s fees are the lowest among area parishes. While most area parishes have an “out-of-parish” fee, Newman does not. Although the plan has never been to have the RE program be a self-sustaining program or a source of fundraising, it is necessary that it not rely solely on parish funds to be maintained. Presently, the parish has covered more than one-half of the program cost, not including personnel expenses.

Presently, the fees for PSF are: $35 for the first child and $65 for 2 or more children, with only a few families having more than 2 children in the program.

After a lengthy discussion, the proposal was left to the next meeting, with Kathy saying she would talk with Fr. Mark before the November meeting.

Advent Event

Although Cindy was not present, Kathy announced that Cindy was procuring the wooden bases needed for making Advent wreaths. Cindy will have 80 “cookies” (circles) cut for the wreaths. The Advent event will be November 22^nd. PSF classes will be shortened so that PSF families can make wreaths together. Newman already has some decorations to complete the wood bases.

A couple of committee members volunteered their help in setting up for the event.

This closed the discussion for the evening

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 3^rd at 7:00 pm (Postponed: see date above)