Dr.
Christine
Caron Gebhardt
Principal
(615)
292-9465; voicemail (615) 467-1001
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 Dear Christ the King School Families, This is a longer letter than usual as I have a great deal of information to share with you about the state of school and plans for the next few months. I have tried to hit the highlights for you and place things under categories for your ease. Since the start of the school year, the administration and the School Board have been working on the school budget and strategic plans for the academic year, 2010-11. We have talked about where we would like our school to be, surveyed our first year alum in high school, and have planned for the future of CKS. In addition, we have been working hard so that when I leave for maternity leave, your children’s care and family’s needs will be addressed. Therefore, we offer this long but comprehensive letter to provide you a kind of “state of the school.” INSTRUCTION AND COMMUNICATION One of our greatest instructional missions is for CKS to address the diverse needs of our students. Our ITBS scores place us above the Diocesan and national averages as well as in the top 7% of schools in the nation. Further, we have excellent resource programs for our students needing remediation or enrichment. However, many parents have asked for ongoing reports other than grades to determine their student’s progress. A common question is “How do I know my child is working toward his/her potential before the end of the year?” Given your question, we are currently investigating formative assessment programs for next year. By using federal funds and private donations, we will put in place assessment programs for Math and Reading that will be given to all students at regular intervals. These assessments allow us to compare students against national benchmarks to identify a student who is at risk or not performing up to their expected potential. Parents would be given this information along with grades and standardized tests to determine their student’s growth. Further, we are looking into ways to better communicate using email and our website. It is our hope to update the information more easily but also make the format more user friendly. Our goal is to enable teachers and parents to share information that insures student success. FACILITIES Father Dexter received affirmation from the Parish Finance Board and Pastoral Council to pursue the potential of a capital campaign for the spring. It is Father’s hope to begin construction on a new building for our campus in late spring or early summer. This exploration is in its preliminary stages and no concrete dates or building plans have been finalized. Father is in consultation with the fundraising consultant as well as the architect to determine the next steps for a campaign and how much we could build given our fundraising potential. It is our hope for a new gym, a couple of classrooms and a preschool but, as stated, no final details have been confirmed. I will pass on further information as I receive it. The Parish Finance Board has agreed to pay for a new sign for the front of our school. A new sign will not be affected by any future construction and the funds are coming from the parish repair and maintenance account. We look forward to our new front look in hopes of sprucing up our school and also to be able to better communicate with you. FINANCES Knowing how many of our families are struggling in the economy, our School Board tried to maintain the balance between providing for our school’s needs with the desire to not place an unreasonable burden on our families. Our entire community diligently works as responsible stewards of our fiscal and plant resources. In projecting for next year’s budget, the School Board prayerfully recommended and the Finance Board and Pastor approved a tuition increase of 2.37%. This budget allows us to provide strong academic & co-curricular programs, maintain our facilities despite the rise in purchased services, continue marketing our school, expand our development programs, and utilize innovative instructional technology for formative assessment. Included in this week’s Friday folders are pre-registration forms for next year. We ask you to fill out these forms and return them with your deposit before Thursday, February 11. We know that any increase impacts a family and many are torn between providing a Catholic education and paying your bills. It is our desire to help in any way we can. We encourage folks to discuss with us the ways that we can work together to keep your children at Christ the King School. We are here for your family and will assist you as we are able. For convenience, you can download copies of the forms using the following links: Recently with the help of an organizational consultant, we conducted a study to determine areas where our school could improve its processes and develop strategies to maximize our potential without burdening parents with large tuition increases. Our goal was to not cut programs that benefit our students. It was determined from the report that we must adopt a strategy that brings in revenue other than tuition. In order to implement our goals, the Board budgeted $215,000 to be raised by development and fundraising events. In order to do so, the School Board has decided to enact three strategies. First, we will no longer offer the prepayment discount for tuition paid in full by May. Two, a way to raise $34,000 for our school is by requiring every family to participate in our scrip program. The desire is for families to raise $200 each through household purchases and participation of friends and relatives rather than increase tuition by $200. One third of our families currently uses the program and finds it valuable since monies raised not only benefit the school but have the potential to help families after the initial $200 is raised. Beginning on June 1, families will be required to participate in the program with the first $200 earned going to our school. Any monies earned after that amount would go into the family’s school account to pay for tuition, fees, 8th grade trip or any other school related expense. Families not wanting to participate in scrip would have the option to pay the amount with their monthly tuition payments or waive their deposit to go toward their scrip contribution rather than decrease the final month’s tuition. While both of these steps raise some portion of the total amount, the greatest focus is within development, particularly on annual giving, special events, grants and corporate sponsorship. The report indicated that while our special events and annual giving are crucial for revenue, we have the potential to cultivate resources beyond our school and parish families. What we need is for one person’s focus to be on investigating and implementing advancement strategies that reach out to the larger Nashville community. As you know, the office staff wears many hats—caring for kids, families and teachers, admissions, advertising and communication, to name a few. It was recommended by our consultant and agreed upon by Father and the Board that we should add a part-time position exclusively in Development rather than adding more responsibilities to our current staff. As a result, we did a search and interviewed potential candidates recommended by our consultant over Christmas Break. We are pleased to announce that beginning next week, Mrs. Lori Ogden has agreed to take the part time position. We are lucky, as Lori is a licensed development professional who comes with over 10 years experience working for non-profits such as Court Appointed Special Advocates and Exchange Club Family Center. She will be working with the Board, the Development Advisory Committee and our volunteers to advance our development efforts and to cultivate sources of revenue for our school. Due to space, she will work out of the Parish Library but if you see Lori please give her a CKS welcome. UPCOMING EVENTS 8th grade Chili Cook Off will be held on Saturday, January 30 in the Parish Hall starting at 5:30 p.m. The 8th grade is working on a fun evening of food and fellowship along with music. The silent auction items for 8th grade will be with the Art of Joyful Living this year so the focus will be on the chili and the wonderful recipes offered in their cookbook. Please see your favorite 8th grader for tickets! Catholic Schools Week will be held Sunday, January 31 through Friday, February 5. This year’s theme is Catholic School’s Dividends for Life: Knowledge, Morals, Discipline and Faith. Please note the flyer in your folder today requesting help with food on Sunday to show our appreciation to the parish for their support. There will not be a school wide theme contest this year-a full calendar will be out next week highlighting the events planned by our Committee. Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, March 1 from 7:30 to 2:30 p.m. We are trying a new format to see if this will benefit our parents as spring attendance is often difficult due to sports. Please let us know your comments after the day as we want to know what works best for our families and faculty. Art of Joyful Living at Crown Lounge (Parish Hall) is Saturday, March 6 at 5:30 p.m. More details are in a flyer in the Friday Folder and King’s Chronicle. Garage Sale benefitting the Home and School Association is on Sunday, April 17. As you gear up for spring cleaning, please make sure you collect items for our school. This event is a huge success as it draws in many community members. Drop off dates will be coming soon! Also, anyone who has the space to store items ahead of time, please contact Michelle Pruett or Ann Wehby. MATERNITY LEAVE Last, as you can tell from my appearance, my pregnancy is drawing to a close and we are anticipating the birth of our little girl. I recently was diagnosed with high blood pressure and the doctor has placed me on partial bed rest. Regrettably, this means that I will be coming in for half days until the baby is born. The great news is that Father, the Board, faculty, staff and I have been planning for months on how to handle my leave. In fact, over the past three weeks folks have been gradually taking on more and more duties in preparation for my leave. Starting on Monday, responsibilities will fully shift to this administrative team. Along with the front staff, four others have agreed to take on further duties while I am gone. Mrs. Sherry Woodman, our vice principal, will be the acting principal and all matters ultimately are decided by her as the administrator. She will also deal with issues related to faculty and staff as well as K-3 discipline. Mrs. Tracey Williamson will be the administrative support person for grades 4th-8th. She and the individual teacher for each grade will handle academic, social and discipline concerns related to students in these grades. Mr. Vance will provide support, not only his usual sports programs, but also other extra curricular activities such Forensics, Chess, etc. He will also give oversight to the financial matters such as deposits, expenditures as well as facilities. Mr. Boehm will handle the email, communications and other correspondence. Mrs. Kathy Skinner will be the direct lead on the liturgies and provide support to teachers regarding faith formation. This is a great team who I know will provide a seamless transition while I am gone. Therefore, if you bring a matter up or need assistance, the front office or Mrs. Woodman will make sure the correct person assists you and your students with all you need. I will be returning after Easter to finish out the year. Be assured that Christ the King School remains central in my heart and if I am needed, I will be here for you and your family. As always, I thank you for the honor to work with your children now and in the future. Sincerely,  Your Principal | |
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