What Paddy Shot At

Last night, around 10pm, a great and dear priest-friend from Texas called to keep me up to date on some tumors that the doctor found. He will make some decisions in early December. Keep him and his family and parish in your prayers.

I had the 11:00am Mass this morning and then went to have tea with Theresa Zwalick, who was a parishioner at St. Catherine, when I was there and whose grandson, Brian Gibson, was a student at Good Counsel. We’ve kept in touch but hadn’t seen each other in a long time. I heard that she was ill and not taking an treatment; so I called and asked if I might come by. We had a delightful 2 hour visit at the kitchen table over tea. She had pictures of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. We laughed and cried. I will visit her again after the cruise but it was a gift to see her today.
When I got home the following was in my email. It is a copy of Fr. Lee’s article in the bulletin from St. Michael’s. I wanted to share it with you who have been so supportive of the school lo these many years. Thanks.

Dear Parishioners,
Not everyone was able to attend the
meeting on the school October 13th so I
would like to share with you the document
prepared as an overview of the meeting. As you
can see and probably heard, it was a very positive
meeting. All our good news is due to the amazing
community we have and the prayers we have
lifted up to God. Thank you all for your continued
support both spiritually and financially to St.
Michael’s school.
Task Force Summary
The Report “Two Schools, One Catholic
Community” concluded, after 7 months of
intensive analysis, that; “Simply keeping both
schools open and not changing anything will
continue to propel Saint Michael’s and Little Flower
down their current path of financial hardship. The
task force believes it is imperative to form an
oversight committee for the two schools to help
consolidate costs and look to common business
management practices.”
Financial Data of St. Michael’s School
1. Fiscal Year 2011 (ending June 30, 2011)
indicates that with $420,000 of supplemental
income (fundraising, donations, inter-parish
and Archdiocesan support) along with St.
Michael’s parish contribution, the school
ended with a surplus of $9,000.
2. Fiscal Year 2012 (current year) indicates that
with conservative projections we will have a
deficit of $119,000. However, our savings held
over from Fiscal Year 2010 more than cover
the projected deficit ($180,000). In addition, if
we repeat the level of fundraising that we saw
last year, (not even counting the Cash Bash)
and the support from the parish ($85,000) we
would only have a $4000 deficit. This would
mean that we would carry the savings from
2010 to the next year!
Planning for the Future
1. As recommended by the Task Force Report
St. Michael’s has begun a St. Michael’s
Leadership Council to oversee income and
expenses to streamline and track cash flow.
Long range goal is to look at consolidating
expenses possibly with other Catholic Schools.
2. Fundraising is key. We rely heavily on
assistance from the Archdiocese of
Washington’s Tuition Assistance program as
well as support from St. Patrick’s in Rockville
and St. Michael’s parish. Last year over $250,000
was raised in fundraising and donations. To
remain viable the school must continue to
sustain this level of commitment to
fundraising. Increased enrollment and
effective marketing are also extremely
important. Other educational options will be
considered if we are not able to sustain these
sources of funding. St. Michael’s looks stronger
than ever, for the short term, however we
recognize that to be more fiscally sound we
need to rely less on fundraising.
Conclusion
Based on our past success, our increased
enrollment, our current financial situation and the
strong community support we expect that St.
Michael’s school will remain open this year, next
year and for the foreseeable future.
Thank you and keep praying,
~Fr. Lee

I’ll write tomorrow. Maury

This entry was posted on Monday, October 24th, 2011 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.