St Dennis Parish School Tuition Meeting February 23, 2005 Finance Commission membership –Bill Wheeler, pastoral council president –Don Paulson, pastoral council member –Brian Burant CPA –Ed Drake CFP –Peter Oettinger CPA –Craig Uselman CPA, pastoral council member –Tom Krajewski –John Thompson

School Finance Discussion Presentation –Asking for what we need –Charts on School Costs and Revenues –Recommendations Open Discussion

‘Ask for what you need’ Matt 7:7-11 St Dennis’ challenges –We MUST ask for substantially more support both from school parents and general parishioners School parents’ challenges –Difficulty with ability to increase giving W W J D? We have always been fair & will be now Bring your financial information (paycheck) and talk privately with Father Schmitt We expect more people to ask for and receive some Tuition Assistance Grants –Difficulty with willingness to increase giving ‘the worker deserves his wages’ Luke 10:2-7

Sources of School Support The following slide shows –the percent of school costs covered by various funding sources - for 7 local schools and the nationwide Catholic elementary school averages –…In descending order by % from Tuition and Fees –…Shows the number of pupils at each local school – notice the three smallest schools are at the bottom? –Data is from latest Diocesan report and National Catholic Education Association (who sampled 1 of every 6 schools incl Maria Goretti) Observations –Parents contribute 35.5% of St Dennis costs through tuition & fees –Parents deserve a nod for contributing more than Tuition & Fees plus net fundraising – they paid most of the gross fundraising, too –But even with fees and fundraising proceeds, St Dennis school is getting only 41.3% of its costs from parents –55.6% of school funding comes from the parish (per our own school’s numbers as reported to the Diocese) –National averages are 61% tuition & fees and 22% parish support

Catholic School Costs On the next slide, the same schools are shown again, as NCEA does not report on costs (probably due to variability in classification making it less meaningful) …In descending order by the sum of Salaries plus FICA/benefits The left side of the scale starts at 60% (to zoom in on the detail) St Dennis appears to hold the line well on salaries and benefits, no doubt due to the fact that we pay only 50% of health costs and just a 3% retirement rate (vs St James at 100% and 6% respectively) Maintenance, Utilities and Other costs do not appear to be a problem Immaculate Heart’s salaries and benefits are over 90% of costs?

Per-Pupil Expense and Tuition Following slide shows schools’ current school year budget figures …In descending order by per-pupil expense NCEA regional averages are used (WI, IL, OH, MI, IN) which are lower than national averages and more comparable to us However, regional averages are for school year – two years older than the local schools’ figures, so jack them up in your mind ‘Base’ tuition is for parishioner’s first child, and local schools’ tuition range within a $400 range of each other – the only reasonable basis to compare tuition rates between schools All local schools’ tuition rates are below the 2-year old regional average base tuition of $2025 (St Dennis is $417 below it) Per-pupil expense ranges almost $2000 due to economies of scale and other factors Again notice the three smallest schools are together with highest per-pupil expense, lacking those economies of scale Spread $100,000 of cost to 483 Queen of Peace students: $207 each Spread $100,000 of cost to 139 IHM students: $719 each

Tuition Revenue & Tuition Rates The following slide shows just the local schools’ base tuition rates (as in the last slide) along with the non-parishioner rate and the calculated average tuition revenue per pupil …In descending order by average tuition revenue The first three schools shown have average tuition revenue greater than base tuition, due to significant non-parishioner tuition revenue The rest have lower average tuition revenue than base tuition rate, due to these factors –Little or no higher-rate non-parishioner tuition revenue –Discounts offered on tuition for second and third children in a family –Uncollected tuition Of the three smallest schools, only St James has average revenue higher than base due to non-parishioner tuition revenue In the Diocesan report, Maria Goretti showed significant grant revenue, which offset significant student services costs, which may affect the average tuition revenue shown for them Otherwise, Immaculate Heart and St Dennis again bring up the extreme end of the chart

Parish Support Paid for Each Family The next slide shows the parish ‘subsidy’ by number of registered children in the current school year Even Non-Parishioner families charged $3216 per child pay less than it costs to educate their children The average parish support per pupil is about $2500 Amounts come from the General Fund, the Endowment Fund (about $20,000) and Tuition Assistance Grants for those unable to pay in full This slide focuses on the benefit to each family what was on an earlier slide at the ‘macro’ level – how 55.6% of school expenses are paid by parish support and 3.6% by other sources Parishioners whose first child started at St Dennis by 1999 are ‘Grandfathered’ into a more generous tuition discount scale in exchange for promises to do aggressive fundraising

Contributions by St Dennis Families This slide shows –school family contributions to the general fund for the calendar year 2004 –No identifying information was gathered by the committee to compile this information, but rather parish staff in charge of envelopes gave us this Observations –23 families donated nothing at all –8 families donating nothing are not even registered as parishioners but are paying reduced parishioner tuition rates –Another 27 families gave less than $100 each for the year 2004 –16 families gave more than $1000 Other relevant information –The highest contributing families still did not pay equal to the $2440 support paid by St Dennis Parish for a family with one child in school Conclusion –Though of course all school families are fully part of the parish, analysis shows no school family pays more than it gets

This slide shows –total cumulative calendar year 2004 contributions by all school families, ranked in order from the least contributed to the most –It’s as if you lined everyone up according to how much they gave and kept a running tally of the group’s giving. Observations –The 80 lowest contributing families donated a combined total of $8000, which is only enough to pay the parish support for ONE school family with three children –The total contributed to the parish General Fund for all families in 2004 was less than $55,000 or a little more than net proceeds from fundraising efforts What other parishes do –Blessed Sacrament reported to the Diocese they set a tithe of $780 to qualify for parishioner tuition rates. –The Queen of Peace parish tithe is $960 to qualify there –(‘Tithe’ comes from ‘ten’ and originally meant giving 10% of your income to Church) Conclusions –If a $780 tithe had been required at St Dennis 111 of 129 parish families (86%) would NOT have qualified for parishioner tuition rates –If a $780 tithe had been required at St Dennis, the 45 lowest contributing families COMBINED would not have qualified for parishioner tuition rates for ONE of those families Contributions by St Dennis Families

Total School Costs & Tuition Base Calculation

Funding of Instructional Materials Budget

Ideas Cost related –Short-term, consider combining grade-levels where enrollment warrants –Cost per pupil will decrease if we can increase class size –Long-term, investigate consolidating with IHM, adding preschool, and/or dropping middle school grades Revenues – Fundraising –Encourage continuation of the excellent fundraising efforts –Recruit parishioner donations to the endowment fund, especially those that take advantage of available corporate matching funds Revenues – Parishioner & Non-Parishioner Tuition –Raise tuition by $260 to $1868 for the school year –Recruit more pupils, including higher-rate non-parishioners –Establish at least a $10 per week tithe for parishioner tuition rate –Offer parents the FACTS automatic payment program for tuition Revenues – Peace and Justice Considerations –Encourage Tuition Assistance Grants for those who need them –Keep Tuition Assistance Grants confidential, and fair with standards –Promote parish sponsorship of Tuition Assistance Grants –Review the multi-child tuition discount scales

‘Ask for what you need’ Matt 7:7-11 St Dennis’ challenges –We MUST ask for substantially more support both from school parents and general parishioners School parents’ challenges –Difficulty with ability to increase giving W W J D? We have always been fair & will be now Bring your financial information (paycheck) and talk privately with Father Schmitt We expect more people to ask for and receive some Tuition Assistance Grants –Difficulty with willingness to increase giving ‘the worker deserves his wages’ Luke 10:2-7