by: Sister Dominic
February 2019
Dear Families of SVDP Parish and School,
In this portion of the State of the School Report, I would like to describe the financial processes and high level financial position of SVDP School.
SVDP School is gaining greater clarity of its financial position. Our school consistently operates in the black with regard to its annual budget, but needs to strengthen its position with regard to reserve funds.
Budgeting Process
The principal directly oversees and facilitates the annual budgeting process, along with consultation and expert advice from the SAC Finance Chair. Kari Thiessen has been serving in this role for the past 2 ½ years. Once the school budget is balanced, it is reviewed by the School Advisory Council (SAC) and then formally submitted to the Finance Council for approval. Once approved by the Finance Council, it is then submitted to the Archdiocese along with the entire parish budget at the beginning of May.
During this same process, tuition is determined based on the anticipated enrollment and expenses of the coming year. This tuition setting process begins in November so that tuition can be published by the time of our admissions Open House in January. Tuition covers about 83% of total expenses.
The budget develops in conjunction with a formula of the “Cost to Educate” a child in the K-8 school. (Note: the Archdiocese of Denver does not include preschool in this formula because of the large variance in tuition). The cost to educate is calculated by total expenses of the K-8 school divided by the number of students enrolled in K-8. So our cost to educate for the current year is $2,460,000 in expenses for the K-8 program / 360 students in K-8 = $6,833 / student to educate with our current staffing and programming. SVDP has been blessed with a stable and steady enrollment for the past three years, so the cost to educate has limited variability right now and has increased incrementally primarily in order to keep pace with the increases in salaries and benefits, and also to maintain our technology investments for education.
Following is a high level breakdown of budgeted revenue for 2018-2019:
- Anticipated tuition revenue (K-8) for 2018-2019 = $2,035,000
- Supplementary scholarship revenue is $143,000 (private donors / AoD sources)
- Fundraising at the local level:
- Gala and fundraising – $282,000 (exclusive of the paddle raiser)
Tuition Assistance Process
Families may request tuition assistance for children in Grades K-8. There are several pools of tuition assistance available and each has a formula of criteria for determining how much assistance can be provided. ACE Scholarships, Schmitz Family Foundation, Seeds of Hope, and SVDP Tuition Assistance (TAP) all publish criteria for distributing assistance. More information can be found at our website. The principal is directly involved in the process of distribution of tuition assistance, along with the tuition manager, Joyce Haberkorn, and the admissions coordinator, Suzanne Meyer.
Reserve Funds
The School has a Teacher Endowment Fund. It is governed by by-laws and is intended to benefit the teachers above and beyond their contract agreement. Serving on the Endowment Committee are the required participants (the Pastor and the Principal) and a third appointed member, who is currently Deacon Hal Goldwire. A portion of earnings is typically included in the budgeted school revenue, and is used annually for teacher professional development including supporting teachers through Master’s degrees, paying for various education workshops on or off site.
At present, the school has no other reserved funds, such as for emergency savings, operations or facilities. The Archdiocesan document “Sustainable for the Future” has asked for compliance to financial best practices, including a capital improvement/deferred maintenance reserve fund and an operations reserve. More on this can be found in the above-titled document at the archden.org website. This has become a priority for SVDP in recent years, and we would like to make it part of a targeted strategic plan for properly stewarding the 90+ year old building and our educational programming.
Fundraising
The Gala is our major annual fundraiser and includes revenue from the gala parties, sponsorships, loud and silent auction on the night of the gala, and an identified paddle raiser project. Any additional fundraising that we do tends to have a dual purpose, such as the dine-out nights where St. Vincent’s earns a percentage back from a restaurant, book fairs and similar events that build a sense of community; or the spirit wear which the children like to use for sporting events and on spirit wear days.
Funded Paddle Raisers
Under the current administration, two facilities-based paddle raisers have been advertised, goals met, and projects completed. An update on the 2017 Outdoor Lab Paddle Raiser will be published with a report on facilities in the next two weeks. A summary of expenses for the 2018 cafeteria paddle raiser was explained in the fall at this Friday Forecast (October 5, 2018).
Children’s Charity
St. Vincent de Paul Parish and School operate under a stewardship model. One aspect of this is that we tithe 10% to charity from the offertory and unrestricted donations. The 10% from the parish weekly offertory is directed by the parish and generally goes to the “second collection” appeals. Father Andrew limits the number of second collections at the parish and makes a donation from the charity funds in lieu of passing the collection basket a second time at a Sunday Mass.
The school children and children in sacramental preparation classes direct the funds of Children’s Charity. Children’s Charity consists of 10% of the Gala revenue, plus the offertory donations which come in through the weekly collection, when the money is in a Children’s Charity envelope. Each homeroom class can research a charitable agency, and request that Father Andrew direct some funds from the Children’s Charity account to their chosen charity. Through this model, we have helped the Christ in the City Apostolate, Samaritan House, and several of the agencies which the students visit and serve through their SVDP Serves experiences. In 2018-2019, nearly half of this fund was directed to unfunded tuition assistance at SVDP School. Other funds were directed to help with the 7th and 8th grade retreat and provided scholarships for the Moms retreat this past fall.
Role and Scope of the Sustainability Committee
In January 2018 when we made a presentation on the financial position of the school, we expected to be nearly $100,000 in the red at the end of that fiscal year. During this meeting, and a second one that followed, concerned parents stepped forward to help resolve this situation, with an eye toward ensuring sustainability into the future. We did not want to simply increase tuition to cover costs, and risk pricing any of our families out of Catholic education. Nor did we want to cut our programming.
The two areas for action that emerged were to look at enrollment capacity and to look at financial processes and expenses. Increasing enrollment enables us to increase revenue without adding expenses, and analyzing financial processes ensures that we are as lean as we need to be without compromising the program. The marketing committee, led by Kate Crisham, Heather Bacon and Sharon Alton, has made strides in creating promotional items like yard signs and car magnets, and identifying opportunities for marketing and communications, such as having a substantial social media presence. The financial sustainability committee, led by Dave Davia and Mark Liley, has been able to review some of the financial processes, and identify opportunities for leaner budgeting.
Over the past 18 months, these two committees have been working closely with Sister Dominic. Their role will conclude this spring with a set of recommendations presented to SAC to ensure that their knowledge and work are absorbed into the strategic plan.
As the Finance Council strives to bring increasing clarity to our exact financial position, it is my aim to be able to publish more detailed financial reports in the coming months.
Look next time for Sr Dominic’s SVDP School Facilities overview.
