Merry Christmas to all our Sacred Heart families. Merry Christmas to our families with children in our school and families that did at one time and now support us as grandparents, relatives and friends. Christmas is a time to be thankful for the many gifts we receive. One of the greatest gifts I’ve received was an education from Sacred Heart School. Another great gift has been spending my career here working at our school. And I’ve received the gift of having my children attend and graduate from Falls City Sacred Heart. Sacred Heart is a special place and is so because of our fantastic staff. Thank you, teachers and staff, for the job you do for our school and our students.
Christmas day was not so nice to our school. We had a pipe break due to the frigid temperatures. It flooded the building with water getting into five classrooms, the computer lab, the teacher workroom, and all the offices. Thank you to the crew of volunteers who helped with this disaster on Christmas night. We got all the water cleaned up and the carpets dried out quickly due to this great crew of people. We are not sure of all the damage yet but we will be good to go to resume school on January 3. We were probably lucky that the leak was discovered shortly after it broke. If it would not have been discovered until the next morning, the entire school would most likely have been flooded including the Roh Activity Center.
The old boiler has been removed and we are waiting for the installation of the new boiler. The cost will be approximately $70,000 for the abatement, the new boiler, and its installation. Thank you to the following volunteers for helping taking out the old boiler –Tony Ahern, Mike Finck, Darrin Schawang, Derek Schawang, Brandon Schawang, Tom Carpenter, Dan Simon, Brad Ahern, Jake Hoy, Brogan Nachtigal, Derik Lape, Ty Timothy, Joe Bangert. This saved us over $10,000 doing this ourselves. Thank you to those who have made donations to help pay for the new boiler. This will help with this expense we were not anticipating.
As we are half way through the school year, one concern I have is our Annual Fund. You received a letter back in October for this appeal. We budgeted $150,000 for the Annual Fund this school year. This fundraiser helps pay for the difference between our income and our expenses. The Annual Fund was started six years ago and is vital to our survival. After tuition, parish assessments, the Sacred Heart Foundation (we only receive the interest generated from the principal), The Booster Auction/Fun Night and other fundraising, our short-fall will again be approximately $200,000. Instead of raising tuition by $1,000 per student, we rely on our Annual Fund to help make up the difference. We are only at $63,089 as of today, but last year we were at $112,389. If you have given to the Annual Fund, thank you. If you haven’t, please consider this. We need to reach our goal of $150,000. Our tuition continues to be the lowest in the Diocese. This is important for our families. Thank you to all our benefactors. We continually do more with less at Sacred Heart School. Our teachers’ pay and benefits are lower than their public school counterparts. Our cost per pupil is lower than area schools and also other Catholic schools across the state. We have a tight budget.
Happy New Year to all!
Sacred Heart School – a family educating heart, mind, body and spirit for this life and the next.
