“There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living, the other how to live.” John Adams
January 30, 2012
Dear Parents/Guardians, Students and Friends of Bishop Dunn,
Every year about this time (generally coinciding with Catholic Schools Week), our school begins its re-registration process. This also requires setting tuition rates for the coming year so that parents have an idea what they can expect to pay before they sign on again. This year, however, has not been like any other in the past dozen years, mainly due to the ongoing struggle to overcome the unexpected loss late this past summer of more than $80,000 in anticipated district and state revenues. As a result, I have gotten approval from Mount Saint Mary College to put into place a unique “incentive-based” plan for setting next year’s tuition rate, which could result in a lower percentage increase if we surpass this year’s fundraising goal.
The plan is relatively simple, but a little background information is necessary to understand it. This year’s tuition rate was a little more than 4 percent higher than what families paid in the 2010-11 school year. The increase would have been enough to cover this year’s cost of running the school, if it had not been for the major district and state funding loss. I have cut costs as much as possible without adversely affecting our academic programs, but we will only be able to balance our budget this year if we reach our revised fundraising goal of $150,000. Reaching that goal is the key, since we have never raised that much in our regular fundraising program before. And I can’t set next year’s tuition rate, until we prove we can raise that much, so here’s the plan.
I have gotten approval to “tentatively” increase tuition by 4 percent for the 2012-13 school year – but the approval is based on reaching our fundraising goal this year. If we make it to $150,000, the tuition increase will remain at 4 percent when the first payments are due in June. If we only raise $135,000, however, I will need to raise tuition by 5 percent next year to cover the $15,000 gap. The (potentially) good news, on the other hand, is that if we surpass our fundraising goal by $15,000, next year’s tuition increase will need to be only 3 percent! Just as promising is the fact that we have already raised nearly $50,000 and still have not yet staged our three biggest fundraising events and at least a dozen smaller ones for the remaining two-thirds of the school year!
Re-registration letters will be sent home within the next week or so. The mailings will also include more information about the “tentative” tuition rates for 2012-13. If you have any questions, in the meantime, about the rates or our financial situation in general, please feel free to contact me at school.
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AUCTION PLANNING MOVING INTO HIGH GEAR: In addition to the re-registration materials, our next mailing home will also include more information about what you can do to help make our most important fundraiser, this year’s 21st Annual Goods and Services Auction, scheduled to be held on Friday, March 23rd, the most successful one yet. In the meantime, you can anticipate receiving reminder emails and calls from our parent coordinators this week about collecting donations for class gifts and about reaching out to area businesses to get gift certificate donations and other items to include in the auction. You can also check the Development Office link on our website for information on the auction and how you can help promote it.
BDMGO EXCITEMENT BUILDS: Parents who have not called yet to let us know that they will be joining us for our first ever school-wide BINGO fundraising event this coming Friday, February 3rd, are asked to do so as soon as possible, so that we know how many will be attending. If you would like to take part, call our main number, 569-3494, or send a note to your child’s teacher, if you are a Pre-K or kindergarten class parent and you would like to have your child play the game with you in our gym. The games will take place beginning at 12:30 p.m. As first announced last week, our version, dubbed BDMGO, will be played in each classroom with the calling going out over our PA system. Parents are also invited to take part in the event by playing along at tables set up in our gym. Students will be asked to bring in enough nickels or dimes to be able to use them for markers for at least three games (at least $3.75 in nickels, or $7.50 worth of dimes). The first child in each classroom to fill his or her card will receive a prize of 100 times the value of the denomination he or she plays ($5 for the winner who is playing nickels and $10 for the first card filled by a child using dimes for markers). Once a card for each denomination is filled in the classroom the game will be over, and all the coins left on the cards will be collected for the school’s fundraising “pot”. Small prizes will also be given out in each classroom when students complete rows on their BDMGO cards.
OTHER CATHOLIC SCHOOL WEEK REMINDERS: Parents, relatives and other friends of the school are also invited to attend our Catholic Schools Week “Millionaire” Religion Quiz Game on Wednesday, February 1st, beginning at 1:15 p.m., and our Annual Talent Show, which will be staged on Thursday, February 2nd,, beginning at 12:30 p.m. Both events will be held in the Bishop Dunn gym. All are also welcome to attend our Catholic Schools Week Mass at St. Mary’s Church at 9 a.m. on Friday, February 3rd.
SUMMER FLIERS FLYING IN: We appreciate the great response so far to our first announcement last week that this year’s Summer FUNdamentals program information fliers are now available. If you are not familiar with the six-week camp you can download a flier, which is now available on the summer program link on our website, www.bdms.org. Filling out and returning the form on the flier will put you on the list to receive the full application package when it becomes available in late February. Bishop Dunn family parents should take special note that in addition to increasing the early registration discounts for all applicants, we will be giving a 20 percent discount (the normal discount is 10 percent) to our own students whose applications are received by April 9, 2012.
BUTTONS, BUTTONS, WHO HAS BUTTONS?: Finally, our art teacher, Mrs. Donna DelConte, is requesting donations of buttons of all colors, shapes and sizes for an art project she will be working on with the children. If you’re curious about how buttons can be used to make a unique and beautiful art piece, come to our auction on March 23rd, because I have strong suspicion that at least one of the button art pieces will end up on the bidding table there.
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