It has been just three weeks since our school has closed for the summer and the parish facilities have quieted down considerably. I miss seeing and hearing our children in the classrooms, corridors and schoolyard – they are so full of life and vitality! We all know how fortunate we are to have such a vibrant school and I want to take this opportunity to thank our principal, Bud Tosti, and the entire school staff for keeping our school open and in-person this past year; both our students and their parents appreciated it greatly!
I have also enjoyed experiencing the vibrancy of the parish in so many other organizations and activities throughout my ten years here and would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved in keeping the Christian community alive here in the parish during this most challenging year as we all strove to protect ourselves from the coronavirus. Despite their fears and concerns, so many of our lectors, cantors, Eucharistic ministers, altar servers and musicians continued to minister at the altar so that our Eucharistic Celebrations could provide us all with strength and encouragement during this very challenging time. And, the coordinators of so many of our parish organizations worked very hard to continue their activities, virtually, in-person or hybrid – whatever it took to keep our community together! And, I believe that we have come out of this experience even stronger in our faith in God and our commitment to our wonderful community of faith; I am grateful!
As soon as our school year ended, we started several projects on our school building: replacing the roof and fire detection system as well as upgrading our internet capacity. The flat roof over the older part of our school was replaced 22 years ago when the additions were built. Over the past several years, it had developed a number of leaks and had been patched but it was in need of replacement. Fortunately, our school’s Board of Limited Jurisdiction accepted responsibility for the project and Catherine Lowry, its Facilities Committee chairperson, worked hard to obtain bids for replacing it. After receiving approval from the Archdiocese for this capital project, we have engaged CP Rankin to replace the roof this summer with a new decking that carries a 30-year warranty; this is expected to cost about $120,000.
The school’s fire detection system also needs to be replaced and the internet cabling throughout the school needs to be upgraded from CAT-5 to CAT-6 in order to accommodate the increased internet use in our 19 classrooms. We have engaged The Gilbertson Group to accomplish these two projects; the combined cost for these two projects will be $60,000 ($35,000 for the new fire detection system and $25,000 for CAT-6 cabling). Fortunately, the BLJ has raised significant funds through its Annual Fund Campaign ($212,000 last year and $282,000 this year) so all three of these projects will be paid through this Fund. And, of course, the entire building needs to completely cleaned (floors stripped and waxed and a thorough, deep cleaning throughout) in preparation for the return of our students – enrollment is projected to be 440 in the fall!
At the same time, we are working hard in church to make final preparations for the installation of our new pipe organ. As travel restrictions from Italy have been lifted, we are coordinating with Fratelli Ruffatti to have our new organ, which was completed in the spring of 2020, installed this fall in preparation for Christmas. Before this work begins, we want to install a fire detection system (the church doesn’t have one) and upgrade the lighting in the choir loft. Fortunately, our Keys to the Kingdom Capital Campaign to fund our new organ – as well as our new Bösendorfer piano – is doing well. We have collected $881,169 to date and have an additional $353,452 in pledges. The anticipated cost for the organ and piano is $1.3 million and the cost for installing the fire detection system and upgrading the lighting will be about $100,000. So, we are close to reaching our goal for the entire project.
So, you can see that there is a lot of work going on in preparation for the fall, when we expect that all of our parish organizations and activities will come back into full swing. Please know that I am grateful for all the work so many of you do for the benefit of our parish and look forward to continuing to work with you in building up the Kingdom of God here in St. Katharine’s parish! I hope you have a good end of the summer and find some time for rest and relaxation before everything starts up again in September!