As we close our last Rallying Cry its important to recognize some of our wins! Through the generous gifts of donors, tightening of belts, and effective planning, we have reach a balanced budget for this next year.

We have huge thanks to give to Mary Lou Masik and her family, as well as a variety of other donors who are going to help make this transition possible. Any merger experiences in any industry generally esperiences an increase in cost and decrease in income. We are no different. 

This next year the budget continues to get tighter and tighter, but with some generous donations this year, we can actually achieve a balanced budget. This budget is in final draft form and will be presented for approval by the finance councils this coming Tuesday, April 16th.

Some other significant decisions have been made in the course of our budget discussions.

• We plan record all bequests and unrestricted donations each fiscal year, and instead of using them for immediate needs, total them for the next budgeting season and intentionally use those gifts for savings, inventory, equipment, and other non-payroll needs. This is big development as no policy was in place for when and how to use bequests in a responsible manner.
• We've decided that with use of bequests and donations from the previous fiscal year, we will always strive for a balanced budget.
• We also decided to halve the amount that we depend on bequests for day-to-day operating costs each year by 50%.

Some decisions on the horizon...

• We plan to enter into another Shared Operating Agreement between our parishes for the next fiscal year of 24-25, since the parish merger dates were pushed out another year or so.
• We plan to examine the proper relationship and proportion between payroll, tuition, and offertory.

Pray for us in this period of difficult decisions regarding cuts, raises, benefits, gifts, repairs, programming, hiring, etc.