COO Update

Peoria Notre Dame High School’s legacy of more than 160 years in the Peoria area is a testament to the efforts of everyone in our community. From the teachers to the students to families and alumni, it is important to recognize the key supporters of Peoria Notre Dame. It is wonderful to celebrate our school’s amazing achievements and milestones within academics, athletics, extracurriculars, and service to the community.

Central to our success is our foundation in faith. Peoria Notre Dame is a Catholic high school, and our mission is to ultimately form disciples of Jesus Christ. For the past three years, it has been my privilege to work with such amazing supporters. The recent momentum has been truly inspiring and is testament to the dedication and hard work of our entire school community. We continue to witness the fruits of our collective efforts, which are reflected in the accomplishments of our students. Thank you all for supporting our mission.

Our recent board meeting was held on April 23, 2024. We gave our quarterly updates within each domain identified by our strategic plan. Additionally, Cindy Dermody (Director of Advancement) and Aaron Cunningham (Facilities Director) gave presentations to significant work being completed within their domains (see specifics below). The board recommended that we provide an update specific to the progress made on the strategic plan as a whole, as well as our plan for the next two to three years, towards the end of summer. We plan to release that update in September.

• Hired one English teacher, one math teacher, one art teacher, one social studies teacher, and two theology teachers

• Hired an assistant principal to assist with curriculum development, teacher evaluations, new teacher mentoring, and professional development sessions

• Scheduling for the 24-25 school is ongoing and decreases the number of different courses teachers teach each semester

• Offering math lab with math teacher for one-on-one support for students needing extra math instruction (30+ students registered)

• Nine hour-long professional development sessions and department meetings to foster collaboration on late-start Wednesdays beginning this school year

• More instructional time per year (900 minutes) and per each course (510 minutes) in the semester schedule than in the trimester schedule

• Thanks to all of our supporters, our 2024 Gala on March 23 was sold out and our most profitable Gala in history with a net of $232,800! It was amazing to have Bishop Lou and about 15 area priests join us as well.
• Our fund-a-need at the gala was a much needed activity bus. We knew we actually needed two buses but also understood the significant cost. The level of success of the gala allowed us to fully cover the purchase of two buses! The first bus is scheduled to be delivered this summer. Thank you to our donors, sponsors, and volunteers that made this night such a wonderful success.

• At our May Crowning Mass, we welcomed one student into the Church, honored a graduating senior who was accepted into the seminary and three others who joined the Church on Easter, and hosted Holy Family junior high students.

• Using advice and guidance from our internal advisory committee, we are looking at ways to change and evolve our advisory period so that students, faculty, and staff have more opportunities to attend daily Mass during the advisory period.

• Utilizing the new modified block schedule seamlessly integrates All School Mass into our calendar

• In addition to our beginning of the year faculty/staff faith retreat, we will offer nine hour-long faith formation sessions for faculty/staff on our late-start Wednesdays.

• Enrollment continues to trend up. Based on current numbers and expectations through summer, we are expecting our total enrollment to increase by around 30 students for the 24-25 school year.
• We are excited to welcome the Class of 2028 and new transfer students to the school at New Student Orientation on August 13th!

• The Facilities Committee continues to meet internally and with outside vendors to discuss improvements to be made to the building that were initially identified in our building assessment.
• Work is being done improving classroom ceilings, upgrading external doors, and replacing a large amount of our windows.
• We will continue to take on projects that are higher priority while also making sure we are good stewards with our available funds.

• Our finance committee will continue to meet quarterly to be in line with our consultative board meetings. Our next meeting is scheduled for June 24th. A major agenda item to discuss will be how each domain's goals and objectives will impact the budget.
• Other items we will continue to focus on include:
• Developing a K-12 tuition model
• Establishing a budgeting process for larger building improvements

Our governance committee has been working on providing clearer internal PND policies that put more structure around our shift to centralized fundraising. This has made a huge positive impact on our advancement efforts, and we know that clearly articulated policy will improve our streamlining efforts moving forward. Ultimately we see this helping:

• Business operations: Streamlining all donations through our advancement office has made it much easier to follow required procedures for events and purchases (CDOP approval, insurance, licensing, etc.).
• Donor relationships: We continue to build our relationships with our generous donors, which includes getting them the proper tax forms, thank you letters, and acknowledgements.
• Overall strategy and planning: Centralized fundraising has enabled us to better align with our strategy. We are able to analyze data of donations and find areas of support that could potentially support more capital projects.

• Successful spring trimester for athletics

• Girls soccer — placed 3rd in IHSA 2A state tournament (including the most season wins in school history!)
• Baseball — won a sectional championship (which is the furthest the team has gone since 2013!)
• Girls & Boys track — advanced several athletes to state meet
• Hosted a band/music director meeting for grade school band and music directors to share ideas and insights
• Annual Sheen Day was a huge success with fun field day events and a talk about Sheen from Ms. Katie Bogner for our whole school community

Please keep PND in your prayers as we continue to strive to live out our mission.

God bless,