STM Financial Status Update

APRIL 27, 2020

 

---

Dear Parishioners,

We write to update you on STM’s financial status and plans to maintain financial stability during the COVID-19 shutdown. First of all, we want to thank EVERYONE in our STM community for pitching in. Parishioners who are able have continued to be very generous in their giving. K-8 school parents have kept their students enrolled with online learning and church and school staff have been very generous and creative in serving our parishioners and school families.

 

STM WORSHIP REVENUES

We are deeply grateful that STM worship revenues through mid-April continue to be modestly above our budgeted amounts year-to-date. We understand that these are difficult times, financially and otherwise, for many of our parishioners. The STM Community is encouraged and humbled by parishioners’ ongoing commitment to giving.

The STM K-8 school continues to operate, collecting tuition as scheduled and providing an effective web-based learning experience. The K-8 teachers are using online tools to provide video instruction, assign tasks, and provide an interactive classroom experience on a near daily basis.  

The STM School Advisory Council has rescheduled the school auction for Saturday, May 30, 2020. The auction event will be online, and more details will be forthcoming as the planning is finalized.

Because preschool education, even more so than elementary education, is heavily dependent on social-emotional interaction with teachers and peers, it is nearly impossible to replicate a preschool environment through an online medium appropriate to those ages 3 to 5. As a result, STM leadership decided to discontinue collecting preschool tuition for April and May. Unfortunately, due to the inability to run an in-person program and the loss of tuition revenue, STM had to furlough seventeen preschool staff members. The remaining staff are providing tutoring services to the K-8 students, doing outreach to the preschool families and students via online media, and doing background work to prepare for re-opening once it is safe to do so.

With the goals of recalling furloughed employees and strengthening STM’s cash flow position, STM School and Church both applied for PPP loans within the first business day after the applications were finalized. Because the two entities have separate tax ID numbers, STM applied for two loans.

The church loan request was $92,000, and the school loan request was $348,500. The church loan has been approved and received. This loan will be used to pay for wages and utilities at the church, with the goal of meeting all requirements needed for total loan forgiveness under the PPP rules. The school loan request was filed shortly after the church request and is currently being processed by our bank. We are hopeful that this loan will be funded in the near future.

Planning continues on the STM capital projects. The STM Capital Projects Committee will be providing a detailed update on the status of the projects and funding in the next few weeks.

Let’s continue to work together to keep our STM parish – church and school – strong! We’re doing great which speaks volumes about who we are as a community of faith, hope, and love in the Jesuit tradition. 


Yours in Christ,

Fr. Warren Sazama, SJ, Pastor
Paul Humbert, Finance Council Chair
Lonie Nelson, Pastoral Council Chair
Tiernee Murphy, Trustee
Mike Sarafolean, Trustee

BACK TO NEWS