The Facilities and Construction Committee and the Capital Campaign Committee have been meeting throughout the summer to advance work toward the new school addition.
We reviewed new and past schemes in order to have a comprehensive look at the entire campus. We completed site walk thrus and reviewed a campus assessment provided by the architects. We are currently finalizing the schematic design pricing package prepared by the architects based on scope of work outlined earlier by this committee.
The committees are specifically defining programmatic goals for the architects in consultation with school administration and faculty. We continue to define the scope, timeline, and budget of the school addition project and have made recommendations for general phasing plans that impact the expansion design. Preliminary estimates from contractors to advise phasing are underway in conjunction with code and zoning analysis.
Once we receive the estimates, our next step will be to meet with the school administration and constituents, project architects & engineers, fire marshall, contractors, etc. as well as, Father Romo to move toward proposing final designs in order to bring it into the initial stages of the construction phase.
Thank you for your continued support with this exciting endeavor!
We will continue to communicate our progress via Flocknote eBulletin’s, sign up at www.flocknote.com/StAndrewChicago for more information. We are very optimistic about our progress thus far and will keep the Parish and School informed every step of the way.
What about the overall Campaign?
You may have read in the Chicago Tribune recently that the overarching To Teach Who Christ Is Campaign was not reaching its goals. The article can be found at this link. We have included below the response of the Archdiocese to the article.
We would also like to share with you how the To Teach Who Christ Is Campaign effects our campaign at Saint Andrew. In the three years of our campaign, we have regularly met our financial goals toward the To Teach Who Christ is campaign which was $250,000 in a promissory obligation. We make an annual contribution to this campaign and currently have the reserves to meet our obligation for the remaining two years. That means that any money that is gifted towards Saint Andrew parish in the Enrich, Expand, Grow Campaign will be used for the remaining goals of our campaign. The health of our campaign means that we are neither defaulting on our obligations nor subsidizing obligations of others. We are grateful for our generous donors who have continued to keep the Enrich, Expand, Grow Campaign a successful and exciting venture for our community.
Response from the Archdiocese of Chicago to the Chicago Tribune article from July 25, 2019.
Donor Thanks
The Archdiocese of Chicago and this parish/school are extremely grateful for the generosity of donors to the To Teach Who Christ Is (TTWCI) campaign.
The Archdiocese of Chicago and this parish/school are extremely grateful for the generosity of donors who have committed to support Catholic school scholarships as part of their estate plans.
TTWCI, CEST and Caritas
The To Teach Who Christ is campaign was very successful overall, with more than $420 million in total pledges compared to an original goal of $350 million. We are still in the fulfillment stage of the campaign, though, with $230 million collected so far. Remaining collections will come in over time, some of which will come through bequests.
- A core goal of the To Teach Who Christ Is campaign was the establishment of a $150 million scholarship endowment, the Catholic Education Scholarship Trust (CEST). CEST was intended to be funded by contributions from major donors as well as from some of the Archdiocesan proceeds from parish campaigns.
- After fulfillment of all pledges, we expect the total balance of the trust to be close to the original target. The lower current balance of the trust reflects unfilled pledges from yet- to-be-realized bequests and other pledges still being fulfilled.
- While CEST got off the ground, a group of major donors of the Archdiocese established the Caritas scholarship program to fill an important short-term need for scholarship funding. Donors to the Caritas program intended their gift to provide direct short-term funding for Catholic school scholarships, giving time for the trust to grow. This was an important initiative by donors to help more families and more schools earlier than would be the case by waiting for the trust corpus to grow over time.
- The Caritas Scholarship program had distributed more than $10 million in scholarship funds since 2014 to almost 7,000 students at 100 schools across the Archdiocese.
- Since FY17 distributions from CEST (as Phoenix scholarships) have been within 3-7 percent of the trust balance as stipulated by the provisions of the trust. The availability of Caritas scholarships in earlier years enabled the trust board to allow the corpus of the trust to grow in the first couple years so that there could be more Phoenix dollars over the long-term. All donations to the To Teach Who Christ Is campaign are being distributed in accordance with the original intent of the campaign and the specific intent of donors. All contributions to the trust are used for scholarships. The trust is not at the original goal level yet because of bequests and unfilled pledges.
- The expenses of the trust represent normal start-up administrative costs, including trust management fees, investment management fees, audit fees and other administrative costs. In any given year, the expenses of the trust have been less than two percent of the balance of the trust and will decrease as a percentage as the trust grows. The administrative cost percentage is less than the five percent allowed for administrative expenses by the government for scholarship granting organizations (SGOs) under the tax credit legislation.
Archdiocese Finances
The Archdiocese of Chicago’s core finances are stable following a financial improvement effort over the last seven years. We have had a balanced budget in core operations since 2017.
- However, the total financial results of the Archdiocese indicate significant losses, which are primarily a result of misconduct settlements. Misconduct costs are not included in core expenses but are included in the full financials statements of the Archdiocese.
- Contributions from the current generation of donors support the mission of the Church. They are not used to cover misconduct costs. Misconduct costs are funded primarily by the sale of long-held real estate and other assets.
- In addition to ongoing misconduct settlements, the financial security of the Archdiocese is threatened in the future by declining collections as a result of lower parishioner counts and significant capital needs on significant and aging infrastructure.
Catholic Schools and Parishes
The Archdiocese has seen a decline in enrollment in its Catholic schools, however it remains committed to providing students with a strong education in an environment of faith, compassion and academic rigor.
- Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago have long records of success. Our Catholic high school seniors graduate at a rate of over 98 percent.
- Ninety-five percent of our Catholic high school graduates go on to college, earning more than $200 million in college scholarships each year
- Our students are committed to helping others through community service, spreading good works to those less fortunate.
- Catholic school graduates can be found in leadership positions in business, government and non-profit organizations. Catholic school graduates are also four times more likely to vote and they are committed to service as adults.
- The Archdiocese of Chicago faces challenges, including dwindling Mass attendance, demographic changes, fewer priests and buildings in need of repair. The Renew My Church initiative is focused on revitalizing our local church.
- Renew My Church brings together parishes in groupings to discern the parish configurations and structures that will be sustainable for the community over the long-term.
- Importantly, Renew My Church then works with those parishes on transformational spiritual renewal based on extensive research of what has worked in parishes and other dioceses.
- Renew My Church also asks us to come together in solidarity and bring the light and hope of Jesus Christ to a world in need.
