School Advisory Council

Shortly after the Meitler Group submitted their recommendations to the Diocese of Metuchen (now referred to as the Roadmap to Success), Monsignor Corona, Irene Sena and Judy Francisco invited Bill Casey, Rosemary Kowalchuk, and Yvonne Plakotaris to serve as the Executive Committee of the Saints Philip and James School Advisory Council (now referred to as SSPJ SAC).

These three people were asked to identify and personally invite members from their parishes to participate in the Council, explaining the training and participation requirements. In addition, the school administration contacted sending parishes, in writing, to invite interested people to participate in the SAC. At this time there are 8 active members of the SSPJ SAC.

All three members of the Executive Committee participated in the June 21, 2008 training. In addition, a large majority of the SAC participated in the September 20, 2008 Diocesan training as well as the power point presentation led by Ellen Ayoub at our school on September 3, 2008.

The immediate purpose of our SAC is to create a 3-year Strategic Plan for SSPJ. The steps taken to accomplish this are:

  1. Solicited comments from school community and parish regarding the school’s mission statement.
  2. Assembled a Focus Group Session – 45 staff, parents, and members of sending parishes attended. The focus groups identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the areas of Catholic Identity, finance, enrollment, marketing, school in the community, governance, and facilities.
  3. Creating standing committees in the above-mentioned areas to formulate goals and objectives the SAC should consider for the Strategic Plan.