Preamble
Article I - Name
Article II - Purpose
Article III - Membership
Article IV - Officers
Article V - Meetings
Article VI - Committees
Article VII - Amendments
The Diocese of Sacramento through the School Community of Saint Catherine of Siena Parish committed to Catholic school education as expressed in the United States Bishops' Pastoral on Catholic education, TO TEACH AS JESUS DID, and the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education document on "The Catholic School" and acting on the principle of "shared responsibility", establishes this Constitution.
The name of this body shall be: "St. Catherine of Siena Parish School Board", herein after referred to as the "Board".
Sharing responsibility with the Bishop, the Pastor of Saint Catherine of Siena Parish establishes the Board as the policy making body, in matters of Catholic school education. The Board is organized and functions under the Canons of the Roman Catholic Church and the policies and procedures of the Diocesan Board of Education and the Catholic School Department of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento for religious, educational, and charitable purposes.
The Board shall be responsible to the Pastor for achieving diocesan and parish goals for Catholic education, for reviewing and approval of the budget, for determining sources of funding, and for reporting on the status of Catholic school education in the parish. The board is also responsible for directing the implementation of diocesan educational policy for the parish school.
The function of the Board is to formulate policy that will guide the administration in fulfilling the school's philosophy and to evaluate the effectiveness of Board policy in achieving Board goals.
The Board shall establish the necessary means and instruments to communicate Board policy and direction to the school and parish community.
The principle of subsidiary shall prevail in the relationship between the Board and the Diocesan Board of Education.
The Board shall follow the guidelines of the School Board Manual, Diocese of Sacramento.
Seven persons shall comprise the voting members of the Board.
The Pastor is an ex-officio member of the Board, with full voting rights.
The Principal is the executive officer of the Board.
The manner in which members shall be chosen and removed from office, the qualifications, powers, duties, and tenure of office, the manner of filling vacancies on the Board, and the manner of calling and conducting meetings shall be stated in the By-laws.
The officers of the board shall include President, Vice President, Finance Officer, and Secretary. They shall be elected by a majority of the Board by ballot.
The term of office for Board officers shall begin on July 1st and end on June 30th.
The duties of the Board officers shall be as follows:
President:
shall preside at all meetings. The President shall also plan the meetings agenda with the Principal and appoint all board committees.
Vice President:
shall preside in the absence of the President or when the President desires to introduce, second, or speak to a motion.
Finance Officer:
shall be responsible for working with the administration to present a picture of financial accountability to the Board.
Secretary:
shall be responsible for keeping accurate minutes of meetings, for forwarding the minutes to each Board member, for notifying each Board member about the agenda for the next Board meeting, for all correspondence and for providing necessary communications to the Pastoral Council or the Finance Committee.
Regular meetings of the Board shall be held on the second Tuesday of each month that school is in session. A July and/or August meeting may be held if deemed necessary by the Pastor, Principal, or Board President.
Special meetings may be called by the Pastor, Principal or President with a minimum of 7 days written notice to all board members. In cases of emergency, as determined by the Pastor, all available members will be notified by phone.
All meetings of the Board are to be open meetings unless designated as being executive (Board Members Only).
A quorum shall consist of one more than half of the voting members of the Board.
The right of non-members to address the Board shall be limited to those whose petitions have been approved for the agenda in advance of the meeting.
Individual Board members only have authority to act on behalf of the Board pursuant to a Board By-law, resolution, or other delegation of authority from the Board.
Standing committees shall be as specified in Article V, Section 1 of the By-laws.
Board members must receive thirty-day notice about constitutional amendments prior to the vote. This constitution may be amended by a vote of two-thirds of the full Board voting at a regular meeting.
Revised May 12, 1998
Effective July 1, 1998