Central St. Matthew UCC
Special Congregational  Meeting.
Sunday, November 15, 2015

The meeting was called to order by President, Curry Miller at 11:23 am Sunday, November 15, 2015 and opened with reflection and prayer given by the presiden. A quorum was present.

Motion: 

The president asked for a motion to table the vote on the recommendation of the Take Action Committee due to the desire on the part of that committee to process and answer the questions and concerns that were brought up at the previous information meetings and in light of some new developments that will be discussed after the motion is voted on.  Carol Etter asked if the new information would change the recommendation of the Take Action Committee and Curry answered no, but the committee does need more time to listen and discus. Al Eickelman moved that the vote on the recommendation of the Take Action Committee be tabled until December 6th.The motion was seconded by Bill Jeffrion.  There were 2 nays and one abstention.  The motion carried.

The President, Curry Miller, then announced that he is calling a meeting of the Congregation of Central St. Matthew to be held on December 6, 2015 after the church service for the purpose of voting on the recommendation of the Take Action Committee and other business that might come up.

Rev. Brocket took the floor to tell the congregation about the BOT and Governing Council action taken on Tuesday, November 10th at a special joint meeting.  On Saturday, October 31, the pastor received a phone call from Jim McFail who is a developer working with the public charter French immersion school, Lycee Francais.  The school is in the process of expanding and needs to find space to rent by November 30th.  Mr. McFail had heard that CSM had space available for renting and asked if he could see it.  Phil met him at the church and Mr. McFail liked our space.  He contacted the schools facilities committee and they also toured our building.
Lycee Francais is the free French immersion public charter school serving all of Louisiana. As a public charter school it is required to enroll 65% at risk students.  It is currently serving 667 students using 3 locations, one of which is at St. Paul’s UCC.  Their permanent home is in the planning and renovations stage and they need rental space until that building is ready to be occupied.  Our building is just one of the locations they are looking at but Mr. McFail said that ours is the most promising.  If the Board of Trustees and the Governing Council were to vote to agree to enter into negotiations with the school it could then be considered at Lycee Francais’ next board meeting which is on November 30th.

Below is information given by Rev. Brockett.

  • Lycee Francais will rent the entire educational building.  This will include all offices, classrooms and closets.
  • Updates and refurbishing of the space they rent will be at their expense.  Updates and renovations that will be done will be negotiated.  Items considered are: updated alarms system if needed, air conditioning units updated, updates to the kitchen, they are open to painting the exterior of the sanctuary, and bathroom facilities updated and in some cases may be added.
  • The school is willing to share space with the church.  There school day is over by 6 and the do not anticipate use of the facility in the evenings or on weekends.  The shared space can be utilized by the CSM congregation during non-school hours.  The shared space available is something that is negotiable.
  • The school will pay their own utilities which will be a cost saving for CSM
  • They will be responsible for custodial services in their space
  • CSM will continue to be responsible for the exterior maintenance as well as the major mechanicals.
  • They would like to begin renting March 1, 2016.  First years rent would be $10,000 a month, the second year $12,000 a month and the third through 5th years the rent would be $15,000 a month.  The timing and the amounts are also subject to negotiations
  • In year 3 they would like to occupy part of the building behind the sanctuary to create more classrooms.  This is something that could be negotiated.

Other thoughts for consideration are:

  • ABCT – Our entering into this lease will mean that the theater will have to relocate.  Mr. McFail said he has several properties which might work for him and we will do everything we can to help with the relocation process.
  • The church offices will have to be relocated into the sanctuary building.  We will need to do some reconfiguring as we will need to continue to function as a church.
  • The fellowship hall might become far more available to the congregation as there is limited use of this space by the school during non-school hours.

Pastor Brockett reported that Tom Ray, a member from St. Paul’s who helped in the negotiations with Lycee Francais and St Pauls had attended the joint Board of Trustees and Governing Council meeting to answer questions concerning the relationship between St. Pauls and the school.

The floor was opened for questions and discussion.  Below are some of the questions and the answers given.

  • Insurance? – The school has its own insurance and names the school as first insurer.  The UCC insurance for St. Pauls has remained the same
  • Will we have evening access to shared spaces – yes – the school is willing to negotiate use of shared space and that shared space will be available during non-school hours.
  • Al Eickelman asked about the condition of the space we will need to use in the sanctuary building.  Won’t we need to renovate that space and do we have the funds to do that? Rev. Brockett said that there will be challenges.  This will not be a walk in the park.
  • Will this affect the recommendation of the Take Action Committee?  The committee is going to continue to meet and we will be having listening sessions in the Chapel after the Sunday service for the next two weeks.
  • Marie  Weatherspoon stated that this lease possibility will give us some financial breathing room but that we need to be mindful that in 5 years when the lease is over we will be in the same situation we are in now except for a renovated educational building.  We need to be mindful of the future needs of our congregation.
  • Edith Jones stated that this does give us breathing room and that if anyone wants to plan to look at what to do at the Bienville site it needs to be done now and not after a vote is taken.

Curry thanked all for attending and the meeting was adjourned.

Respectively submitted by Arlean Fermanis, secretary