I’m very happy to report that our leadership teams have made significant steps to mitigate the effects of government mandated social distancing protocols. Our Preschool-Kindergarten suspended in-person classes in late March, but have continued to provide full instruction and activities via online offerings. The PSK board chose to suspend all tuition payments for families since the end of March. With the loss of revenue, the leadership team immediately began preparation and applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan as part of the Federal government’s CARES act. In early April we received approval and received approximately $197,200 from this program. Although initially offered as a low percentage rate loan, we anticipate these funds to be converted to a grant as we show evidence that the funds were utilized to maintain our staffing levels during the government mandated shutdown. We forecast being able to maintain a full, paid teaching staff at the PSK through June. Planning is now in work to determine the type of instruction and the staffing level for the upcoming summer sessions. Clearly many variables out of the leadership control will effect the final decisions, but rest assured that Director Lindsey Malloy and PSK board Chairman Dan Bitner will continue to provide outstanding guidance as we continue to navigate the ever changing situation with COVID-19.

 

We are anxiously anticipating a limited return to “normal” operations as government restrictions in San Diego county are reduced. Pastor Augie and the lExecutive Team, working with our Board of Elders have been busy in crafting a return to worship plan, to not only define conditions in which we will “green light” worship services at our sanctuary again, but also what new safety protocols we will implement during the services.

 

Once we are able to return to somewhat normal operations, the leadership team have a strategic set of priorities:

In March, our Call was not accepted, and we began to gather additional candidates to review and interview. We have a list of very well qualified candidates to review, but have suspended this activity until the Covid-19 protocols are eased. We will plan to begin regular Call Committee meetings once we open up some of the activities at our church building.

 

The Executive Team began development of an independent review process that will monitor and report on progress towards ministry goals. Our Council Vice President (Kim Glassman) will lead this activity. This will be implemented with the oncoming Associate Pastor to ensure our efforts remain on plan with the expansion of our ministry efforts that the second Pastor will support.

 

Our leadership team have been very effective during this past several months of challenges. However, these challenges are made much more difficult due to an obsolete church governance document. We are currently operating under a church council model that was popular several decades ago, but presents us with inefficiencies and blockers to progress in implementing innovative programs. One symptom of our outdated model is that our Senior Pastor Augie is spending an inordinate amount of his attention and working hours to operational issues, such as facilities updates, staff management, and multi-media production. The goal of our research and recommended governance update will be to assign these operational duties to lay team members, allowing Pastor Augie (and soon our new Associate Pastor) to concentrate most of their effort on worship, teaching, lay leader training, in-home and shut-in ministry care and specific ministry execution.

 

– Daryl Martis, Council President