We wanted to share some broad updates on our building project and overall status, as best as we understand them during these turbulent times.
As you know, given the requirements for Shelter in Place, progress on our construction project had to stop for a while. The recent loosening of restrictions has allowed our builders to resume work, and the current projection is for the Parish Hall remodel to be complete by the end of the year. Our contractor has been extremely helpful while we navigated this situation. Circumstances remain fluid, and we will continue to update you on the building progress. We will share pictures soon that show how well things are coming along!
The broader community situation with COVID 19 has created much more uncertainty in our plans for opening our Early Learning Center. The state is working through guidelines for education programs, and even the most informed of experts admit they're unsure how schooling will look come next fall. The requirements for child/teacher ratios, the total number of children allowed in a given setting, and other factors are shifting, and these new mandates from the state put into question the best timing for opening our center.
There's no question that our community desperately needs high-quality, all-day childcare. However, it's unclear when parents will be ready to send children back to these programs, and we cannot afford to open our center if meeting state mandates would create an operating loss. Members of the Early Learning Center and Finance committees are working together to assess various financial models, running different scenarios about state mandates, so that we can better understand the conditions we would need in place to successfully open our center.
You'll recall that moving to a full-time school model, in addition to better meeting the needs of our community, also brought the benefit of solidly contributing to our church finances. With the opening of the school delayed, that positive contribution is also delayed. In the meantime, the COVID situation has also reduced revenues in other ways, including the loss of space rental income.
As a result, the Finance committee and the Vestry have spent a great deal of time reviewing our finances. We are blessed that you all, as members of this parish, have been incredible at meeting your Stewardship and Capital Campaign pledges. We have also been pursuing a broad range of other financial programs to ensure solid cash flow, including Diocesan loans, Diocesan financial relief, and Federal grants and loans created to mitigate the impact of COVID.
Our most recent assessment shows a very solid cash standing for the next 18 months, at least. That assessment assumes continued fulfillment of both Stewardship and Capital Campaign pledges. A few of you have shared that COVID-based financial losses will force you to reduce or delay your pledges - we are grateful for these updates, because they significantly help our planning. We know many people have been terribly impacted by this situation, and we kindly ask that you continue to update us if your giving plans need to change. We understand the hardship entirely - we simply want to better plan for it. We are incredibly grateful to those who have been in a position to make additional or accelerated contributions - you have meaningfully contributed to our current solid financial standing.
So many members of the Church have contributed a great deal of time and effort on our building project, our Early Learning Center plans, and our major mission to reinvent how we "do church." We are so grateful. And a special thanks to our Rector, Matthew, for his creativity and inspiration to so many in his successful work to keep our collective worship relevant and impactful.
Transfiguration has been through so many waves of change. Maybe none has been quite like COVID, but we've all seen our spirit, our resolve, and our joy in action over the years. These shared strengths are once again enabling us to thrive, even in these crazy times.
Bill Peters, Sr. Warden
Michelle McLean, Jr. Warden
