Deacons Discussions Drinks

#31 - Mr. Brent Mayer - New Interim President of St. John School

• Deacon Tim Stout, Deacon Dallas Kelley, Father Linh Nguyen • Season 2 • Episode 3

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The Deacons sat down to talk with Brent Mayer, Interim Principal of St. John School.  It was a good discussion as we talked about Brent's vision for the school and our historic move to Cardome.  We think you will enjoy the discussion.

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Unknown:

Did you ever stop and think? Why spend too much time just getting ready? I don't know a single thing that I haven't noticed. When I see you my heart starts racing.

Tim Stout:

Today is March 12 2021, Friday of the third week of Lent and you are tuned into deacons, discussions and drinks.

Unknown:

I don't know what I can say. Hang around.

Tim Stout:

Hey, good evening, everybody. Welcome back to the car dome studio. The third weekend Lin already, almost the fourth Sunday and we hope this is going to be an exciting discussion. I'm Deacon Tim Stout. When I was try that again. Do you get Tim Stout I

Dallas Kelley:

am Deacon Dallas.

Tim Stout:

And our guest tonight is Breton mayor, his longtime parishioner and bingo afficionado. But tonight, he's here to talk to us about his new job at St. John's school. Interim principal. Welcome to the show. Brent.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Thank you very much, Deacon.

Tim Stout:

And we'll get to you in a second no problem. We'll we'll let you get comfortable. It's a Friday and let you know what that means.

Unknown:

Fish for

Tim Stout:

fish fries. Do we have fish tonight? Again? We do and did and it was a

Dallas Kelley:

it was good. Very good. I love it.

Tim Stout:

I enjoyed it. It was the nicer done a good job. If you haven't been out for a fish fry. You've got two weeks left. So you preorder klc dot fish. That's k o c dot fish. Oh order you can order like on Tuesday. Yep. So no, no, no Blitz. Today, traffic ran through really smooth, maybe a little bit less orders. But hey, forward on land to. Yep. So help support the Knights who support lots and lots and lots of charities in the community, including the parish and the school. So hey, for the show tonight. We want your questions, comments, etc. On the Facebook post. If you have a question, make sure that you put in big letters, all caps quest. That way we know it's a question and not a comment, we'll get the question and maybe Brent can answer it or if not, well, maybe one of us deacons can answer the question as well. So hey, you get to relax a little bit more to we'll do a formal introduction here in just a second. But you can contribute to this next section we like to call current events. This kind of gets us going icebreaker etc. Who does anybody have a current event today? I see you both on your phones. Well, I have a great one.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Yeah, yeah, this is one is in the inns. Of course, it all happened in California, of course, the Department of Education will vote on a new statewide ethnic study curriculum that aggregate for decolonization of America society, and elevate Aztec religious symbolism, all in service of the left wing political ideology. In other words,

Tim Stout:

they also say can you translate that

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

always quite interesting. So in other words, you know, Christianity is too much white, you can't get rid of that because we have to sing more Aztec Gods into because we got to get rid of that mindset of a white supremacists and an A to make us less appreciation which so we've been colonized by the, the white people Europe's Eurocentric so we have to decolonize that mindset to liberate us. So this new was both supposed to be both this week on that new curriculum.

Dallas Kelley:

And who's who's coming after him Coca Cola.

Tim Stout:

We're going to talk about Mr. Potato Head and potato head and Dr. Seuss and the Coca Cola bear and Speedy Gonzales and Pepe lepew Pepe lepew Little House on the Prairie. I mean, we can go Tom Sawyer Huck Finn, are we getting? We're not gonna talk about any of that stuff.

Dallas Kelley:

I would macaroon.

Tim Stout:

Okay. What's your bear in

Dallas Kelley:

mind is I just wanted to get your opinion on that man. Well, if y'all heard it, Kentucky passed the veal. Where? Let me see how it's worded.

Tim Stout:

This is the life about life.

Dallas Kelley:

Now one has to do with police officers. Mansfield that would make it a crime to insult or taunt a police officer of yarn.

Tim Stout:

I haven't heard that. Yeah,

Dallas Kelley:

I think you'd pass somebody out there. Correct me if I'm wrong. But I just wanted to see what y'all think about I mean is as pro police as I am, the way it's worded. It's one of the several provisions included in a larger bill that seeks to increase penalties for crimes related to riots. A state senate committee passed the bill last week, under the bill, a person who acoust at a cost, cost insults, taunts, or challenges a law enforcement officer with offensive order, their size of words, or bad gestures, that would direct tendency to provoke a violent response would be charged of guilty of disorderly conduct in the second degree. I'd like to hear arguments about who gets to do this. I'm sure the police officer is the one that decides,

Tim Stout:

well, he gets to decide whether you're charged with a crime but he doesn't get to understand or guilty. So you know, those type of laws to me are just ridiculous. I'd

Dallas Kelley:

like to hear an argument from both sides. Because right off the bat, I'm like, I mean, is that mentioned with free speech? Don't get me wrong when I watch all this stuff on TV, the rats and they're in the I mean, finally this guy's

Tim Stout:

Yeah, I'm sure that's like,

Dallas Kelley:

can you legislate that? I don't know.

Tim Stout:

That's got to be the origin. I mean, did you know that this isn't my Carnival, but I'll talk about it. Last weekend, and Lowell, there was a cheerleading competition. Did you see were some protesters downtown were yelling at these girls as they were going into their cheerleading competition. And it was crazy. And why they why they screamed at them for because

Dallas Kelley:

I was white privilege. I think it was Yeah. Because they had, they can be cheerleaders, and it just was a mess.

Tim Stout:

But it's not just I mean, you know, it this is in our community as well, right? I mean, we were talking about that before the show went on is the same principle, right? People get locked in on on something and they can't see how irrational their views are. So they justify in their head, their mind. They, they they try to claim something's true when it's not true. Or say that it's facts, when it's not facts to support, their interpretation, their viewpoint, whatever. And make it seem like it's it's right when it's any arbitrary person step back and look at independent would look at and say it's, you know, yelling at little girls about white privilege. What's the point? Is that talking about the polar bear being white, what's the polar bears white? Oh, InDesign is actually black, but his hair is white. Go ahead.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

You know, very interesting, the, the intention of that law have is a good intention.

Dallas Kelley:

I see a totally because It disgusts me. Okay, when I see it

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

on TV, but but at the same time, it does not present. I think you'd create more complex. You're if the police officer exercise on that particular law, he probably will get read he or she will get reticulin. You know, but by by bullying, I guess, you know, it doesn't go anywhere. It's a good intention to, to to, to defend or protect the the right of a good officer, perhaps. But it's not bringing into the good at the whole you know, that that that that brought to my attention. The nature of the Glazier law, the canonical law of the church very important, because we all we look at the common good, okay. We are not nitpicking detail, but we talk about what is the overarching, important. society as a whole. We operate way too much unfeeling and emotional, and those law becomes so nitpicking, right, a becomes so secondary, or is something I it's unfortunate, you know, if we want to live in the jungle of laws that that not hit anything. Like I say, more and more we become this society, we come a lot more being the lawyers of where to go, right. It's a it's a lawyer society, but the problem I mean, you know, we talked about that before. In our society right now we miss the most is philosopher. We don't have enough that doesn't exist anymore. Exactly. And, you know, there's good intention on the law yet in respect of the police of the good work they do, and and an unappreciated society as a whole been ridiculed so much. And so this law came out, hopefully with a good intention. But again, it did not serve the, I guess the the intent.

Tim Stout:

But basically, it comes down to I mean, I just tried to simplify too much, but it comes down to truth, right. I mean, a police officer, you know, is out there to protect the public. Are there bad police officers? Yes, there's bad. There's bad people in every profession. But if, if a police officer is doing his job, and somebody comes and gets in his face, that can't be good. A police officer doing his job by definition, doing his job standing on a line protecting whatever is good. The other thing going on against him can't be good too. Those are diametrically opposed. And they both can't be truth. If two things are diametrically opposed, they both can't be right. We don't live in that kind of world. But we live in a world that redefines what's good or bad, we redefine words, to suit our political and it does boil down to politics most of the time now, we redefine words, to meet what we want to happen from a political perspective. That's and that's what's good about the church churches and care about the political side of it. Right?

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

We we confronting the culture we're facing right now extremely indifferent. And so therefore, you Okay, I'm okay. As long as you cross my path, and I enter your path, then we become a social media debate, right? Become a disaster.

Tim Stout:

I'm a professional event.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

So

Tim Stout:

I got to throw that back. Hey, Brent. Oh,

Dallas Kelley:

hey, Brad, did you have a current event?

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Is that just all okay. I'm not gonna offer

Tim Stout:

scared, are you scared? So I was gonna, you know, I think most people know Brent Mayer, right.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

I mean, I've been around for 16 years. Yeah.

Tim Stout:

Bingo. Right? If you don't know, Brent, then you have been at the bingo hall.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

That would be true.

Tim Stout:

Do you miss the bingo hall?

Mr. Brent Mayer:

I'm not in the lease.

Dallas Kelley:

You sound like my wife.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Are you? Sure? Absolutely.

Tim Stout:

I mean, you've been a coach.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

I've been a coach,

Tim Stout:

cross country, basketball, baseball, little kids, old kids,

Mr. Brent Mayer:

all kinds of kids school board member,

Tim Stout:

finance council member, strategic planning, council member. All kinds of other committees that are in there. You're and you are neither Columbus, I am unlike a couple guys in this room. pointed to Dallas and appointed Steve behind the cameras. They're still got a couple of victims in here that we can recruit. When you've done stuff with the das, he's related to the school

Mr. Brent Mayer:

2015 Yeah. been on the school council out there that serves to help set not just policy but review what's going on and you know, give the the bishop and the superintendent good counsel.

Tim Stout:

And you actually helped hire the superintendent right?

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Not the current one but the prior to Yes. lever Tim Weaver and I wish he was even helped us nearly Dr. James Keneally

Tim Stout:

he wasn't he wasn't here very long.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

He wasn't he was a high powered individual and I you know the committee really gambled wanting to get him involved. I mean, he had he was a university president for goodness sakes and did some great things while he was here, but the the call of family and other opportunities took him to come out of out of our out of our diocese.

Tim Stout:

Are you saying that the Catholic Church can't afford high powered high paying individuals? Well,

Mr. Brent Mayer:

that's a great conversation to have. I think you can get them holding them a little harder.

Tim Stout:

I mean, we pay our priests a whole lot of money.

Unknown:

That's what I've seen.

Tim Stout:

I mean, much higher than we pay our deacons deputy Dallas Goddard is gonna get a raise next year he's gonna go from zero to zero.

Dallas Kelley:

He's going to quadruple my pay

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

I didn't know that. Actually his compensation at the teacher Oh, I

Tim Stout:

forgot Dallas it Yeah.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

either make some money, family.

Tim Stout:

So you can't say no.

Dallas Kelley:

Is it pro or do we get the pro right the salary?

Unknown:

Yeah,

Tim Stout:

well, are you hourly or salary? Let me be your negotiator. You don't want to be salary you want to be hourly. When it comes to

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

well, you need to talk discuss with the principal. I think New coming.

Dallas Kelley:

Because I don't think 25,000 that was offered me I don't think that's quite enough, it might have to go up.

Tim Stout:

If you just throw in word and convenient,

Mr. Brent Mayer:

no way, I'm just gonna defer that all those decisions had to be made before the next school year. And I don't kick in until that next school year. So I'll see how you do this upcoming year.

Tim Stout:

We'll talk. So yeah, so all of us know, Brent, you've been around for a long time. But, but who's who's Brett Mayer, if you had to say who you are, who's Brent bear? Who is Brent Mayer in this new row and as

Mr. Brent Mayer:

principal? Sure, sure. Okay, so let's start with foundations. Right. So 12 years of Catholic school, so I'm one of those cradle Catholic cradle Catholic, spent some time post High School, which Center College there in Danville and spent time, as I guess, politely saying, away from my faith. When the first day I met father when I told him Fatherland, I'm the prodigal son because I left the faith. And when I came back, I've been just on fire with it. And you know, that was we came St. John's 16 years ago. And

Dallas Kelley:

real quick, where'd you go to grade school in high school? Oh, that

Mr. Brent Mayer:

was a St. Clement little place you are pretty familiar with they are in Louisville, Kentucky, and then went to Holy Cross High School. First COVID Catholic High School in Louisville. And still, I think the only COVID Catholic High School and livable, they marched Bishop David mansilla mercy. I was there. That happened in 84. And I started in 86. So good Catholic foundation.

Dallas Kelley:

Yeah, I went to just a few miles down the road Western hasco

Tim Stout:

St. Clement,

Mr. Brent Mayer:

St. Clement in the software exists, it got swallowed up.

Dallas Kelley:

It's called St. Moustafa Dixie Highway further down Johnson town road area knowledge that I was I was at their window

Unknown:

once.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, actually I dated a girl for Well, I went on a couple dates with a girl that led optics DIY. And for a kid lived in the east and to go to Dixie Highway.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Was it a culture shock?

Tim Stout:

Well, you had to you had to you know, you had to want to go. I was driving 74 No. And it was like 50 miles or something like that round trip. I was thinking, Man,

Unknown:

it'll be expensive.

Tim Stout:

So Dixie Highway was like another world for us.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Yeah, it's it's way different. Now two lines wide.

Dallas Kelley:

I was telling somebody here Really? Just several months ago, it's been a long time since I was on that stretch from Valley station and right. And you had these you know, restaurants and stores that you didn't realize how you use for markers where to turn where to go. They're all gone? Yeah, yeah, I was lost.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

I think even the earlier years is gone. And I can't remember the last time I was there. I think that's gone. I had the green sound with the orange cow on it. It was a great landmark.

Dallas Kelley:

Anyway, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Oh, good. That's all good. We were talking about who am I? Yeah. So I've been a pretty stable employee and my current place, that'd be 24, and three quarters years by the time I'm done. And, but I'm really looking forward to this new opportunity here

Tim Stout:

at 24 years, anywhere, anyone places, long term is long time, especially in today's today's age, when people jump jump ships, lots, they

Mr. Brent Mayer:

do been managing since 99. So I've seen lots of folks, as you're saying, come and go that through the organization, but negligence down, it's a food safety food and animal safety company. And we do the animal safety business down in Lexington and and the group there was very special to get into a club of the 20 year plus, and there there's over a dozen of them still there. But you know, at some point, we all we all gotta move on.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, so So this balance between your career, I'm just gonna say that, yeah. You know, a degree in biology,

Mr. Brent Mayer:

biochemistry, biochemistry, in

Tim Stout:

science. And in this move to Catholic education. Something has to make that happen trigger that. So is that is that a faith response? Is it a calling? What how do you how do you say

Mr. Brent Mayer:

that's great. Faith, yes. Calling. Yes. What I've always wanted to do I did start out before I made it to the edge and I spent a year teaching at Lexington Catholic, taught biology taught physics. It's a funny story. I went away to get married that summer after teaching for a year and while I was on my honeymoon, I found out I actually wasn't employed there anymore because it was annual contracts and I had made a comment to the prior principal he happened to pass away. I got communicated to the the new principal that if I if I couldn't Do like part time teaching I didn't want to teach and so I came back and I was I was cut out. And so we moved to what my degree was in, but never left the interest in education and have been on several advisory boards. Like we mentioned, just our school board, the diocese and board advisory board with bluegrass community Technical College, they've got a department of biotechnology over there. And so I've always stayed involved with that. Ran tutoring programs when I was in high school and when I was in college, I have always been very active with the school. You know, Kathy Booth was the principal when I got here. Back elsewhere key filled in for a couple of years. And then Dan Martell, so he skipped

Tim Stout:

over that Miss. Mr. Jean? toes his last name? I haven't I've been for you. Right. It was before me. Yeah. So yeah, they went from Kathy booth to him know him before.

Dallas Kelley:

He was with Yeah, he was 4k. Okay. Yeah.

Tim Stout:

So who's before? Oh, her name was learning Rebecca. Two. I can't remember what her name was.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

That was working was not there wasn't Rebecca.

Tim Stout:

I can remember who who was. So she. So it was Mr. Jean and then it was Kathy boo. Okay. Yep. And is there a is in everything you just said right there? Was there a hidden message to Dallas because of a of a principle change that could affect your employment as a teacher?

Mr. Brent Mayer:

What are you talking about?

Tim Stout:

This because we are we're talking about? So we're breaking tos to new stories. And in a way here principle and the new religion teacher and a religion teacher for next year?

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Yeah.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

He haven't obtained yet a demand for his own room.

Dallas Kelley:

There was no demand, there's a slight suggestion is that he was a slight suggestion.

Tim Stout:

So So are you excited about teaching? I'm

Dallas Kelley:

very excited. Very, very good. I was I've taught I've served in there several other times. So I'm just trying to get used to what's going on.

Tim Stout:

So this, this, this change in you from being retired to the teaching, whew, from being in the professional, public company world to to Catholic education. Obviously, you're not going into the school building and stuff that was there. This is all kind of transitional and new. That's got to be exciting. Oh, it's

Mr. Brent Mayer:

it's super exciting. I mean, it's a it's a draw, like, like nothing else, you know, because as a committee member for so long of helping to acquire card own, and work towards finding out how we were going to get out here and now to be part of the group that that put together this opportunity to put this new school building out here. Yeah, yeah. No, it's it's it's awesome to be involved with.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, I agree with that. Because I think I've been on every committee as well. And, you know, I was thinking about this earlier today.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Do you want to be assistant principal?

Tim Stout:

Yes. Quit.

Dallas Kelley:

Quit your job as president of a mining company.

Tim Stout:

Assistant Principal Kelly. We're going to break a new story. I'm going to be the new science teacher.

Dallas Kelley:

Teaching engineer.

Tim Stout:

Engineering. Yeah, that's not happening. Sorry. Oh, my boss. Neither is not on the plane. But what what I was thinking about was that, you know, we, we've obviously been experts at buying land and planning and just never really had come to fruition. But with Cardo, one of the things that that drew us here was infrastructure, right? We always said, hey, there's parking lots, there's utilities, we don't have to build any of that stuff. And we said, you know, the cost is gonna be in renovating the buildings and everything but but COVID happened. And then we had this need, and, you know, the fact that we have this beautiful campus, and we have parking lots, and we have infrastructure, we have water lines, we have electrical lines, all that stuff, makes us be able to do what we're trying to do out here very quickly. And really, for low, a low sum of money. Really?

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Yeah. Let me build on that comment. Because one of the things that's the most exciting for the school and someone asked me about, you know, tell me why it's so important to move and or, you know, what, what are the advantages of being out at cardomom. And there are many in terms of safety and, and layout in the green space. But these classrooms, I mean, you know, St John's forever, right, for its history has fit classes into spaces, as opposed to building spaces to hold classes. And so we have an incredible history of success, right? Our students are outstanding, we've got amazing teachers, we've been able to house you know, kids, whoever wants to come we've never turn people away for size or anything like that, or space and when we've done wonderful things, but but out here card on when we build this structure, these are purpose built spaces, right. So So if you think about all the success that you have, and then you take that that impediment That thing that says, Well, you kind of have to squeeze into this hole. I know you've got big kids figure out how to do with the desk when that goes away. And the teachers now have these big, beautiful classrooms. I'm super excited about what they're going to say, you know, they're that, that they're going to be able to do things that they couldn't do before. In take COVID out, but you know, gosh, I mean, this place is ready to explode with with excitement.

Tim Stout:

Yeah. And I wasn't thinking I was, you know, as you were talking there, I was thinking about the the new set of questions that just went out this week. Yeah, that actually have two links in it one's a link to a view of what these classrooms will look like on the inside. Right. And then there's a second link that kind of shows the layout of this, this modular building. Just talk a little bit about that. What would it what is in this modular building?

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Yeah, so so the modular building, single structure, you know, from from the outside, it's going to look like a four walls structure with a roof is going to have an entrance and an exit. hallway down the middle has eight classrooms, all connected by hallways, it has two banks of bathrooms, one on the right side of building one on the left boys and girls. And then the entryway will have offices, two offices, one for the administrative assistant, one for the principal. And we'll be able to control entry to the building, the whole signup process works out well. For the middle school, again, assuming the COVID restrictions and are healthy at school plan, start to relax. So they'll be able to transition between school rooms much, much easier. And so I forget what the total square footage is, but each rooms about 720 700 to 720. So you take that times eight, you're gonna be at 5700 square feet, right?

Tim Stout:

Yeah. total square foot is almost 1000. I think, yeah. mistaken. Something like that.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

I mean, it's it's a big structure and that and that's why if you've been out here and seen some of the trees come down, and you've seen some of the markers going up the the space markers, you know, where they they they've laid out the site. It's a big footprint.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, I think sometimes when somebody hears the word modular, they think of what we currently have, which are trailers. Sure. Sure. Modular buildings today are are they on a trailer frame? Absolutely. They're on a trailer frame. But in this case, I believe it is the equivalent of eight, eight, I think eight single wide trailers would be what the size of this huge modular building is going to be. You know, the pictures on the website. Don't do it justice. If you go to any public school these days that has a trailer, modular building, etc, out back for overflow for them. The inside of those classrooms are just amazing looking. Yeah, I think it's gonna be I think it's gonna be exciting.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Yeah. Are all classrooms the same? Says he? That's a great question. So I looked on the drawing set. And for some reason, right now, it looked like the maybe the ones down the left side. And the one down, the ones down the right side differ by like, 10 square feet for some reason, but maybe just looking at the drawings from them. I'm definitely not an engineer.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, I mean, I think they're supposed to be equivalent.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Yeah. You know, it's not so bad to say

Tim Stout:

what you want to religion. Oh, be

Dallas Kelley:

told right off the bat that. Yeah. So I think they're sticking me in some dark room over here in the corner, that

Tim Stout:

brewski right. And caving in, he remind me of where we're used to put Mary Napier that our teacher, right, she stood down in the base down

Dallas Kelley:

and loaded every rain and I used to have to go down there. So get all that water up and redo or

Tim Stout:

wax or followers and stuff. Yeah, cuz you took care of the floors for the longest time. Yeah. Service, right service service, you were servicing

Dallas Kelley:

me back then as much as they pay me now.

Tim Stout:

So So speaking of religion, and other specials, art and stuff. Obviously, the classrooms and the modular building are for Kate are so first grade through eighth grade

Mr. Brent Mayer:

one through eight. Yeah, that's the plus.

Tim Stout:

Yeah. Just talk a little bit more about how you see, you know, the rest of Cardo. interfacing with a new modular?

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Sure, sure. So for those that don't know, our current, our middle school moved out for this this current year. And so there were there were two smaller structures that had been around for quite some time they they were used prior for the Montessori School. I'm not sure what what they were used for prior to that. And we had originally had plans for the upcoming for the last, or the current school year, we'll say, had plans that we'd bring a preschool out here right in because they were kind of set up for the little pod. Yes. And all that kind of stuff, right? Small people. Yeah, small shortcuts, shortcuts, little five and unders. And when that was not going to work, because the COVID pieces and how long it was going to take with with getting that certification moved over. We were looked at the middle school. And so the middle school has proof of concept that those buildings are useful. And so we will still continue to use one of those two buildings, the other one is is going to be taken down because it's happens to be sitting on the footprint of the modular building. So we have three rooms, we'll lose one And and pick up eight. So that seems like a pretty fair trade. And then the building to which is the now parish hall, some people would know it's the the one that that contains the cardomom Academy theatre, that Academy theatre, that room, or that building has a second floor and has some space. And various church groups have met there before the robotics teams used to used to work up there. I think the scouts have used it in the past, there's some minor renovations going up there to take down some some walls that were just put up to divide space. So we're undermining this base. And when that's done, it should allow for this several other specials to be in there. And then, you know, we're still as a group, right, working out the whole kitchen piece. But again, the food service, that's one of the questions in the q&a, the food service, you know, is run by the diocese, and they're committed, no matter where we're at or who, you know, other campuses, buildings,

Tim Stout:

they're serving food food out here,

Mr. Brent Mayer:

right now. That's exactly right.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, that's coming out of the St. John's city. undercroft steel. So

Mr. Brent Mayer:

like transport, you know, there's,

Tim Stout:

there's a lot of fathers a lot of information coming down the pipe on all this transition. You know, Brent's done a good job of explaining that if you had to give advice to folks about how to kind of get engaged in this process? Or is it just really just information, just pay attention right now to what's going on? Or what's your thoughts on,

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

we actually be beside all the necessary information, communicate via social media, a website, all of that, I hope everybody tune into that. But we also will have a special committee call communication committee. During this COVID we cannot do much within person. So this team will call families themselves, okay. And, and talk to them and ask them and point them to all communication we have if they have any concern, or question. If not, if they have never heard of it, and we will make sure they get the information.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, yeah. And there's so far there's been a video, right, there was an initial video, and then two sets of questions and answers so far,

Mr. Brent Mayer:

correct? Correct. The plan is to keep doing those. That's right. Next week's q&a will be about the main street campus and just some of the questions about the real estate and what does that look like?

Tim Stout:

In obviously getting the school out here and getting education at a level of 100? Whatever the enrollments going to be 140 ish.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

That's, that's the minimum that will help and I hope it goes a little higher.

Tim Stout:

What was it this what's going on Romans 138, which was good, because we thought it was gonna be lower net and COVID actually helped take that up. So it did it got it gotta be gotta be good to have new a new building to recruit to?

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, you bring up the the COVID opportunity, and hopefully, people understand when, when COVID Well, last spring, every school, right, every school suffered, and nobody knew what to do, right? Because it was just like, hey, so you're going home on Monday, are you going home on Friday, and by the way, you won't be back and no one thought and you'll never be back and then we'll go to summer. And and we worked very hard as a committee Fatherland, put together a healthy school committee. We worked with our superintendent, we worked with our local health department, we worked with the state guidelines, we worked with the CDC guidelines, we put something together, right, that allowed us to open right, and we did social distancing. So our kids were masked, they were six feet apart. And we submitted a plan and the bishop, you know, said we're going to school and I think that's been a huge thing, because it's given us a chance to be a servant, and bring in some families who weren't currently looking or weren't looking last year. You know, I told Dan, Mr. Martel though the conference? Well, you know, I hope we keep at least half those families, you know, like, like, we've sold them a good product and and we've given them eyes to see, it's not just that we were open. I mean, we offer things that they can't get at the public school and, and we we do it really well. And so I think that hopefully, not only do do we keep a lot of those families, but that they help us be ambassadors to those folks who'd never thought about it. And and help bring them in and then these facilities. I mean, again, it's just gonna be the icing on the cake that really helps us Excel.

Tim Stout:

I mean, you got 37 acres out here, right? 3730 to 33rd

Mr. Brent Mayer:

one and change, I think something like that. 30 plus

Tim Stout:

acres, yeah, of Greenland. And places for kids to do whatever kids do at recess these days, you know, kickball or volleyball or what? I don't know what they do. Maybe they sit on her phone to play video games. They don't

Mr. Brent Mayer:

actually have the chance to come and teach PE or for the middle school this year. They still play volleyball kickball, wiffle ball. Yeah, so there's

Tim Stout:

plenty of space. out here the best

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

part no scraped knee?

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Yeah, right. They get grass. Grass thing

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

to me. That's right. They have grass stain does not

Tim Stout:

have scraped knee. So is on the supply list is it gonna be a stain stick?

Mr. Brent Mayer:

When we're looking for a sponsor

Tim Stout:

neogen doesn't make anything really

Mr. Brent Mayer:

decontaminated. We

Dallas Kelley:

have a date as in the the new school we'll be

Mr. Brent Mayer:

following up on this day. Oh, that's great. I'm not on that committee. The contempt Do you remember those numbers?

Tim Stout:

I'm on that committee. On the multipurpose building committee,

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

what the school will be deliver immediate when there's the the modular will be delivered before assemble right after the school is ended on the 24th. Okay,

Mr. Brent Mayer:

so the end of May, at the end of May.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Okay. Yep. And then the project will begin and we will should be ready for operation in August. Yeah,

Tim Stout:

there is a video on that we purchased the modular through Vanguard. And, you know, Vanguard is a really a big name and modular buildings. But if you go to their website, there's actually a video showing how they construct on site. So if somebody is curious about that, what that's gonna look like it's a pretty cool video. I say that because I'm an engineer, and I like it, that kind of stuff,

Dallas Kelley:

I would want to come and watch. You know, it

Tim Stout:

would be a good idea is to put a time lapse camera.

Unknown:

All right.

Tim Stout:

We have a time lapse camera, maybe we'll pay you for it, Steve will pay you 10 times what you make tonight. Both me

Dallas Kelley:

and Steve with a further stimulus we got done.

Tim Stout:

So now it would be good to have a time lapse camera looking down on something like that maybe off of the tire off of the building one here. But, you know, when you think about Cardon, for me, you know, and listening to so many school families, in private conversations that I've had with them over the years talk about their commitment to Catholic education and those things. They always had a lot of concerns about St. JOHN school. And I cannot think of a single concern that is not going to be addressed by the move to carto. All right. Whether that's security, whether it's the size of the rooms, whether it's the environment, you know, whether it's how they pick up and drop off, I mean, everything out here, I can't think of one drawback to being out here. Can you know about you Dallas, can you

Dallas Kelley:

know, fan? Padre?

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

isolation.

Tim Stout:

We're away from everybody. I just I mean, obviously, it's a big change. It's I've been using the word historic. Yeah, because it is, it is a historic change, not just for the school, but for the parish. And people. People in general don't like change. Oh, right. Right. Right. And so I think as as a as a community of faith, as Catholics, we need to embrace those emotions the best we can, and try to, you know, make sure there's conversations with with folks to make them feel comfortable. If you haven't been out the car home, and you haven't even seen like the middle school buildings and stuff, I'm sure we'll have open houses and stuff when we get everything situated. But you need to get out here and take a look around,

Mr. Brent Mayer:

right. And part of the Communications Committee. That is as soon as as soon as we can move forward, just just a little bit where the weather's always nice out here, that's part of the plan to will allow you to sign up for some times to come out here, take a tour, see what it looks like, obviously, the new buildings won't be here, but the where they're going to be it'll be here. And you can get an idea of what that's going to look like. So yeah, I'll be watching the parish website. It'll

Dallas Kelley:

but all that, you know, that's good, but I'm still gonna miss my, you know, I've been going there for 20 something years now, St. John's Church time, and

Tim Stout:

it's changed.

Unknown:

I don't like change. Nobody does.

Tim Stout:

I mean, we don't, you know, a lot of people like, like to talk about the past outdoors. And, you know, I hope we're through the worst of that. Now. We might have to do it again, another, another season of winter or whatever down the road, who knows what the future holds. If we want if Dallas would win the lottery, all of our, all of our desires and needs would be met right away. But you know, none of us want to be outside, right? If we had a preference because of COVID we wouldn't want to want to pick, let's be outside in the middle of the heat, because we dealt with the heat. Right. Steve, you had to have umbrellas over top of the laptops and the heat was unbearable. And we were standing up there and we move our chairs back in the shade because you know, we were Yeah, we were cooking and now you know, just a few weeks ago, it was the exact opposite. You know, you're trying to preach and your your dolls are are chattering because it's so cold. You know, none of us want that and I think that that car dome long term. If anything like COVID ever happened again, it would give, it's gonna give us an opportunity to look at things completely different. makes us look at our education completely different. Obviously, we're starting with this modular building knows what the future holds. Right, right, right. You know, I don't think we're gonna have a wetland Oh, yeah.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Well actually see, I already know it's already taken care of because the Eco n is our property, the Elkhorn Creek and the piece that goes through we had a couple of folks come with the school last year before the COVID thing, and they were one was with the sister Do you remember sister's name? Yeah. But anyway, and they and they showed us how we could really take advantage of the land. So use that for gift is already here. Yeah.

Tim Stout:

If we want to have a class on trees on our if we want to be an arborist we've got how many species of trees that is

Mr. Brent Mayer:

anybody know like 30? something I'd

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

already said. We've been identified. Actually, that is was an Eagle Scout project. Yeah, right. Come into building one between beer, one beer and two. There's a map. Yeah. identify all the trees existed on on our campus.

Tim Stout:

Oh, cool. So it was pretty awesome. How many schools out there? How many Qaeda? Al Qaeda? eight schools.

Unknown:

Yeah, right. Right.

Tim Stout:

that aren't on a special campus.

Dallas Kelley:

William Vinny says Good to see you, buddy. Bye. Bye. Good to see you again. Brent, Welcome to your new row and count your blessings.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Thank you. Thank you, Bill.

Tim Stout:

Let's go. We'd love you commenting on Sunday masses. You always say Count your blessings. He always says I count your blessings. Count your blessings. And there's another thing that he in our father can't remember what it is that he comments on that too. Glad. Thanks for tuning in. And Bill Is that it? Any other guy was the only one that had a check the school page two just in case there might be a little bit of carryover there over there. So Brent, cradle Catholic, adult oval. How did you get to Lexington, because you went to school at center

Mr. Brent Mayer:

right here in Danville, came up to University of Kentucky for one year graduate school. And then got stuck here, pretty much. My wife was one year behind at center. She finished up and then that was in 95. And then we both were we got engaged and we're looking for where are we going to end up and we did the little scramble. And I got offered a job in Lexington and a job in Louisville, and she got offered a job in Lexington and a job in Cincinnati. And so Lexington one

Tim Stout:

and you have four kids, right

Mr. Brent Mayer:

for boys or boys. My oldest is in his finish in his second year of Bellarmine. My youngest is in third grade, here at St. John's.

Tim Stout:

And did you think that you would never have a kid in a new school at St. John's school?

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Actually, no, I've always believed they would make it into this.

Tim Stout:

Did you probably thought john was gonna be in any ability to

Dallas Kelley:

tell people this up. Jason who, you know, like went to school together all the museum in his town. When he was in kindergarten, he was we will have a school by the time he's in the third or fourth grade. He's 27.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

I can tell you, God bless Miss King, because she is still our first grade teacher and she has been holding on and we had a conversation probably 10 years ago about the new school and it's so close. And I'm so excited. She'll be with us next year.

Tim Stout:

We haven't even talked about that. Yeah, we haven't talked about the impact on the teachers and, you know, in recruitment and retention and all those things. Because, you know, Catholic, Catholic education is not known for high salaries for teachers, obviously. But, you know, it is it is known for smaller class sizes. You know, there's typically other benefits to it. And for us facilities was was it one of those? No,

Mr. Brent Mayer:

no, now, it will be it will be both inside and out. You know, again, we used to because I used to give the tours all the time. And that's that, you know, that's what we were saying, like, get past the exterior and come when the kids are in with the teachers see what they do. And and it was always I mean, it's always a selling point. And now they'll come in they'll be like, wow, this is really nice. And then I've gone inside and they're like wow, this is really nice. And then they're gonna see that awesome teacher in action. And so yeah, you know, the several the hurdles to recruitment had are going to get knocked down. It's awesome.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, I just, you know, I can't see any negatives to moving out here isolation Father, you said but I find that's not really an increase security. Right.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Right. You know, I already mentioned to Dan and so Brian is one of the interesting things with a school could have faced now is how to manage the children. And the teacher in one building. Now they are too close before they're all over the place, but now they are too closed out a new, I guess a new problem with a good problem.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Yeah, the teachers will say no running in the hallway. Never had to say school.

Tim Stout:

Yeah, the hallway the school building wasn't long enough to stop. And I think that, you know, moving from one to another Catholic church building is a building in the office as a building 12345677 buildings, right. I got that right.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Just about

Tim Stout:

Yeah, yeah. Seven buildings to a main building and you're gonna use building two? Yeah. Three, yeah, eight buildings. So it's got to be good for everybody. Including the principal and old dad. Poor Dad. He's not going to. You should get him tied him up for a part time teaching row or something. You

Mr. Brent Mayer:

know what Dan is? I am no Dan Martell. Okay. Dan is an awesome servant leader. I hope to be as good as him as a servant leader. He's already committed that he'll be around next year. If I call he'll answer.

Dallas Kelley:

What he told you.

Unknown:

Yeah, I

Tim Stout:

believe he's gonna be fishing on he's gonna be fishing on Dallas, Dallas and use it to make dates.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Yeah, right. Right. Right. But, ya know, Dan, Dan's gonna Dan's gonna help us this thing.

Dallas Kelley:

We need to invest in a plow and hook it up to my truck. And I No, we don't you know, we had some problems with getting it clear this year. Oh, the other snow snow. Yeah,

Tim Stout:

there's a plow out here. Oh, we got Well, we

Unknown:

did have one of those. Yeah,

Tim Stout:

yeah, it's on the tonic, probably an older truck, but it looked good on the front of your house might be the plow might be a little bigger than a truck. But hey, that's another way you can get paid man, you can raise that paycheck man have been responsible for for plowing. So. So it's exciting times at the school. Exciting times at the parish. You know, what else do we need to know? Brent? About Brent? Gosh.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

Be patient with you. Yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously, there's a learning curve, right. But, you know, if you're concerned that I'm not coming from the principal side of things, it's not that this is foreign to me. I like to say I've worked with the last three principals have been on the school board, I've written several of the policies that we follow, I wrote the school board constitution back when I was the president of the school board, sit with the diocesan group that looks at curriculum, and I have several friends that are principals inside the diocese. So So those, those are all resources and connections that I'll be able to call on. And, you know, there's, there's going to be a new opportunity with the teachers, one of the things that I asked Dan and father to help me put together is really, for lack of a better term, we're calling it like a teacher leader council kind of piece. And so there'll be designated teachers that they kind of serve as a voice for their respective grades, but also, to hold me in check and make sure to hold me accountable, make sure that they are getting the resources that they need, and that I'm paying attention to the issues that are important to them. And, and at the same time, help me to communicate back. And so it you know, it should enhance not impede that communication that we have between the principal and the teachers. But it'll probably be something they've never seen before. But to me, in the corporate world is very common. Sure, I mean, put together a subject matter experts, and you use them to your advantage. So

Tim Stout:

usually, the sign of a good leader is somebody that when people fall behind him, and two, they know where to go for help. Yeah. And they're not afraid to go ask for help. Oh, sure. So. So you need people praying for you. Holy Spirit, you need the Holy Spirit. And you also need to be praying. So it's a good segue for this, hey, we got a little gift for being on the show. It's a it's a rugged rosary, because you need to be praying a rosary every day. So you leave the school in the best direction.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

So kind of be Thank you.

Tim Stout:

But don't take them I gave it to you. People just need to have patience, right? The patients you're gonna learn a lot. They're your teachers are gonna learn stuff from you, that that, you know, that you bring to the table, you're gonna learn from all of them. And, you know, as a community, we're all going to be learning because it's a new, it's a new endeavor for us in place.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

So, in the case, the kids are going to be the biggest beneficiaries. Remember that this is all about getting our students the best education that we possibly can. And in so if if There's craziness in the pickup line if the the lunches are a little slow or whatever it is, in this next year, just remember, we're trying to make this best for the kids will remember the lunches are slow. That's the

Tim Stout:

Father, you got anything else to add? Or ask for rent or thoughts?

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

No, I think we look forward for this upcoming year we is, is a godsend. I do believe that is the unique way we're going to approach in regards St. John's school, you know, combination of the retaining the amount of information, the integrity of what we are, I think St. JOHN is a great school. Unfortunately, we don't talk a lot about it. And so now, if we have something at least we can showcase it. Both the the, the facility, and so we can showcase what we can do to serve our community. So I look forward to work with Brian and I think we have a good team. Fighting for the first time we actually have a clear plan to jump forward. Yeah, in ample of time to calculate in many ways, thanks to COVID

Tim Stout:

you probably don't have to worry about lease for a couple years, whether the water fountain or the toilet or whatever's broken and leaking, right. Right. I mean, it's true, we laugh about it, but you know, or whatever else pick, pick a maintenance issue and one of those houses, whether it's electrical or plumbing or hv AC or all those things. You know, we're gonna have our challenges out here, but it's gonna be you know, it's gonna be in in our new home. Right, Cardon? Hey, let's do you ever say the day over, they're not actually a say, blessing blessing, do blesseds counter sights. I just want to know,

Dallas Kelley:

if they're in heaven. They're saying they're just now recognized as one.

Tim Stout:

Okay, there it is. That's the official position.

Dallas Kelley:

Everybody I'm having

Unknown:

for March 12. Today we celebrate bless it Angela salawa. War brings out the extremes. In the case of Angela salawa. It revealed her courage and goodness. Born in Poland in 1881. Angela moved to Krakow as a young woman. Working as a domestic, she began to gather with and instruct other young domestic workers during World War One. She displayed remarkable dedication and courage by helping prisoners of war, whatever their nationality or religion. She also cared for soldiers wounded in the war. Addressing herself to Christ in her diary, Angela wrote, Lord, I live by your will. I shall die when you desire. Save me because you can. bad health finally forced Angela to enter apostolic works. The limits placed on her were especially difficult for someone whose goal was to spread the Good News wherever she could. In 1922 at age 41, God called the humble Angela home. She was beatified in 1991 by pope john paul the second in a public square in Krakow. There's more about the saints along with inspiration and Catholic resources at our website, Saint of the day.org. From Franciscan media, this has been st of the day.

Tim Stout:

Polish, Polish soon to be saying or saying that she's already in heaven. Dallas, you don't have your headphones on. Gosh. Come on, rookie mistake. rookie mistake. Hey, we're at the end of the show. Any questions for many viewers? Nine. That's good side bread. Nobody wanted to. I don't know come at you with a pitchfork or anything. So

Dallas Kelley:

that's that'll happen like a week after school starts.

Mr. Brent Mayer:

appreciate them waiting till I'm actually on the payroll.

Tim Stout:

And just if you build a gym, 90% of the parents will be happy.

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

Yes. Right. That was an announcement from your fancy brand is a gift. Absolutely.

Tim Stout:

is a gift for sure. Our next show, what if I got these dates? Wrong? March Yeah, we're in March. Yeah, March 26. We don't have a guest yet. But you know, one of the things to follow you and I've talked about what the communications is if we can use this venue to communicate some of the things going on out here, whether we want to have the chair of the multi purpose committee or the thing so modular committee or whatever. This is a an avenue for that. So stay tuned here. In two weeks, we actually are going to have which is the April Metal Hammer calendar. Somebody gave me that date April's night. Yeah, April 9. We're going to have Eric and Barbara Conklin on to discuss St. John's St. Francis and John's marriage ministry which kind of got started at before COVID. Like, everything with COVID kind of got put on hold so they're gonna Come on and we're going to talk about this this new ministry so you know definitely come and check that out a lot of stuff we hope a lot of stuff changing. Got Holy Week coming up soon, right just a few weeks away. Look, look pay attention for that schedule, right gonna do most of the stuff out here card. All right. Pray for good weather. We don't want to live prostrate in the muddy water. We would though I guess right where else we got to do it if we can't do it. If we can't do it in the center. We'll figure that out. So hey support, support our ministry SS f j.org. You can also go to the St. Francis in john.org. along what I just like to say ssF j.org because there's a hyperlink that takes you right to the the give page, donate page, support our ministries. You know, we've been fortunate through COVID not to have lost. We've lost some but we haven't lost a whole lot of revenue. I think the schools doing really good financially still, even with enrollment down but up slightly because of that influx from from non parishioners, I'll say into the school. But we do need support. And the best way to do that it's online now. You can go to ssF j.org it'll take you to a page where you'll have a list of 20 2022 different ways to give money funds to give money to. So please support our ministry. It's what the church is all about. And it allows us to go out and and do God's work in the community. Whether that stop right to school, and train or educate our kids catechize our kids catechize, our our adult parishioners as well. So all those things are possible because of your gifts. So please give online. If you're not a follower, click on it. They're changing how they do all those things. Sometimes it's subscribe. Sometimes it's like, I can't keep up with it. Just tune in. And now we'll get through this pandemic together. And hopefully everything will be normal. Well, I heard story that everything will be normal by July 4. So just like magic will be gathering is is free and independent. People right to ask your life and over there.

Dallas Kelley:

I'm laughing because I seen a meme.

Tim Stout:

So who's given the blessing who gave it last time you gave it last month? Can

Fr. Linh Nguyen:

you give someone the blessing Deacon Dallas,

Tim Stout:

I think I just didn't change it.

Dallas Kelley:

I feel the name of the file, the Holy Spirit. Amen. As we close this show tonight, Heavenly Father, we want to give you our honor, as always. And we want to thank you God for this time that we spent tonight together to Scott to discuss things and introduce rent to the community as the new principal. And may you bless each person listening tonight who took the time to be with us and bless and use your protective hand over brand to guide him through the school year. And we asked Almighty God to bless everyone here and everyone out there Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Unknown:

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Tim Stout:

Thank you, sir. Good. Good show. Guys. Brad, thanks for coming. Thanks. Good time. We'll have you back. When the honeymoons over Yeah. We'll see if you're, we're still as positive and upbeat as you are now. Maybe like, the day after the first day of school or something like that. Good luck to you prayers for you. And you got a lot of people pulling for you. Thanks, sir. All right. All right. Till next until two weeks, Deacon Tim. I'm taking Dallas by the linguine. Good night everybody.

Unknown:

Did you ever stop and think why spend too much time just getting ready? I don't know a single thing that I haven't noticed. When I see you my heart starts racing, but I don't know if the length is Jason brown