Decision #7.1 - Further Staff Re-Org
The previous staff reorganization post from October 2024 can be found here.
Problem to be Solved
How do we continue to reorganize our staff to increase efficiency and accountability?
Principles
These are in addition to the principles outlined in the initial staff re-organization (here).
Principle #1 - Departments before Locations
Shortly after the October 2025 staff reorganization, the Director of Operations began holding weekly meetings with all four Location Managers. These weekly meetings became exceedingly useful and fruitful, allowing all seven of our churches to act in a unified manner according to unified policies. These meetings have also prevented certain problems from festering or mistakes from becoming grievous.
We want to expand this practice of everyone with a similar job regularly coordinating amongst themselves. This has resulted in thinking of the parish staff according to departments first and locations second.
Principle #2 - Bellingham is a Unit
Insofar as we still need localized staff, it has become clear that the two Bellingham churches can fruitfully act as a single administrative location with two worship locations. This clarity came about through:
The summer 2025 weekend Mass discussion (link), in which Assumption and Sacred Heart combined their Saturday Mass, the remaining Masses were intentionally offset from each other, and the priest rotation was set to allow the two churches to share the Pastor and one vicar as their “stable” priests.
The summer 2025 combination of faith formation positions (discussed below) and the subsequent success of that combination.
The September 2025 decision to use the Sacred Heart parish hall / office to host a high school (link) and the consequent need to combine the Assumption and Sacred Heart staffs into one building.
Timeline of Changes
The following organizational changes have been made since the initial reorganization of October 2024.
July 2025
#1 - Regional Director of Pastoral Ministries
In July 2025, Dr. Kathy Ernst (previously Director of Parish Life, Pastoral Care, and Outreach at Assumption) was promoted to the newly created position of Regional Director of Pastoral Ministries for Whatcom Catholic. This change allowed all Faith Formation employees to have a unified supervisor and department, and allowed Fr. Moore to have one point of contact for Pastoral Ministries.
#2 - Regional Marriage Coordinator
There was a need to standardize our marriage preparation across the county and to better support our existing staff. At the same time, Anna Wittmershaus, who had previously served as Assumption’s Marriage Coordinator [0.25 FTE ], was retiring from her role teaching Spanish at Assumption Catholic School. She was offered the position of Regional Marriage Coordinator at 0.6 FTE. (Official Job Description)
#3 - Bellingham Combined Faith Formation
The two Bellingham churches had already been sharing a Youth Minister off and on for at least a decade. The movement of Dr. Kathy Ernst provided a window to attempt more employee sharing. Specifically:
Kim Walker, previously Director of Faith Formation for Sacred Heart, was named Director of Faith Formation for both Bellingham churches. (Official Job Description)
Liliana Marshall, previously Director of Children’s Faith Formation at Assumption [0.5 FTE], was moved to Spanish Assistant for Faith Formation for both Bellingham churches, and decreased her position hours to 0.2 FTE. (Official Job Description)
Claudia Maeda, previously Sacramental Registrar for Assumption, was named Sacramental Registrar for both Bellingham churches. (Official Job Description)
#4 - Administrative Changes
Three additional changes were made in July 2025:
Elizabeth Ames, previously Regional Director of Finance, was named Regional Director of Finance and HR. (Official Job Description)
Michael Rombaoa, previously Regional Director of HR [0.25 FTE] and Location Manager for Assumption [0.75 FTE], moved to full-time Location Manager for Assumption. (Official Job Description)
Liliana Marshall, Executive Assistant for Clergy, increased her hours from 0.5 FTE to 0.8 FTE. (Updated Official Job Description)
January/February 2026
In March 2025, the Finance Council recommended that all facilities and finance positions be regionalized (link). We finally implemented this in January/February 2026.
#1 - Bellingham Bookkeeper
Karen Zuther, previously Bookkeeper at Assumption, added approximately 5 hours/week to support Sacred Heart. This is not a full regionalization, as she is paid by the individual churches for the individual hours she works at each, but it is a start.
#2 - Facilities Retirements
Bert Bertschinger retired as Regional Director of Facilities.
Joe Reese retired as Facilities Manager [0.25 FTE] at St. Joseph in Lynden.
Brenna Sebens retired as Facilities Manager [0.75 FTE] at Assumption.
#3 - Facilities Hires
Our original plan was to hire a direct replacement for Bert with a new Regional Director of Facilities. And to supplement this position with two 0.6 FTE “Regional Maintenance Person” positions, who could float around the county doing smaller maintenance tasks. However, we had such an impressive slate of applicants for that position that we restructured our assumptions in order to accommodate two candidates with particularly useful skillsets. Specifically:
Keri Cleary hired as Regional Director of Facilities [0.5 FTE]. She serves as the head of the department, but is focused especially on the administrative aspect of the job. E.g. bidding contractors, ticketing and distributing maintenance requests, creating a long-term sustainable maintenance schedule, arranging and completing archives, et al. (Official Job Description)
Ryan Wittig hired as Regional Director of Maintenance. He answers to Keri, but is generally in charge of all repair work needed across the county. (Updated Job Description Pending)
Dave Wolfe, previously Facilities Manager [0.6 FTE] at Sacred Heart, moved to Regional Maintenance Person [0.6 FTE]. (Official Job Description)