Greetings from “winter”! If anyone has been waiting on the next post, sorry, I am a bit late. Life has gotten in the way. We just brought an elderly parent home again after a few days in the hospital, and for now, they need a lot of supervision. Living right across the yard makes it handy, but it still means lots of things get postponed. Add to that several viewings and funerals in the last couple weeks, and time just gets away.
First off, a correction from the last post. Our information that the desks and chairs are the originals may not have been exactly correct. Memory can play tricks on you as time passes. After a bit of thought and investigation, it seems that although we got them from the same school system, they may not actually be the same ones. Oh well, it was a good story for a while. Still a miracle that we found them when we did, though!
The children are all back at school after the Thanksgiving holiday. Christmas decorations have made an appearance, and if you go by the school right now, you will see our vintage manger scene by the center doors. This was left here by someone, and it was rescued it from going into the dumpster or being given a new home. I had planned to set it up, but never got time. Someone else took it on themselves to set it up. I haven’t seen it in the night yet, but there are lights in it.
We have certainly been busy renting out our chairs. It seems like every time I go to the school, they have been moved, or part of them are missing. Yesterday I went by and there was a cattle trailer backed up to the doors. First I wondered if we had bought a cow to start an agriculture class, but then I figured out that they were loading chairs.
And now for our biggest news! The roof is on, at least the part we have the money for right now. It was interesting to watch the process. One crew came in and took off all the shingles and paper, made any needed repairs, and put new paper on, pretty much in one day. Then a different crew came in and put the metal on. That took about a week or so. It looks really good, and hopefully, no more leaking concerns, at least in most of our lifetimes!
We have scheduled a work day to replace the carpeting in the basement chapel area. This was part of our agreement when we bought the building. We have also done some repairs on the south parking lot. It is really hard to keep up with the damage caused by the garbage truck. We would like to find a better location, but none of our blacktop is in mint condition, so no matter where it goes, it will be an issue.
We are still in the middle of testing some students using our new testing materials. These will identify any learning challenges that a student may have. It takes a while to go through them all, but it will be worth it. I actually was subjected to a few test questions myself, and although some of them seem like nonsense, they are designed to discover the ways a child learns.
We are nearing the end of the year, and with everything that goes on during this busy season, this may be my last post of 2023. I had hoped to get a couple teacher bios up before now, but I think they are too busy teaching to have time for that! Not complaining about hard working teachers, though!
Speaking of the end of the year, if you need any last minute tax deductions, please consider helping the school. we are continuing to work towards getting the south hall improved for next year, in case we need it. If you want to help with a financial donation, you can go on our website, www.uccs.school, there is a Donate button there, or you can contact us for more information. If you would like to make a totally anonymous donation, there is a button on our website to go through the Anabaptist Financial group. You can direct them to send your donation to us, and your identity remains private.