It’s getting exciting now! We have been concentrating on school opening now, since the fundraiser is over. Nice to have that behind us. Those of us on the funding committee are basically new to being in charge, although some of us have been on other, much larger funding groups, and we are still learning. We are being careful to keep lots of notes about contacts, costs, and items needed, for next time, and for others when we are off the committee.
The AC is now up and running in the main hall. The gym will be done next spring, because we are moving out of the AC season very soon, and it does have heating. We are also getting ready to set up a room in the other hall for a resource room. This will be used by our new resource teacher to give a little extra help to students who need extra attention and help.
The most exciting thing happening right now is that the teachers are moving in! So far, the teachers have just been names to me, not having met any of them. I am one of those people who needs a face to help remember names, and I have now met a couple of them, so I am starting to be able to have a better picture of the staff.
The teachers are now able to set things up and secure their rooms. Just after the fundraiser, we got all the door locks installed, and I got them programmed with the codes we wanted. It didn’t take long, and would have gone even smoother if I hadn’t spent about 20 minutes trying to get a lock to work with the programming instructions for a different room!
The rooms are beginning to take shape with teacher and student desks and chairs, book cases, books, and personal touches. You can tell which teachers live close, because their rooms are more complete. One of the teachers has yet to get to the area, as far as I know, so that room is looking kind of bare. I’m sure it won’t take long to get it in shape, though.
There has been a LOT of dirt being moved around outside. The portion of our property north and west of the school has had some drainage issues, so that has been tiled. Hopefully the big ridges that remain will be smoothed out soon. The kids may have to wait until next year to play baseball. A new baseball field is on the list of things to install. Not sure I have mentioned it before, but we also have a new playground setup located that we need to move here at some point this fall. I think the guys are waiting for a bit cooler weather for that project, and I don’t blame them.
As part of all the dirt moving and drainage work, we wanted to remove the dirt berm just west of the north parking lot. Early on in our project, we had looked at aerial photos from years ago, and noticed that the paved parking lot on the north end of the building used to be much larger than it is now, maybe by 40% or more. It seems that is was probably covered up a few years ago when someone attempted to start a football league, and installed a football field. That fell through, but the field was still there when we got the building. Since we were not going to use it, and with the need to redo part of that for better drainage, we also decided to see what was remaining of the old parking lot under the dirt.
We were very pleased to find the original blacktop was still there, under the dirt, after all those years of being buried. It appears that 3′ of dirt is a good preservative for unused pavement, since it is in a bit better shape than the existing parking lot. We haven’t tested it yet, but it seems that we will have room for 25 additional cars or more, which will really help. Before, parking would have been tight when we have school events with only family and staff attending.
Our need for more parking is likely to be increasing soon. In the last few days, we have received inquiries about several more students attending this year. Not sure how many for sure yet, but we have been ordering more curriculum materials. With our earlier orders, we had ordered one extra set for most classes, but it wasn’t enough, so we re-ordered, and also made sure to order a few more extras! You never know who will turn up at the last minute, and there is always the possibility of new students at any time during the year. at this point, there’s always room for one more.
We are always interested in any offers of items for the school. If you have something you think we might need, please contact us. At this point, our most urgent need is for funds to replace the existing shingle roof with metal. 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 money to us, and your identity remains private.
