Greetings from Union Center Christian School! Hope you are enjoying these early fall days as much as I am. One benefit of cooler days is when we have to work in the south wing of the school. It is actually pretty comfortable in there right now. I can still remember when it was just too hot to work there, only about 2 weeks ago, and before that it was too cold. I’m afraid those cold days are coming back, but there is less work to do, so it won’t be too bad.
Speaking of the work in that hall, I finally got all the feet fixed on our 350 chairs, just before they got rented out. If you do the math, that’s 1400 feet I had to check and rotate or replace to make sure we don’t damage the gym floor. I also got a the new locks programmed.
The resource room blackboard has been painted for a while, but it seems to have all been in vain. I checked it the other day and it can’t really be erased. You have to use water! Who wants to do that? I guess a new blackboard is on the list for that room as well. Oh well, I guess you have to try. Not planning on leaving a glowing review for that paint, though…
While I’m on the subject of cleaning, we have a new guy to clean the school. He works nights, and is built kind of funny. He’s about 14″ wide and 4″ tall. That’s right, it’s Mikey the Robot Sweeper! In order to keep the hallways clean and not have to make the teachers or scheduled cleaners have to sweep the hall every day, Mikey has been taught how to do it. He has sharp eyes, though, if you get within about 10′ of him, he will turn and go a different way. Hopefully he gets a bit more friendly as he learns the ropes. On the plus side, he can feed himself and empty his own dustbin.
Believe it or not, books and curriculum are still dribbling in. We found one book that had a number of pages missing, for some reason, and we recently ordered Spanish books for those who are going to be taking that class. We have a volunteer who is fluent, due to being on the mission field a few years.
The school is starting to feel like a real operating school, with the usual issues and things that need to be solved. Our Abeka rep told us that their school in Florida has 2500 students! I can’t imagine the work and staff it takes to run that school. I have no desire to ever visit Florida again, but it would be nice to make a visit to that school and see it in operation. He said they have 10 first grade classes. Next time we talk, I want to ask him if the school was planned to be that big from the beginning, or if they went through a lot of building projects to get that big. He did tell us about the importance of discipline and having the students know exactly what is expected of them, and evidence of that is that the school is very quiet and orderly. You can walk down the halls and you don’t hardly hear anything.
The school has been getting used regularly by our youth group for basketball and volleyball games, and will probably get used more as it gets colder. The gym has a good heating system, so it can be used comfortably in the winter. This last Wednesday, those who attended church in the evening got to use it as well. The water wasn’t working at the church or cabin, so we went there and had our service in the cafeteria, then we to other areas for prayer service. There are plenty of places for small groups, without using any classrooms.
As I write this, the plan is to bring our larger playground set from Michigan to the school in a week or so. We will have to take it down first. Not sure when it will be set up, but I’m sure the children will be begging their parents to get it put together as soon as they discover it. One planning issue is exactly where to set it up. I haven’t actually seen it yet, so I don’t know how big it really is. We have the small playground that is fenced in on the south end, and I don’t think we are going to remove that, but it would be nice to have something closer to where the classrooms are right now. I did notice that there are 3 new tetherball setups in the north lot.
We do have a company selected to put the roof on the parts of the school we are now using. We decided that was how we needed to do it for right now. Putting the whole roof on was just more than we were able to spend for now. If anyone wants to help us complete the roof, you can contact our treasurer or a board member, or donate funds anonymously and designate them for the roof. We will most likely need to do it soon, because as we grow, we will soon need to move into the south hall, which means upgrades there like we have done in the north hall. And upgrading rooms while the roof is leaking isn’t very productive!
On the subject of donations, I have been very remiss in offering our sincere thanks for those who have been donating to our school project in many ways, from church offerings, supporting our fundraisers, and donating through the Anabaptist Foundation. You have no idea how much it has meant, and continues to mean, that we have the support of the community around us, and even those of you who are far away. We can’t do this alone, and if providing the children of our community with a safe, caring environment for giving them a Christian education is important to you, the easiest thing you can do is help us in this way. No gift is too small. We need items that cost $1 just as much as we need much more costly things!
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.
