Greetings! Hope everyone made it through these last hot days of September. I do think summer is on the way out now, at least I hope so. I do like those clear, deep blue skies of fall.
A few of us are still having mixed feelings about the shift from building to running the school. It’s actually like changing jobs, which always throws you off a bit, having to adjust to new tasks and responsibilities. I am kind of looking forward to next time we need to order curriculum! By the way, hopefully, we just got in the last few boxes. When the teachers really got a detailed look at what we had received, we did find a couple things missing. Plus, we needed to order more for the last minute students. We also had to add some things the teachers decided they wanted to use.
The teachers seem to be adapting to their new students well. It takes a lot of work to not only learn what each one needs to know, but figuring out how they learn, their personalities, and make sure they are keeping up is a big job. On top of that, two of our teachers are not from Indiana, so they are getting used to a new home and church, the surrounding areas, and our road system. Hopefully it is easier than what they are used to at home!
As much as we are changing over to daily operations, we do have a list of jobs to complete. We also realize that we have to keep thinking about what we need next, so we won’t have a repeat of this summer, where we have to have a lot of rushed work days to get things done. Plans are already underway to keep ahead of the growth by way of new students. That is kind of hard to predict at this point, but if the expansion of other local schools is any indicator, it won’t be long until we need new rooms.
The resource room is up and running. We had to do a repaint of the blackboard, which didn’t really turn out that great, due to a bad surface, but it will work until a more detailed redo. I believe this room is next up to be used for a regular classroom. Since several of our teachers are doing two grades in one room, it won’t take much until that gets to be too much work and we need to split a classroom and add a new teacher. Get your resume in now!
We are still adding books to the library, although it has slowed up a bit. I have been spending many hours this last couple weeks trying to get the musty smell out of some books I want to donate. This consists of laying them out in the sun and using clothes pins to keep them from flapping in the wind. The UV light is supposed to kill the mildew. So, every 30 minutes I have to go out and turn one page in each book. That means 15 hours for a 60 page book! At first I laid them on the driveway, but it hurt my back to bend over all the time, so I put up a table. That helped, but limited my space. Chasing the sun is also fun. And just when I thought I was done, we found more in the series, so I had to do two more days. Here’s a tip, if your library is in the basement, don’t put books on the bottom shelf if it is on the floor.
For the moment, we have lost our big parking lot to the north. It got tiled a couple weeks ago and is now covered with long mounds of dirt. Not exactly sure when we will be able to use that north field again, hopefully sometime next year. Even if we would happen to get it seeded this year, the new grass needs time to get going before we drive on it. Luckily the north parking surface is now much bigger, so we will have parking for any school events. I don’t know what plans there are, if any, for any school programs yet.
The other day when we needed to go to the school, we made a point to go just as school was letting out. I wanted to see how that was going. Being picked up like that is foreign to me, having gone to public school and riding buses all my life. And after school, some kids get to hang around and play while their moms do their scheduled school cleaning. Being a parent in a private school is a real commitment. Besides driving them to school every day, they take turns cleaning, making hot lunches, helping with fundraisers, taking care of the family while the husband does his turn at school work days, and probably a lot more I am missing. You can help by praying for safety end energy for all of the parents, as well as the teachers, board, and other staff and helpers.
As I posted last time, we are nearing decision time on getting the roof repaired this year yet. And we will probably need to put in at least one heating and AC unit next spring so we are ready if we get more students. 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.
