Hello Everyone.
We have several very exciting dates to share with you.
On Sunday, September 27th we will be holding a back to school night from 4:00-6:00. This event will begin with a conversation about our fall and our transition to the Waterstone Campus. We will be using that time to introduce you to our leadership team, share our vision, discuss logistics, and talk about roles at the new school. We will also be talking about children's portfolios and observations and the importance of these to our school.
Our conversation will be followed with classroom events in each of the SIX classrooms at the school. How exciting to have the half-day families joining us for the first time!
Next, the fall festival/bonfire/photo day will all be held on Friday, October 23rd.
Families are welcome to sign-up for family portraits beginning at 3:00 on the 23rd. There will be a sign-up sheet posted on the door to the main school building a week prior to the event. Families who are new to us should know that we love LOVE David Gellatly who is returning to take our photos for his 4th year. He is wonderful!
The fall festival will begin at 3:30 and will conclude by 5:00. We always need as many parent/grandparent volunteers as possible. Please let us know as soon as possible if you will be available to volunteer to help out with this event. As we are holding this event the week before Halloween it is going to be focused on Fall this year and not Halloween. CHILDREN WILL NOT WEAR COSTUMES TO THIS EVENT. We will be exploring the sites, smells, tastes and sounds of fall with a series of activities. This is always a great event!
*Our MTW families are very much invited to join us for all of the events of this day.
We will end the day with our annual bonfire. This is by far the most wonderful night of our year. Here are some important details for you to have:
1. This is a potluck. There will be a sign-up sheet on the door at the main school.
2. This event is usually attended by 90%+ of our community. This is a great chance for you to meet other families and make some new connections.
3. The event ends at 8:00 but it is very often the case that many families will sit around the fire much later into the night.
4. We serve s'mores so come hungry because the children love making them even more than they love eating them.
5. Chairs and blankets are a great idea.
6. The community photo will be taken at this event.
7. We really encourage you to attend this event!
There will be more information about all of these events in the coming weeks. Please contact us if you have any questions or if you can volunteer to help out at the Fall Festival.
Thanks so much!
Christa and Jennifer
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Mid-Week Blog
As you can see in the photos, we now have walls and a roof. The second building will begin framing tomorrow.
This is very, very exciting.
That is not why we are writing though.
We are writing to tell you about the half-day program classroom progress. Here it is: THE CLASSROOMS ARE SO CUTE. Not a little cute. They are REALLY cute. We have been collecting so many materials that we really have three of everything to choose from. The cutest of the cute are going into these rooms and they are just sweet. The pictures that we have included are just snapshots of spaces. The rooms will be completely finished and ready to be seen by Monday's open house. PLEASE come on in to meet Mr. Sean and Ms. Rachel. They are working so hard to be ready for the arrival of the new children. In fact, the whole school is truly buzzing with excitement. We are expectant as we await their arrival.
To all of you new Half-Dayers: Know that we cannot wait to see you next week!
Christa Niven
Sunday, August 23, 2009
WALLS!!!!
We have walls! We are so excited that we cannot even express it in words. Please PLEASE drive by and see the progress of the week.
There are LIMITED spaces available in the half-day program for September. Please contact us ASAP to enroll. We will write a mid-week blog on Wednesday with photos of the new rooms. You are also welcome to stop by to see them yourself. They are ADORABLE and we are very excited to see how Rachel and Sean put them together next week.
Glimpse: We want to use this glimpse to share with you our gratitude for the tremendous generosity of our community. We have been receiving many, many donations of toys and interesting pieces of furniture for many months now. One family in particular (they have asked to remain unnamed) has gone above and beyond and we are just so thankful. To those of you asking about where to leave donations, we are very happy and thankful for any of the following items:
1. Outgrown toys.
2. Children's or parenting books.
3. Unique or interesting pieces of furniture big or small- those pieces are what make our program's appearance charming.
4. Kitchen equipment and pots, pans, baking dishes, utensils, etc.
5. Interesting window coverings.
The truth is that we will accept just about any donation and find something wonderful to do with it. As you know, we like to take unusual items and find strange places for them. We are just so thankful that so many of you are thinking of us and helping us to get ready for our opening.
At this point we are still being told that our time line has not changed and that they are hoping for a November certificate of occupancy with a worst case scenario of December 13th. The great news is that we can open the buildings one at a time and we will do exactly that starting with the big classroom building provided that nothing changes the order of building completion. We are truly confident in this time line.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Foundations!
We have finally been able to pour the foundations for our buildings! What a glorious thing to be able to report to you. Our contractor is waiting on a mechanical plumbing change on Building B and then they will pour that last slab of concrete AND THEN framing will begin. Our contractor said we should see framers by next week!!!!
We will FINALLY be 3-dimensional!
We are being told that once the framers and roofers are finished things will move very quickly. Our interior is very sparse and simple. We are hoping/praying/wishing/counting on that simplicity equalling easy and fast to finish.
We will keep you posted.
The half-day program classrooms will be painted this weekend. We can't thank the Hillsborough United Church of Christ enough for their willingness to once again share their space with our school family. We have been told that we have Mr. Fred Jordan to thank specifically for these classrooms as he believed very strongly that this is a good use of space for the church. While Fred is our champion on this issue, the entire church has been nothing but supportive, loving, and embracing of our community and our mission. We are so grateful to the church as a whole.
Glimpse: Carrying the topic of foundations one LONG step further, we are beginning to consider the smaller details that make our program what it is. One of our great fears is that our little homey school will not translate to the larger campus. We are fully committed to doing everything possible to ensure that we don't ever feel like a big institutional school. We are choosing paint colors that are similar to the paint now, buying lots of furniture at garage and yard sales so that we carry the character and charm with us, and even thinking about the music that we will play in the classrooms for nap time being sure that the music selection is broad enough that each teacher can choose music that reflects his or her group of children and not the corporate philosophy of our school. We are again open to suggestions from all of you.
What are the foundational pieces that you want to see us build upon? What pieces of the current school do you most want to see us recreate at the new campus?
We will FINALLY be 3-dimensional!
We are being told that once the framers and roofers are finished things will move very quickly. Our interior is very sparse and simple. We are hoping/praying/wishing/counting on that simplicity equalling easy and fast to finish.
We will keep you posted.
The half-day program classrooms will be painted this weekend. We can't thank the Hillsborough United Church of Christ enough for their willingness to once again share their space with our school family. We have been told that we have Mr. Fred Jordan to thank specifically for these classrooms as he believed very strongly that this is a good use of space for the church. While Fred is our champion on this issue, the entire church has been nothing but supportive, loving, and embracing of our community and our mission. We are so grateful to the church as a whole.
Glimpse: Carrying the topic of foundations one LONG step further, we are beginning to consider the smaller details that make our program what it is. One of our great fears is that our little homey school will not translate to the larger campus. We are fully committed to doing everything possible to ensure that we don't ever feel like a big institutional school. We are choosing paint colors that are similar to the paint now, buying lots of furniture at garage and yard sales so that we carry the character and charm with us, and even thinking about the music that we will play in the classrooms for nap time being sure that the music selection is broad enough that each teacher can choose music that reflects his or her group of children and not the corporate philosophy of our school. We are again open to suggestions from all of you.
What are the foundational pieces that you want to see us build upon? What pieces of the current school do you most want to see us recreate at the new campus?
Friday, August 7, 2009
Why Don't We Have Walls YET???
We wrote that exact sentence to our contractor this week. What he told us in response both makes us very excited AND very frustrated at the same time. This is his response to us:
We have completed underground electrical tie ins to the buildings and are now working on underground plumbing. Weather dependent, we should have the plumbing signed off in C and A building by early next week. The sheer footings are installed. Once we receive inspections, we will pour the slabs on C and A buildings. We still need final drawings on the B building.
Once we have slab on grade next week, we should begin framing right away.
Here are some lessons that we have learned:
1. Never build a building when you are the only project in town IF YOU HAVE A TIGHT TIMELINE. The reason: Because the inspectors have time to be on site every day inspecting daily what would normally be inspected monthly if at all. The inspections are ensuring that the new Little School building is the safest building that we can possibly build BUT it is also slowing everything way, way, way down.
2. Work with a local architect because they are familiar with the inspectors and their relationship will make the permitting and inspections process MUCH easier. This is particularly true in town and county-related code compliance issues. It does not seem like it should continue to be difficult to translate Hillsborough/Orange County codes into Durham County codes (our architect is in Durham County) and back again this late in the process but it truly is and it takes a tremendous amount of time to mobilize all of the architects and engineers to make changes that would be accounted for easily with a local architect.
3. Plan an extra six months into the time line. This is a DUH! but folks kept telling us that with things being as slow as they are in the building market that things would move very quickly. Refer to item #1 for an explanation of why that is not the case.
The truth is that our crew is moving as fast as they possibly can. We still have December 13th as our outside date and we are still being told that they want to bring it to a close earlier than that date. We really appreciate all of the hard work and dedication of our entire team- architects, engineers, builders, inspectors, and our wonderful project manager. These are incredible people who truly want the very best for this project and are going above and beyond in many instances to see that happen.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
**The half day program is on schedule for a September opening. Please check back next week for more information.
Glimpse:
Our staff are our family, our friends, our people and we love them. We consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to be able to write that and mean it 100% when we do so. These people are incredibly precious to us and we want to do everything that we can to retain them. To that end, we have built a benefit package that we are very proud to offer them. The package currently includes health, life, dental and vision insurance benefits as well as paid leave, unpaid leave, paid holidays, and participation in several county and state staff-support programs.
In the year to come we are increasing all of our contributions to the insurance benefits as well as increasing the coverages offered to the staff. In addition, we are going to offer a cafeteria plan of additional coverages for the first time. We have contracted to offer flex spending accounts for all that are interested. Finally, we are
increasing our pay range for all positions at the new campus. Again, these are things that we are very proud of and we hope that these changes let our staff know that they are very important and beloved.
Having all of these things in place truly means that we have very little turn over in the staff and when we have an opening we tend to have dozens of applicants to choose from. When we post a job, we include a series of essay questions that we ask candidates to complete and submit along with their applications. We review answers as well as resumes at length before inviting anyone to visit the school. The candidate sees each of us and Mary for interviews on their first visit. If we all agree that we would like to see the candidate again we next have them complete a four hour meet and greet with the children in Mary's classroom. We then meet again to discuss the candidate. If we are still interested at that point we invite the candidate to return again for an eight hour in-class interview in the open classroom.
We have had candidates get all the way to that point who we have not
hired.
If at that point we are still confident in the candidate we offer a provisional offer of employment. We have them review our policies and complete their background and health paper work and hire them only after we have received those clearances AND supervised them in the classroom for 90 days. It is a LONG interview process. The reason is that we want to not only be sure that the person is right for us, but we want the candidate to be sure that we are right for them as well. This process is long but well worth the effort as the result is an incredibly cohesive group who truly enjoy working with children and with each other in our school.
We have completed underground electrical tie ins to the buildings and are now working on underground plumbing. Weather dependent, we should have the plumbing signed off in C and A building by early next week. The sheer footings are installed. Once we receive inspections, we will pour the slabs on C and A buildings. We still need final drawings on the B building.
Once we have slab on grade next week, we should begin framing right away.
Here are some lessons that we have learned:
1. Never build a building when you are the only project in town IF YOU HAVE A TIGHT TIMELINE. The reason: Because the inspectors have time to be on site every day inspecting daily what would normally be inspected monthly if at all. The inspections are ensuring that the new Little School building is the safest building that we can possibly build BUT it is also slowing everything way, way, way down.
2. Work with a local architect because they are familiar with the inspectors and their relationship will make the permitting and inspections process MUCH easier. This is particularly true in town and county-related code compliance issues. It does not seem like it should continue to be difficult to translate Hillsborough/Orange County codes into Durham County codes (our architect is in Durham County) and back again this late in the process but it truly is and it takes a tremendous amount of time to mobilize all of the architects and engineers to make changes that would be accounted for easily with a local architect.
3. Plan an extra six months into the time line. This is a DUH! but folks kept telling us that with things being as slow as they are in the building market that things would move very quickly. Refer to item #1 for an explanation of why that is not the case.
The truth is that our crew is moving as fast as they possibly can. We still have December 13th as our outside date and we are still being told that they want to bring it to a close earlier than that date. We really appreciate all of the hard work and dedication of our entire team- architects, engineers, builders, inspectors, and our wonderful project manager. These are incredible people who truly want the very best for this project and are going above and beyond in many instances to see that happen.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
**The half day program is on schedule for a September opening. Please check back next week for more information.
Glimpse:
Our staff are our family, our friends, our people and we love them. We consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to be able to write that and mean it 100% when we do so. These people are incredibly precious to us and we want to do everything that we can to retain them. To that end, we have built a benefit package that we are very proud to offer them. The package currently includes health, life, dental and vision insurance benefits as well as paid leave, unpaid leave, paid holidays, and participation in several county and state staff-support programs.
In the year to come we are increasing all of our contributions to the insurance benefits as well as increasing the coverages offered to the staff. In addition, we are going to offer a cafeteria plan of additional coverages for the first time. We have contracted to offer flex spending accounts for all that are interested. Finally, we are
increasing our pay range for all positions at the new campus. Again, these are things that we are very proud of and we hope that these changes let our staff know that they are very important and beloved.
Having all of these things in place truly means that we have very little turn over in the staff and when we have an opening we tend to have dozens of applicants to choose from. When we post a job, we include a series of essay questions that we ask candidates to complete and submit along with their applications. We review answers as well as resumes at length before inviting anyone to visit the school. The candidate sees each of us and Mary for interviews on their first visit. If we all agree that we would like to see the candidate again we next have them complete a four hour meet and greet with the children in Mary's classroom. We then meet again to discuss the candidate. If we are still interested at that point we invite the candidate to return again for an eight hour in-class interview in the open classroom.
We have had candidates get all the way to that point who we have not
hired.
If at that point we are still confident in the candidate we offer a provisional offer of employment. We have them review our policies and complete their background and health paper work and hire them only after we have received those clearances AND supervised them in the classroom for 90 days. It is a LONG interview process. The reason is that we want to not only be sure that the person is right for us, but we want the candidate to be sure that we are right for them as well. This process is long but well worth the effort as the result is an incredibly cohesive group who truly enjoy working with children and with each other in our school.
Monday, August 3, 2009
The Half-day Program is Coming Together Beautifully.
Mr. Sean and Ms. Rachel are meeting and planning and thinking about room designs. The classrooms will be painted in the days to come and the decorations are being collected and prepared.
When we considered the half-day program manager/after-school program manager position, there was no question for us that it would be Sean Kehoe. Sean is a wonderful, teacher- we understand that. He is absolutely beloved among the current families and if there is any surprise among the current families it is about our decision to remove him from the classroom where he has just flourished. What they may or may not know is that Sean is also among the best-versed in the child
care licensing laws and their application on the staff.
He is also among our strongest emergency responders and in fact, if we are being honest, we will tell you that we call on him first in most emergency situations. That is a very important part of our decision, but Sean has also been, on many occasions, willing to challenge the beliefs of others in order to do what he has considered to be the best thing for the children and the program. Even when it made him less than popular to do so for a short while. We don't want to give the impression that anyone on the staff is not interested in the best for the children and the school, it is just that we all have different ideas about what that is and not many are willing to put themselves personally on the line in the way that Sean has consistently demonstrated.
In addition, while all of our staff go above and beyond for the school (working at home and on the weekends, calling from garage sales to beg for something that one child will "Just LOVE" that the school just has to have, etc., Sean has consistently been willing to get out of bed in the middle of the night to help out a family, or the school, he spent weeks (after working his normal hours) here building the infant classroom and now the half-day rooms. He never says no, always says yes (and does so willingly), and goes above and beyond even the above and beyond in some cases. We have no question that his dedication to the success of the program will be unwavering.
Sean is currently completing his undergraduate degree in early childhood education while also completing the state requirements for administrators. He is doing that out of his own drive to complete the administration work and not because he is required to do so to manage the program. He far exceeds the state requirements and even best practice for program managers.
The truth is that there may be a better educated management candidate out there, but there is no one better prepared to manage and implement the Little School half-day program than Sean. He will do a wonderful job and the children will be safe in his care. We are sure of it.
Sean will begin to transition to his new role with a three month training period that we will begin on August 24th. Sean will be working very closely with both of us as we work through his training together. Once the Waterstone campus opens we will continue to work very closely with Sean in an ongoing capacity as his program directors both at the half-day program, and at Waterstone where he will also be managing our after-school program. In fact, all of the leadership team will work
closely with Sean supporting the both the half-day and after school programs. This team includes:
Jennifer and Christa- Program Directors
Wendy Vavrousek- Overall Program Manager
Joann Milano- Human Resources Manager
Mary Swanson- Admissions Manager
We hope that you will contact us directly with any additional questions or concerns about any of these issues.
* We had another great week on the Waterstone site. Please check back
next week for additional information about Waterstone.
When we considered the half-day program manager/after-school program manager position, there was no question for us that it would be Sean Kehoe. Sean is a wonderful, teacher- we understand that. He is absolutely beloved among the current families and if there is any surprise among the current families it is about our decision to remove him from the classroom where he has just flourished. What they may or may not know is that Sean is also among the best-versed in the child
care licensing laws and their application on the staff.
He is also among our strongest emergency responders and in fact, if we are being honest, we will tell you that we call on him first in most emergency situations. That is a very important part of our decision, but Sean has also been, on many occasions, willing to challenge the beliefs of others in order to do what he has considered to be the best thing for the children and the program. Even when it made him less than popular to do so for a short while. We don't want to give the impression that anyone on the staff is not interested in the best for the children and the school, it is just that we all have different ideas about what that is and not many are willing to put themselves personally on the line in the way that Sean has consistently demonstrated.
In addition, while all of our staff go above and beyond for the school (working at home and on the weekends, calling from garage sales to beg for something that one child will "Just LOVE" that the school just has to have, etc., Sean has consistently been willing to get out of bed in the middle of the night to help out a family, or the school, he spent weeks (after working his normal hours) here building the infant classroom and now the half-day rooms. He never says no, always says yes (and does so willingly), and goes above and beyond even the above and beyond in some cases. We have no question that his dedication to the success of the program will be unwavering.
Sean is currently completing his undergraduate degree in early childhood education while also completing the state requirements for administrators. He is doing that out of his own drive to complete the administration work and not because he is required to do so to manage the program. He far exceeds the state requirements and even best practice for program managers.
The truth is that there may be a better educated management candidate out there, but there is no one better prepared to manage and implement the Little School half-day program than Sean. He will do a wonderful job and the children will be safe in his care. We are sure of it.
Sean will begin to transition to his new role with a three month training period that we will begin on August 24th. Sean will be working very closely with both of us as we work through his training together. Once the Waterstone campus opens we will continue to work very closely with Sean in an ongoing capacity as his program directors both at the half-day program, and at Waterstone where he will also be managing our after-school program. In fact, all of the leadership team will work
closely with Sean supporting the both the half-day and after school programs. This team includes:
Jennifer and Christa- Program Directors
Wendy Vavrousek- Overall Program Manager
Joann Milano- Human Resources Manager
Mary Swanson- Admissions Manager
We hope that you will contact us directly with any additional questions or concerns about any of these issues.
* We had another great week on the Waterstone site. Please check back
next week for additional information about Waterstone.
