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.