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.

Week 14: Another Frustrating Week.

We continue to struggle with our code compliance issue. Ugh! We have three agencies or governing bodies involved with this issue. One agency is saying that they require us to do something that another won't approve and a third would require us to immediately remove- even prior to opening. We are not quite sure how to resolve the issue and so we have asked for a meeting of all concerned parties hoping that we can find some common ground and get moving again. We are not completely stalled, but we will be very soon if we are not able to settle this issue. We wish that all the parties could observe how our preschoolers solve their conflicts. One states the problem, the other listens and then responds with kind words such as "What do you need to make it better?", they take turns talking it out until they come to a solution that benefits both children. It seems so simple!

And so this week begins with us again waiting for our final building permit!
If you visit the site this week you will see the builders installing our retaining walls. It should be fun to see the big trucks moving all of the concrete and stone into place. If you stopped by over the weekend you likely saw all of the materials on huge pallets waiting- looking expectant. With the beautiful blue sky and shining sun today the crew should be able to get a whole lot completed even today.

At the Davis Road Campus things are continuing to move along towards Preschool graduation. THE CEREMONY HAS BEEN MOVED TO FRIDAY, JUNE 19th AT 6:30. You are all welcome to join us in celebrating our graduates. We will be serving cake afterwards.

Glimpse: As our site work crew is clearing the land we are hand-selecting trees to be put aside for the playground. They called us recently to ask us how short we wanted them to cut the trees. We were so surprised. We asked what in the world they meant. They asked again how much we wanted them to cut off the top and bottom of the tree. "NOTHING!" was our enthusiastic response. We want the kids to be able to see the entire tree so they can learn how it works. "Even the rootball?" they asked. "ESPECIALLY THE ROOT BALL!" we answered. What a great teaching tool the root system is for us. They scratched their heads. We beamed from ear to ear. Of COURSE we want the whole tree. Who wouldn't???

Week 13: Rain, Rain Go Away...

Do you all remember that we reported gaining a week in our last blog entry? The rain this week has more or less corrected our schedule.

Actually, this was a hard week for the project because we have also run into our first real snag in our permitting process. The problem is code related and it has to do with the translation of code from Orange County to the Town of Hillsborough and back to our architect who is responsible for gathering all of the information and finding a way to make everyone happy. We have become stuck in the gray area, and those in charge are trying to sort it all out but it is not happening quickly. As it involves our plumbing we are going to hit a delay if it is not resolved very quickly. This is very frustrating for us as we would like to create a list of options, walk them from desk to desk until we find one that makes everyone happy, and then move on it. As you all know, it is not that simple and it is out of our hands. And so we wait...

At the Davis Road Campus things are quickly coming together as we prepare for graduation and welcome many new children into the building. Our biggest movement of the year is going to take place next month as we see about a dozen children leave us and welcome in about a dozen more. It is always bitter sweet for us. Our graduation ceremony is scheduled for Friday, June 12th and you are all welcome to attend if you would like.

Warning: We usually cry at these things. This one is going to be particularly difficult as this is the first class that we have seen all the way through our building. When we remember the first day of the Little School and all of their tiny little hands and smiles it nearly overwhelms us to think that we are going to see them move on. Having said that, you must know that we never say "Good bye" at the Little School. We always say "See You Soon!" instead!



Glimpse: We completed our fund raiser for the Hillsborough Police K-9officers on Saturday with the presentation of a check for $800. Our money will be used to buy all of the equipment necessary to keep one of the dogs safe. We are very proud of our accomplishment and it was wonderful to be able to bring us all together on Saturday morning at Gold Park to give our gift directly to the Officer and his dog.

In the future we are very much looking forward to fully incorporating a service learning approach into our curriculum. We are busily researching preschool service models in the hopes of starting in our preschool room this year but charging the preschoolers with the task of teaching the rest of the school. We had a great example in the Duke School this year where the children participated in a back pack project where they brainstormed a series of fund-raisers, gathered their funds, distributed the funds to each of the children, and then had the children purchase food and supplies that were then distributed to very poor families living in our area. From conception to fruition the children did it all and along the way they trained each other. We love that and look forward to many such experiences in the future.In the meantime, please enjoy the photo of our presentation. There will also be photos in the News of Orange in the next edition.

Week 6: Sinks, Sinks and more SINKS!

We had our first lesson in construction delays this week. Before I tell you about our problem it is important to explain how we are governed.

First of all, we are licensed through the Division of Child Development in Raleigh. They have a set of codes and guidelines that we must adhere to in order to operate. The list of rules is so long that they require trainings prior to giving out the handbook. In fact, we can remember going to the training class for the Division's handbook where they handed us a five inch binder so filled to the brim with codes and laws that even the very best legal mind would struggle to untangle it all. We looked at each other with panicked expressions and wondered aloud what in the world we had gotten ourselves into. It was a brief, but very scary moment, until the trainer stumbled when explaining one of the laws and we realized that even the Division itself struggles at times to decipher it. Besides that, we are not the kind of women who quit easily!

Next we have technical assistance from Orange County Child Care Services. They don't impose any regulations upon us but they do work very closely with us to incorporate best practice in our classrooms. We have found them to be extraordinary allies and coaches. They have been particularly helpful in the area of ITERS and ECERS.

What in the world are they???

ITERS is the Infants and Toddlers Environmental RatingsScale.
The ECERS is the Early Childhood Environmental Ratings Scale.

This is a rigorous process where a representative comes to the school and randomly chooses one of our classrooms for each scale. Then they spend the day observing and rating our teachers and classroom environment. It focuses on things like the materials in the classrooms and the manner that the teachers use when speaking to the children. It is a very important but stressful process as there are many factors and the outcome heavily impacts our star rating. It is important that we incorporate all of the components in the dreaded handbook in order to score well. Orange County CCS has been incredibly helpful in preparing us for the scales. They even gave us coaching leading up to the scales, conducted a mock scale so that we could improve prior to the real thing, and then sat with each of our teachers to offer one on one coaching. They are wonderful people but this is still an incredibly overwhelming process- especially when you take into consideration that we are teaching throughout the process.

By the way...We did really well and they were very proud of us after our scores were in.

Next on the list is a series of Orange County agencies. We answer to Orange County Fire, Orange County Environmental Health,Orange County Social Services, Orange County Building and finally, Orange County Zoning. These folks visit us whenever they want (sometimes annually, sometimes more often) and each also has a whole (and often different) set of regulations that we have to follow. To make it all the more challenging, most of their rules and regulations change every so often. We are responsible to know the law but they aren't necessarily responsible for updating us.

By now you probably understand that this is all very complex. We generally are able to keep up UNTIL the regulations conflict with one another.This happens more often than you would think and it is very difficult to navigate the web of laws sometimes. So for instance... Orange County CCS recommends that we cover our walls with the children's art work. For them the more the merrier, especially on ITERS and ECERS day. We get points for having lots of art everywhere. The fire marshall says that no more than 20% of our walls can be covered in art at any one time. We gain points with the rating scales and lose points with the fire marshall all at the same time.

Here is another example: Orange County CCS and the Division love when we section off an area in the classroom with curtains to create a cozy spot for the children to retreat to. We gain points for having such spaces in every room. The fire marshall won't allow us to hang anything (curtains, barriers, screens, etc.) in the classroom and has actually made us take some things down.

After nearly five years of constantly adjusting ourselves and our environment we have learned to justsmile and go with the flow. We respect each of our inspectors and know that they and their agency are just doing their best to keep the school safe.

It would certainly be wonderful if someone, anyone, were to create one manual that addressed all of these rules. That is a whole other blog entry in itself.

Now that you have the primer, this is our most recent issue: Our incredibly gifted architect has built us a beautiful building that is schoolcode-ready as well as daycare-ready...in most counties. See what I didn't mention above is that all of the rules are subject to county authority. So what we can do in Orange County may in fact be illegal in Durham County! Unbelievable really.

TheDivision LOVES our plans as they are, but Orange County Environmental Health requires us to have more sinks in the plan. We need more sinks, but building has some strong opinions about where they need to be. If we were to place them where building wants them it would make the Division very unhappy. This is a very tricky situation all the way around.

When we first opened the Davis Road Campus we used to laugh because we have so many sinks that we could have marketed the school as having one sink per child. We would jokingly tease our Environmental Health inspector, Ron that we were the only school in the state with a 1:1 ratio- of children to sinks that is. At the time we thought it was ridiculous. In hindsight, we are so grateful for everyone of them as there are truly never enough sinks when you are dealing with young children.

We digress to mention that because going into this project we knew how many sinks were going to be required and tried to incorporate all of them into the plans. When the plans arrived we took a copy to Orange County Environmental Health just to be safe- or so we thought. We quickly learned that we were still missing several sinks. Some of the sinks were sinks that we are aware of and thought that we had planned for. Some were not. For instance, we need to add sinks that are called (among others) "The Vegetable Washing Sink," and the "Meat Preparation Sink," and the "Entrance Sink." Those were new to us and some of them are new to Orange County this year.

In truth, the logic for each sink makes complete sense once itis stated aloud. However, as some of the sinks are not in the state guidelines and others are even new to the county guidelines they just slipped through the cracks.

In the end we had to revise our plans this week in order to add some twelve new sinks. We may again be able to advertise our 1:1 ratio, but that is just fine with us as long as the school (and our many, many sinks) can please everyone.

Now that you know all of that we know that you are wondering what that does to our time frame.The answer is that this doesn't change a thing as we have plenty of time for revisions while the site work is being completed. Which brings us to the next question: When will the site work begin? It is our understanding that the permit will be issued any moment and then we will start to dig. In the end, this time of waiting for the permit has been a true blessing. The reason is that once the crews show up on site we are responsible to pay them by the day- rain or shine. With all of the rain that we have had since the beginning of the year we would have paid our crew to stay at home many many days. We think that this has all worked out to our benefit in the end.

Glimpse:
Since our opening day we have DREAMED of a HUGE room that is indestructible, with a drain in the floor, where the children can create ANYTHING that they can imagine, out of ANYTHING that they can find, and that can be rinsed clean when they are finished. In this room there must be not just A sink, but THE sink. In our imaginations it has been a long trough sink with many motion-activated faucets so that lots of friends can wash their hands together.

Our new school will bring that dream to reality. We have an enormous room that we are calling the Messy Room/Children's Dining Room that will have a concrete floor, tiled walls, our trough sink, and a drain. It is enough to make usgiddy- seriously! We plan to use that room to explore many new kinds of art. We are particularly interested in having the children experiment with clay. Work with clay is a huge component of Reggio-Emilia philosophyand programming that we have not had the space to develop. We are thrilled that our newspace will afford us the luxury to not only create more but to also expand and improve our program.