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.
Friday, August 7, 2009
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.
