Changes, changes...
Mar. 14th, 2006 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
primsongCraziness seems to be bustin' out all over - good and bad...
Our church, which hosts our school, found out that the folks entrusted with the school financial stuff had run us into massive debt and wanted the church to get them out of their hole and to let them continue on their way.... After much unhappy tongue-biting attempts at reasoning things out, they finally had to dissolve the school board entirely and have the church board of trustees take over the finances.
Problem is the way the school and church operate, the staff and parents didn't personally know the trustees and felt like they had swooped out of the north and usurped a throne - where were the people they knew so well, and why did the church make this "power grab" they hollered - as if it were hostile, or sneaky. What the heck do the church-folks say to such accusations? That the people they were trusting so much were covering things up, going outside their authority and running around like a kid with their parent's credit card? We couldn't badmouth them...the staff and parent loyalty to them is very, very strong and the trustees were seen as unknowns.
It's been a huge mess. My family has the odd position of being staff, church and parents - in all three camps, so to speak, and I've spent far too much time lately squelching rumors, trying to get people to understand the "other side's" view, etc. this week while all the time trying to bite my tongue on the truth of the matter because it's not my place to blab. If only those who were responsible would just stand up and say "look, we screwed up, we're sorry!" --- What a lot of healing there would be then.
Instead some resignation letters were turned in, right before our big meeting with the parents last night so the trustees had no time to even discuss it before the parents all freaked out over it. I've never seen such behavior from grown adults for some time. The pastor finally had to have some of the parents leave the room, and met them outside to let them vent there instead because they were so disruptive. How do you get people to stop pointing fingers and being suspicious and start realizing if they hadn't intervened we would have lost both the school and the church?
It's so disheartening, and hard to have to lose respect for some folks you looked up to. So hard. The main one who could have stood up and said "sorry" was there, they are loyal to this person and would have listened. But no - they sat silently throughout the meeting - I was grateful that two of the others involved had worked through their own issues enough to stand up and apologize for their part (sort of). It did help...
We'll see what happens this next school year. As we told the parents - they vote for whether or not our school lives by their enrollment. If they enroll their kids again, we will be fine because we will have the tuition money to pay the staff, etc... If they all "wait and see" and don't enroll then it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy and the school will falter. We've been there for 10 years ourselves... it's hard. I gave up my own salary and am now working as a volunteer to do what I can to help out - thankfully we can still make ends meet without it. I know there are plenty who cannot. :-(
Slowly we are getting folks who are saying "what can I do?" and offering to buy office supplies, etc. We need more like that. Realizing that even if some of our staff leaves, we can still keep on going.
Everyone keeps commending me for my positive attitude through all of this - I do have a tendency to be optimistic, that it will all work out somehow in the long run for the better - but it's still just...hard.
I've been helping sand and seal the new benches for the Elanor Garden in Beaverton, but they have a long ways to go still - polycoat takes so long! I'm the one with the local garage, so here they be. They will look wonderful, I think.
My trays of alyssum, pansy and sweetpea seedlings are all coming up, tiny green and tender in my kitchen. I love jiffy-pots!
Daffodils! Daffodils and crocuses and snowdrops and lilies and bluebells and irises... I love bulbs!
Spring is a Good Thing. May it just keep a-comin'
May all of you have a wonderfully spring-like week, if not in weather then in general perkiness. :-)
Our church, which hosts our school, found out that the folks entrusted with the school financial stuff had run us into massive debt and wanted the church to get them out of their hole and to let them continue on their way.... After much unhappy tongue-biting attempts at reasoning things out, they finally had to dissolve the school board entirely and have the church board of trustees take over the finances.
Problem is the way the school and church operate, the staff and parents didn't personally know the trustees and felt like they had swooped out of the north and usurped a throne - where were the people they knew so well, and why did the church make this "power grab" they hollered - as if it were hostile, or sneaky. What the heck do the church-folks say to such accusations? That the people they were trusting so much were covering things up, going outside their authority and running around like a kid with their parent's credit card? We couldn't badmouth them...the staff and parent loyalty to them is very, very strong and the trustees were seen as unknowns.
It's been a huge mess. My family has the odd position of being staff, church and parents - in all three camps, so to speak, and I've spent far too much time lately squelching rumors, trying to get people to understand the "other side's" view, etc. this week while all the time trying to bite my tongue on the truth of the matter because it's not my place to blab. If only those who were responsible would just stand up and say "look, we screwed up, we're sorry!" --- What a lot of healing there would be then.
Instead some resignation letters were turned in, right before our big meeting with the parents last night so the trustees had no time to even discuss it before the parents all freaked out over it. I've never seen such behavior from grown adults for some time. The pastor finally had to have some of the parents leave the room, and met them outside to let them vent there instead because they were so disruptive. How do you get people to stop pointing fingers and being suspicious and start realizing if they hadn't intervened we would have lost both the school and the church?
It's so disheartening, and hard to have to lose respect for some folks you looked up to. So hard. The main one who could have stood up and said "sorry" was there, they are loyal to this person and would have listened. But no - they sat silently throughout the meeting - I was grateful that two of the others involved had worked through their own issues enough to stand up and apologize for their part (sort of). It did help...
We'll see what happens this next school year. As we told the parents - they vote for whether or not our school lives by their enrollment. If they enroll their kids again, we will be fine because we will have the tuition money to pay the staff, etc... If they all "wait and see" and don't enroll then it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy and the school will falter. We've been there for 10 years ourselves... it's hard. I gave up my own salary and am now working as a volunteer to do what I can to help out - thankfully we can still make ends meet without it. I know there are plenty who cannot. :-(
Slowly we are getting folks who are saying "what can I do?" and offering to buy office supplies, etc. We need more like that. Realizing that even if some of our staff leaves, we can still keep on going.
Everyone keeps commending me for my positive attitude through all of this - I do have a tendency to be optimistic, that it will all work out somehow in the long run for the better - but it's still just...hard.
I've been helping sand and seal the new benches for the Elanor Garden in Beaverton, but they have a long ways to go still - polycoat takes so long! I'm the one with the local garage, so here they be. They will look wonderful, I think.
My trays of alyssum, pansy and sweetpea seedlings are all coming up, tiny green and tender in my kitchen. I love jiffy-pots!
Daffodils! Daffodils and crocuses and snowdrops and lilies and bluebells and irises... I love bulbs!
Spring is a Good Thing. May it just keep a-comin'
May all of you have a wonderfully spring-like week, if not in weather then in general perkiness. :-)
