Bad News and Today's Tally: 90 minutes

So we had our Pre-k/Kindergarten Round-Up last night, and it didn't generate nearly as much traffic as the one we held in March. In fact, only two families showed up. But if they end up signing up for preschool, that's two more families than we had yesterday morning! Look at me, I'm an optimist! Plus, we advertised last night's event in conjunction with a second date two weeks from now, so hopefully people are just planning on the later session.

However, we sustained a serious blow to the plan. That Finance Committee that was so high on us after our meeting? They just issued some ridiculous decrees: we have until the end of May to get enough children signed up to hit our financial goal, and if we can't do that, we have until June 15 to fundraise the shortfall. If we don't come up with the funds by then, we are to notify the registered families and return their money. And they never bothered to consult with us to see how our progress is going. Besides the obvious, there are some major considerations to which they're turning a blind eye.

1. July and August are huge enrollment months for the Last Minute Louies who realize they forgot to sign up anywhere and then find other programs at capacity. Last year, the neighboring Catholic school closed its enrollment in early July, and our phone started ringing, but the Powers that Be would not grant us a reprieve.

2. We alienated a lot of people last year when we pulled the plug at the end of June. If we do it again, we might as well just roll over, 'cause we're finished. More than half of the current 19 kindergartners came from the preschool. At this point, we only have 10 total incoming kindergartners for the fall, and many of them are siblings of older students. Without preschool, we have no feeder program, and we're feeling it already after just one year.

3. We know that we have to bring in $65k to be self-sustaining. However, even if we have tuition commitments from enough families to cover that, $65k will not be showing up on the first day of school. The families will be on monthly payment plans, so why should we have to fundraise the shortfall before the school year even starts instead of all along during the year? Completely unreasonable.

I think I'm onto them, though. We are in a huge state of flux right now because both our pastor and our principal are leaving this summer. Their replacements do not start until July 1. Convenient that the Council gave us a drop-deadline before the new guys can show up, huh? I think they might think they'll look good to the new pastor if they show that they're in control and risk-averse, rather than willing to take a chance on us. Or they're afraid that their power will be diminished, so they have to flex their muscles in a big way one more time before the new regime arrives. One or the other.

Our little committee of three decided we'll wait and see how next week's Tuition Nights and the following week's open house turn out before we request another meeting. Hopefully they just need our reassurances, but I can't say I'm not extremely worried. In the meantime, I retooled our Shopper ad and the local newspaper Calendar blurbs today (90 minutes), so hopefully we'll generate some new interest. And of course, we'll keep praying!