Hello everyone! As promised, I will try to be updating you on things at the school more often than I have lately. There is actually quite a bit of progress since last time.
Perhaps the biggest news is that we now have hired two new teachers for this fall. Mr. Aaron has decided not to return this fall. The new teachers, husband and wife team, Marcus & Charlou Schupp, live in the local area and attend Bethel Church. Charlou will be in charge of homeroom for the Jr High and High School, as well as teaching some, and Marcus will teach 5th & 6th grades. Bruce Wagler is now going to be freed up a bit more to attend to administrative tasks, but will still be teaching classes.
The next big news, although to many of us, it is even bigger than new teachers, is the completion of the new roof over the south parts of the building. The entire roof has now been replaced with metal, which will hopefully outlive us all. Although it wasn’t something we could do ourselves, the idea that it needed to be done has been hanging over our heads for 3 years. It certainly is a lot off our minds to have it done. Thanks to everyone who supported the project with funds over the last while. Now our minds are free to worry about something else!
Speaking of the roof, it is kind of providing us with a double benefit. Way back when, the south basement had a flat roof with tar and stones on it. At some point, when the shingled roof was added, it was raised up to the level of the upstairs hall of the south wing. What this resulted in was a large empty closed off area the entire length of the upper south hall.
For whatever reason, public schools used to be constructed with VERY little storage space. Until now, we have been storing things in unused classrooms, but we knew that was only temporary. Now that we are expanding into the south hall classrooms, it was even more of an issue. Recently, someone working on the heating system accessed that area and thought it might be usable. At a work day last week, we decided to pull off some of the walls panels that were constructed to seal off the space under the roof. Sure enough, we looked it over and decided that we can construct storage rooms under the roof. The available space is over 20’ wide and 60’ long, but we are not using all of it right now.
In short order, we had created a doorway, and some energetic workers had created part of the framing for a floor, and installed the steps to get up into the space. God also helped us locate a nice big metal fire door that we will put in the opening. We need to add some bracing under the roof area, but it looks like we will have enough space for storage, at least items that aren’t going to be affected by heat and cold. If you would like to help us pay for climate control for this area, just let us know! That would make the space even more useful.
At this same work day, we also got all the donated cabinets installed in two classrooms, as well as blackboards hung. Many thanks again to the one who has been faithfully donating cabinets for all our rooms. Work was also dome on the restrooms on this hall. Installing inside doors and privacy panels is heavy work that needs a lot of measuring and figuring to make everything come out right. Still a bit more to do there, but we got a decent start.
Much of the new curriculum material for next year has arrived, and been placed in the classrooms. You wouldn’t believe how heavy that order is! I just hope the teachers didn’t decide to show up to do some work in their rooms and expect to find clean surfaces. Right now, it’s pretty much covered with sorted lessons. If you are interested in sending your children to our school, please contact someone soon, so we can order more lessons if we need to. Some companies print limited amounts each year.
If you want to help with a financial donation to put heat and AC in our new storage room, or any of our construction projects, you can go on our website, www.uccs.school, there is a Donate button there, or you can contact us for more information about current needs. If you would like to make a totally anonymous donation, there is a button on our website to go through the Anabaptist Financial group. You can direct them to send your donation to us, and your identity remains private. Thanks in advance for your support!
