French Fries

Today, I needed french fries. What I really needed was a glass of wine, but I'm a good mom so that didn't happen. The fries happened instead. Here's my day today.

This morning my mom and I carpooled to work. We typically do this unless one of us has something separate to do after work. Tomorrow I'll be having dinner with the girls from my last job so we're driving separately. This morning on the drive, my mom asked me if I had checked my school e-mail, which I hadn't. Apparently, last night the Board of Trustees (who are now running the school, more about that later) sent out an e-mail to parents, teachers, and staff to let everyone know that enrollment is critically low. Currently, we are three weeks past the deadline for enrollment paperwork and well below the level of students budgeted for the next school year. Staff members in the office have been calling families for the last several weeks reminding them and trying to light fires under butts to get people moving on their enrollment contracts. The decision of the Board is that if we don't get the numbers we need by the time we come back from Spring Break, the school will not be able to function next year and, therefore, will not be able to open.

The school is also currently in transition between management groups, for lack of a better word. Prior to this, the school was officially run by an international group of priests. This year, the announcement was made that the group of priests, while remaining active within the school, would not be running it anymore and that responsibility would fall completely to the Board. What I'm not sure of, is if enrollment is always critically low at this point in the year and the priests would simply let people slide. Now that the Board is in charge and running the business end, it may be their intention to send this letter and let people know a) that enrollment is critically low and give faculty/staff the heads up and b) get parents who normally wait until the end of summer to turn their paperwork in on time.

We did have 13 enrollment contracts dropped off by the end of the work day, which isn't close to the number we need, but it's a start and it's something to be hopeful about. There are people not happy with the method in which the news was delivered, and while I understand both sides, the information is now out and how we deal with it is the only thing we have control over. The other thing is the kids. Gossip flies around the school, it spreads like wildfire, and the biggest worry for me right now is the kids. We discussed it at a meeting today after work, and we want to make sure that the kids remain our priority and that we not only keep up hope for each other but for them as well.

There were people talking today like it's a done deal, like the school is for sure going to close and not be open next year. Kids, staff, and parents, it's crazy. Granted, several of our staff members have gone through this already as little as a year ago with their last school. One of our staff went through this as a parent when her son's high school was one of the Catholic schools closed by the Diocese of Baltimore last year. They probably heard a lot of the same things that we're hearing now and aren't holding much hope for the numbers to rise. The other worrying thing is having people who are currently enrolled will jump ship with this news and rather than going up, the numbers will go down by the last deadline.

I'm fine besides being tired of dealing with everything. I empathize with my friends/family a lot, it's how I am, so when I first heard about everything, I was fine. By the end of the day, I was ready to start crying, not for me because I was upset but because of how upset everyone else was. I also called our Spanish teacher (who I'm friends with) to let her know how the meeting went. So I've already talked this thing to death and it's as dealt with, as far as I'm concerned, as it can be until we get to the deadline and find out the final decision. I know it will still be the topic of discussion tomorrow, and I'm kind of glad I only have Kindergarten and no other classes, because if they know anything it's easy to distract them. I was (and am) still undecided about going back in the fall anyway. So if the school closes (and that's still an if at this point), that just makes that decision for me. If they remain open, I will have to actually decide whether or not I'm going back. I'm staying up until Dan gets home from work tonight so we can have a conversation about everything and options and all that.