Today is the day

Spread your wings!

I'll post pictures and comments about the Grand Opening tomorrow--

Kris

Count down

So much to do, so few days to finish. We're all in overdrive mode at this point. Everything is as done as we can get it. Grand Opening will be spectacular! Fabulous food, great friends, and beautiful children!

Oh...and in the midst of the chaos, cleaning, and we were all certified by the American Heart Association for CPR today. Thank you so much Patty and Amaury!

Can't wait for school to start. We are going to have an awesome cool year.

Spread your wings!

check

Health Dept...check
City of Homestead...check

Awesome day, but totally exhausted...check

One more quick note: one of our contractors--Another Wire Guy (aka Mark Harris)--has been completely fabulous. Not only is he helping us finish off the big jobs on a low budget, but he has taken a liking to us so much that he is now volunteering his time. If you have a job that needs getting done (stucco, plaster, tile, painting, etc.), Mark is the dude. We highly recommend him!

Spread your wings!

Teacher Work Week, Day 1

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhh!

Too much work to do and not enough time. I need Hermione's time turner to add another month before we start. It's all getting done, but there's no time to think. Just need to keep moving forward.

Tomorrow, we conquer the Health Department. I'll keep you posted on how that goes. Should be fine.

Spread your wings!
Kris

The 100-mile drive

So we had our big inspections this week--lots of smaller ones, but the biggest was the Miami-Dade County Fire Dept. With the small exception of a new strobe that needs to be permitted and inspected, we passed everything. We officially have our Temporary Certificate of Occupancy. This was huge. I seriously thought I was going to throw up when the inspector came to visit. But he was totally nice and very positive. Only trouble was he gave us the wrong instructions on getting the TCO completed. So Yvonne (our expeditor) and I drove from Homestead to Doral twice before things were settled (thus the title of today's entry, the 100-mile drive). So we have 60 days to get everything finalized and then we have the final CO. 60 days is total overkill; we'll need a like 2 weeks to finalize everything. 

In addition to Teacher Work Week, this week we head to DCF and the Health Department. The City should issue the operational license mid week this week. So it will be a busy week for sure!

Everything with Atala is fantastic! The rooms are being set up, the playground is moving (despite all the rain), the office is nearly, and all the grounds are being cleaned and prepped for our Grand Opening on Saturday. Can't wait.

[Sad news about ridiculous decisions from FIU. But that's all I'm going to say. Nothing can bring me down now.]

Spread your wings!

First Grant!

Our first grant came through today! We now have seed money to celebrate Women's History Month by taking the whole school up to the Deering Estate in March to learn about the contributions of women musicians, artists, and environmentalists. So exciting!

Work continues at the school. We're all exhausted, but staying very positive. Had our first pre-Cub Scout meeting tonight. Yes, Atala Montessori will be home to Pack 24, and we are so happy to help them out.

Tomorrow all our doors and locks will be finished. We have AC in all the rooms now.

Sra Valle was the first to actually have her room in place, complete with even a few lessons on the newly installed shelves! I don't think she will win anything monetary, but at least she'll have the peace of mind to breathe a bit. I think the elementary teachers will be next. Can't wait for all the boxes to migrate from my office to their final destinations.

Spread your wings!

Day 13

The whole church is headed to the school today. Speedway Community Church, where we've been attending the last six months or so, has very graciously volunteered to help us out today. I have a list of things to do--paint, fix, patch, lay sod, put legs on tables, etc. More of our wonderful parent volunteers have also contacted us saying that they'll be at school to help, too. Should be an awesome day!

Day 13: this is my 13th straight day of work. Ack. I'm ready to take tomorrow off. I'll also take Tuesday off because by the way I'm co-hosting the SEAMUS National Conference with Colby in January. So I have to get cracking finding hotel rooms for 200 people.

All is good.

Spread your wings!