As mentioned previously, I was able to lessen the overtime for all of my staff during this week. To do this, I either sent staff home early or had staff take longer breaks. Typically, teachers do not like taking long breaks, but the teachers were happy to help, knowing our budgetary constraints. I have discovered that if you apprise your staff of the business issues, they are better able to understand why you, as the director, have to make certain decisions. For the families, this was Halloween night, I didn’t want to take away time from trick or treat (knowing this is a rite of passage for many), so I held the event before trick or treat. I also know that enrollment is down at MLS-SM and overtime could make or break us. This proves that I have the:
Ability to design and implement systems within child care program-
Scheduling for staff and children’s program, consistent with principles of child growth and development and Scheduling services for families
Another objective I utilized was:
Ability to design and implement systems within child care program-
Nutrition plans and food service
This being an Active Early event, we needed healthy alternatives to candy. The staff helped me come up with the food choices: the Infant/Toddler Room at first suggested baby carrots and celery. I thought about this and asked them what they thought of small boxes of raisins. Through discussion- the infants don’t eat baby carrots and celery and how would we pass it out sanitarily- we decided on the raisins. In the Preschool classroom, that teacher wanted to make hummus and buy pitas. I eat this meal regularly and know that tortillas are cheaper than pitas and made that suggestion. She, in turn, took the tortillas and had the children make chips.
In the Infant/Toddler classrooms we handed out boxes of raisins, in the Transition classroom (18 months- 36 months) we handed out toothbrushes and toothpaste, in Preschool 1 the teacher and children made hummus, in Preschool 2 we displayed and used much of the equipment we received with the grant money Active Early gave us (please see ‘Equipment’ tabs under “Documents”), and finally in the Grade school classroom the children were busy making tortilla chips for the hummus. All of these items needed to be purchased (the toothpaste and toothbrushes were donated courtesy of Forward Dental and Bayview Dental Care). My cook (who does the purchasing) and I met. MLS-SM has a grocery store credit card and I suggested she go there for everything. She felt we could get things much cheaper using petty cash at Sam’s Club. I told her how many items we would need and we decided together that the bulk items (tortillas and raisins) should be purchased at Sam’s Club and the remaining items at the grocery store. This did end up saving us money in the long run.
Ability to design and implement systems within child care program-
Scheduling for staff and children’s program, consistent with principles of child growth and development and Scheduling services for families
Another objective I utilized was:
Ability to design and implement systems within child care program-
Nutrition plans and food service
This being an Active Early event, we needed healthy alternatives to candy. The staff helped me come up with the food choices: the Infant/Toddler Room at first suggested baby carrots and celery. I thought about this and asked them what they thought of small boxes of raisins. Through discussion- the infants don’t eat baby carrots and celery and how would we pass it out sanitarily- we decided on the raisins. In the Preschool classroom, that teacher wanted to make hummus and buy pitas. I eat this meal regularly and know that tortillas are cheaper than pitas and made that suggestion. She, in turn, took the tortillas and had the children make chips.
In the Infant/Toddler classrooms we handed out boxes of raisins, in the Transition classroom (18 months- 36 months) we handed out toothbrushes and toothpaste, in Preschool 1 the teacher and children made hummus, in Preschool 2 we displayed and used much of the equipment we received with the grant money Active Early gave us (please see ‘Equipment’ tabs under “Documents”), and finally in the Grade school classroom the children were busy making tortilla chips for the hummus. All of these items needed to be purchased (the toothpaste and toothbrushes were donated courtesy of Forward Dental and Bayview Dental Care). My cook (who does the purchasing) and I met. MLS-SM has a grocery store credit card and I suggested she go there for everything. She felt we could get things much cheaper using petty cash at Sam’s Club. I told her how many items we would need and we decided together that the bulk items (tortillas and raisins) should be purchased at Sam’s Club and the remaining items at the grocery store. This did end up saving us money in the long run.