The school year has officially started and it wouldn’t be a first day without complete chaos. Ha! Honestly, first days are generally good for us, usually little to zero interruptions. However, we are returning from a year of remote and face to face learning, technically we have three groups of kindergarteners, and some parents are still in a frenzy. As a result, we had a ton of hiccups on our first day. If you name it, it happened. At the end of the day we had to take a moment to reflect on what went well and how we can improve our systems.

Getting parents out of the building to start school on the first day is always difficult. This first day was seamless. Most parents dropped their students off, waved goodbye and went home to breath a sigh of relief. They put their trust in God, the school system, the faculty and staff and ran as fast as they could. The day moved quickly with rapid and timely interventions for most disturbances and then real tragedy struck, dismissal!

Why is dismissal always the most difficult part of the day? It was a disaster. Radios weren’t working, teams were trying to talk on the same channels, parents were in the wrong pick up lines, students decided to take a different exit route at the end of the day… By the time we got every kid off the campus, our shirts were drenched in sweat and we were exhausted. No tired like first day teacher tired. Dog-tired, weary and depleted described the staff.

But the show couldn’t stop on the first day. So, what did we do? We gathered together as a team. We looked at the time we finished and made a goal to finish earlier on the second day. We high fived because we didn’t lose any students and everyone made it home safely. We came up with a Plan B, C and D so we could have options for each group instead of a one size fits all template. We printed lists, we familiarized ourselves with the kids on the lists, put names with faces because the beat goes on. Today we all walked in optimistic because no matter what day one looked like we know we have a challenge and a duty to be the best we can be each and everyday. Pray for us as we try again and again.