Annnnd.. part 3

So here's a few more things.

I've put in some effort to build relationships with the people who work in my school. The principal and the head secretary were new there when I started, so they didn't have a negative view of the program. I've proven to be reliable, I haven't bothered them with trivial stuff and I always make sure to give the staff I interact with a card and a little candy bar or something on various occasions.

I check in with them at least twice a day. Once on my way out in the mornings and then again on my way in for the afternoon shift. Comments about the weather, something exciting in the news, how's your granddaughter's puppy working out for you... you know, take an interest in the people who are working with you. Because when you do that, they WILL work with you.

It's not difficult to build those relationships, they're nice people and they want what I want. For kids to be safe and have a good time. For only reliable people to be in the building interacting with the kids. A clean place for them to be. We all contribute to that.

The attendance secretary has been there for years and years. Same for the head custodian and many of the teachers. They were familiar with the not-so-good things that had been going on in the program. Unfortunately, the program didn't have a good reputation.

I'm actually surprised the program was still in existence. When I started there I had two or three kids in the morning and my biggest afternoon attendance was six. I'm sure the program wasn't making money for the company, but since they're a non-profit, it probably helps them to lose money here and there.

Now mornings have nine registered and I have 14 on some afternoons.
It's a thriving program.

I didn't know all those things going in. I had no idea about any of them, really.
But I did what I always do.

Show up.
Clean things. Rearrange. Talk to people. Take the job seriously. Yes, I am just a day care provider, but I do take pride in my work.
Ask for things I need.
Offer to do things that might be helpful.
Just do things 'because'.

If we were in the gym playing and I saw that the floor needed sweeping, I got the giant dust mop and walked back and forth and back and forth while the kids were running around.

I didn't tell anyone I was doing it, but I got 'caught' more than once.
Word gets out.

If I noticed something, like being out of paper towels or soap in the restrooms or a broken hand rail or there were incidents with neighborhood people on the playground, I let someone know.

I asked for telephone numbers for the principal, the custodians. Assured them that I wouldn't bother them for anything but important stuff. Haven't, either.

Suspicious activities happened once or twice in the evening hours. Once, we had our door propped open while we were on the playground and some woman just walked right in and disappeared into the building!

By then I was well acquainted with our night custodian (he's the head custodian now) and I pulled out my phone and called him to let him know.

Not one site director had stayed more than six months in years. The kids weren't quiet in the hallways after school while going from point A to point B, they were constantly breaking playground rules, the room was a pit, none of the site directors made it a point to get to know the school staff. Worse, most of the parents I met that first year told me that the site director before me didn't even greet them half the time.

So now, if my floor is dirty, I can ask the custodian to stop by sometime during the day and spot clean. We're really not that messy except for snack time. None of my experience or good intentions can keep six year old kids from spilling applesauce or flinging crumbs everywhere. We have a broom and I have cleaning solution in a spray bottle to keep the tables wiped off. I wash all the tables in the room, although the room is used by many people during the day. A girl scout troop meets there weekly, too.

Classes come in and meet there, adults eat lunch in there. It's called 'The Community Room'.

All those people think that it's someone else's problem to clean the area. Many of them leave a mess. I don't complain about it, I just clean the tables. But like the long-ago gym mopping, I have been caught cleaning, and again, word gets out.

I sweep our floor at least twice a day, and I make sure our trash cans and recycle bin are parked at the door so the night custodian doesn't have to come in and walk across the room to get them. It's his job, of course, but it's a very small amount of time and effort for me to grab them on my way out and another thing that's a mark in the 'she's pretty decent' column.

So this place I worked this past week is a mess. I understand that the school stores some things in the little hallway between rooms, but the big messes in the room are 100% our responsibility.

The floor is disgusting. Yes, it's old. It isn't pretty. But layer after layer of dirt makes it worse. The tables were dirty, too. I scrubbed the same tables every day for those three days. By the end of the third day, the paper towels I was using were less grimy than they were at first. That's about the nicest way I can put it.

If Kyra wanted a clean place, she could make that happen.
She should want a clean place, she's caring for children!

A relationship with the school's custodian would help immensely. Coming in 15 minutes early every day and mopping and cleaning and moving crap out of the room would help, too.

I can't figure out how they can actually license this place. There are dead paintbrushes and food wrappers and dust an inch thick in a non-working sink in the corner of the room. Old, broken toys and shredded games are available to the kids. Apparently anything new is ruined in one or two uses. Which means she's not teaching stewardship to her group, either.

One of the basic rules for childcare providers is a simple, 'would I leave my child in this place' ... and if you wouldn't, then you need to fix it until you would.

I guess this is a revolutionary concept, too.
We have no basic minimum standards and our entire organization suffers because of it.

Yeah, I can just do my job and do it well, but I have to work at one of those butthole sites over summer because you can bet I will NEVER work at that crazy-assed child care center I got stuck in last summer.

So I am going to try to take the last three posts and remove the snark and profanity (not an easy task) and have it ready to pass on to my office.

I can't figure out why we can't do better than Kyra's site.