I’m on my way to the Annual Education Trust Conference in Washington, D.C. My plane leaves in 5 hours and I haven’t been to bed yet. What’s worse is that I have to fly with a sinus infection. Half of my face hurts like a throbbing toothache.
I was up late trying to finish a grant application which is due on Friday. I’m going to sign the signature pages and leave them with the Principal. Hopefully, I can complete the budget pages on the airplane and email them to her. She wanted to hand-deliver the plan to discuss any issues with the coordinator, so Friday morning is still not too late.
This morning (actually it was yesterday morning) I spent two hours in a meeting with our Transportation vendor. The meeting was hard because we’ve never worked with a transportation company and the company never worked with a charter school. In the end, we agreed to work together to get everything right. Later, as I was grocery shopping, the father of one of my students called me on my personal cell phone. I’d given the number to the owner of the bus company. I’ll write about the conversation with the parent tomorrow (actually I mean later today).
I called the owner of the buses to ask him to keep my cell number to himself and not share it with parents. We ended the conversation with him offering to give me an extra bus for the morning and another for the afterschool program free of charge. He’s a good man. And, I am very grateful. Everyone in New Orleans seems to be looking for another dollar, not Milton. He said it was no accident that we met up today. We both want to see our schools and businesses come back. We can get the transportation program running smoothly. He has over 30 years experience running his company and I have over 30 years as an educator. How hard can it be for two experts like us?