Registration Day Epilogue

Registrations Day is over officially.  Some students may still come tomorrow or trickle in for the next few days, but no other day like today is anticipated anytime soon.

To put our numbers today deserves a little perspective to temper the expectations.  Our budget for the school year was built on 112 students.  This was done based on a conservative appraisal of the state of the economy and other financial indicators.  It seemed like a reasonable number to shoot for at the time.

I must confess that I remembered the figure as closer to 119.  This is the number on which I was proceeding.  I know our staffing need required at least that much.  When the large turnover in staffing took place, our once balanced budget quickly turned upside down.   Seeking qualified teachers to take the place of the outstanding teachers already in place required not only a rise in the cost of their salaries, but also moving allowances (these can be quite costly).  Even 119 students did not cover the budget, but I figured some cost saving measures (including saving a principal’s budget) might get us close enough to break even.

I did not want to just break even.  I knew we would need more students to fully fund the initiatives we had launched, even after the valuable assistance of the Alumni Awards Foundation.  I decided 130 students would come close.  I knew it was a stretch, considering the delicate state of the community in the wake of such painful staff transitions.  I prayed for 130 students.  We prayed as a staff for that number.  I shared that number with the recruitment team.  We called potential students.  We prayed.  We called again.  We prayed some more.   We visited Tween and Teen Camp at Yavapines in Prescott.  We prayed even more.  We visited the churches to preach.  We called every returning and potentially returning student.  We even made calls to people who had decided to pull out.  At every step we prayed for the students God wanted to bring here.  We prayed for 130, but recognized that God could choose to send us less.

Our figures at the end of registration day were 136 students already in the fold, with a few more potential students trickling in.  Lesson learned:  be careful what you pray for—you may get more that you bargained for.  So now we have to figure out what to do with 43 freshmen!  It’s a good problem, but a problem nonetheless.  Keep TAA in your prayers.  Whatever good happened is a God thing!  I am just jazzed to be a part of it.

I met a lot of great kids today!  I prayed with a lot of families in my office.  That alone will be worth any loss of future sleep and rest.  Day One—tomorrow.