Summer at NRCS!

What goes on here in the summer? Here's a little glimpse into some of it....

Without 800+ busy feet running around, all those carpets get scrubbed!

Lots of lanyards! LifeTouch, who does our school photos, provides us with Student ID cards that we will now be able to use for the school lunch program. Students will scan their cards rather than telling the computer monitor their student number and having it typed in..

With funding from the Ladies Auxiliary, another water bottle filler was purchased and Mr. Kevin VV installed it in the west high school hallway. These things really see a lot of use!

Many of our student and staff computers needed to be updated to a newer version of Windows for security purposes. This is the computer lab in the high school where over 20 of them were updating at the same time.

How many students, when, where, what subject, what teacher is available when? In a practice put together by Mr. Schelling (including cardboard and little papers with his distinctively perfect cursive), Mr. Breuer pieces together the day in the lives of junior high and high school students. It can present the challenge of a 1000-piece puzzle. The pins became a part of it after a bump scattered hours of work. :) ...though likely a smile was Not the initial reaction at the time!

Mrs. Koedam, who handles all the ordering, stocks us up on the necessary student workbooks, office and teacher supplies for the year!

Those bills? Just like at home, they just keep on coming. Fortunately Mrs. Driesen has some sugar-free sustenance to help her through them.

Nearly four pallet loads of supplies for the coming school year are lifted, box by box, to the 2nd-story storage area above the kitchen/gym and stacked neatly away until, box by box, they are again retrieved for use.

How to arrange 150 stops over a geographical area of roughly 1,000 square miles with 9 buses, a few suburbans and an ever changing schedule of drivers in the shortest amount of time with the least students on the bus the longest? Fun stuff! Some of the routes will see some small changes this year to accommodate some stop changes. There is no other school that we are aware of in the tri-state area that reaches this large of geographical area. Budgeted allotment for transportation comes to around $2000/school day!

Look at that shine! For proper maintenance of the tile, each year the custodians go through the process of removing either Part or All of the old layers of wax and reapplying new. A Partial redo requires 3 passes with the scrubber machine to remove part of the old wax and 6 new coats of wax. A Full redo, which is done every 5 years, requires 6-8 passes with the scrubber machine, an additional chemical removal process, and then 8 new coats of wax.

Congress spends a Lot of time updating the laws -- fortunately it's a wee bit simpler and Slightly less dramatic at school! Still, updates must be made to continually strive for the smoothest environment for the precious portion of the vineyard we are given to care for. Highlights on the new and improved will be posted in the coming newsletter.

And as always, expect the unexpected! An early morning lightening strike one day this summer treated us to an intercom system that beeped continuously for the enjoyment of everyone who was in the office that day. Remember this board? It is located in the space that made up the original office and was situated behind Mrs. Hoefakker's desk there. It is still the center for all room-office communications, bell system and clock coordination. Repair plan is in process and scheduled to be completed by start of school year.

Of course, this is just a part of it. People, tasks and "tending to" come and go through these doors all summer long, and preparation is going on in many ways, both at school and at home. Let us all remember to bow our knees in prayer for wisdom and safety for all of us this coming year!