FRIDAY NOTES
Parent Reminder - Odyssey's Family Referral Program
As we head into August and September, the beginning of our new school year, we'd like to remind all of our parents at both schools about Odyssey's $250 referral tuition credit for each new family that you refer to Odyssey. This is generally the only time each year that we have more than a slight handful of openings, so it is your best opportunity to take advantage of the program. As of August 1, we have approximately 30 openings between the two schools, which works out to about one opening per class, on average. In the very near future, we will be handing out business-card-sized referral cards and also will be circulating an email to every Odyssey family that you can forward to friends, neighbors and co-workers, among others, encouraging them to consider Odyssey. With August and September generally being our best enrollment months, I have no doubt that we will fill those spots soon, so act fast to earn your referral credit.
Video Monitoring Improvements Occur
Odyssey recently completed the final stage of implementing its new video monitoring system, the addition of a dedicated T-1 line at both schools. I know that for many of you that the change back in November brought a rough period. Mac users were blocked, many large employers prevented their employees from using the new system due to valid security concerns and the amount of bandwidth required was just too much for a DSL line to handle, preventing many parents from either logging on or staying logged on for sufficient time. Since the activation of the T-1 lines and the addition of a second system usable by Macs and acceptable to large employers, I am aware of one or two down periods in the last few weeks, and those were both resolved in less than one day. Of course, anything involving computers and the Internet will continue to incur periodic downtime, but I am now confident that you are going to receive much more consistent, dependable use of this promised service upon which virtually all of you depend.
Facilities Improvements at Both Schools
In the past month, several substantial facilities improvements have occurred at Odyssey.
At Inverness , the entire school was re-carpeted over the July 4th holiday. The carpeting is called "Odyssey" and was designed by our architect's interior decorator when Trace Crossings was built. We hope that our Inverness families enjoy the carpeting, especially in the toddler classrooms where the amount of carpet in all but one room was more than doubled! Several classrooms also were painted over the past couple of weekends, and we have set out a schedule for all classrooms at both schools to be painted on a rotating basis. We will be looking at re-doing the fencing and playground surfaces (hopefully by next summer) and the parking lot project mentioned back in February is currently being priced, with an eye towards trying to get it financed and finished by the end of summer 2006.
At Trace Crossings, we recently replaced nearly all of the playground's chain link fencing with permanent wrought iron fencing and also bought a new van, complete with a rear air conditioning system.
These efforts have been expensive, but were very necessary. I hope that our families at both schools will look at these efforts and know that I am committed to keeping their children's school in incredible condition!
Teacher Raises Take Effect
As promised when the May rate increase was announced, annual pay raises for our staff took effect with their June paychecks. The average pay increase across all staff was 4%, with a large number of our best-performing staff receiving as much as an 8% raise. Odyssey's average pay is substantially above the national childcare average, with many of our teaching staff earning more than some public school teachers. I am extremely proud of the direction in which our pay and benefits package is headed, and I pledge to continue to make the staff's pay and benefits a primary focus. We will continue to reward our very best performing staff with ever-increasing pay and benefits, as that is the number one factor in staff retention, which leads to better service, which leads to capacity enrollment, which is in all of our mutual best interest.
Don't Leave Children Alone In Your Car
Parents should avoid leaving any child in their car when they are dropping off other children at Odyssey. Older children could move about the car, possibly getting out of the car where other vehicles are driving through the parking lot, or putting it in gear and injuring themselves, your car or another family's car. If you turn the car off and take the keys with you, the heat (especially at this time of year) can harm a child faster than any of us can imagine. If you have another child with you when dropping off another child at Odyssey, feel free to bring them inside. If you don't want them to go to the classroom with your other child, we'll be happy to keep an eye on them in the office. Thank you for your attention to this serious issue.
