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Ive told you guys the auditor would be here any day . Today was his day. John showed up at 9 am with his large ominous looking case rolling through the hallway. I showed him my worksampling folder, the notes i have taken on Evernote and the kids art portfolios. I pulled all the children’s files and then he told me specifically which five files he would audit. All the while i am praying ” Please Please let it be one of those files that an over achiever mom had everything in order and to me on time. ” He gets to work.

At 930 am the door opens again. This time behind the door is the friendly face of Leslie Corbell. She is the conscious discipline coach with the state. She wasnt here to asses what we say or do just to stop in and see conscious discipline in action. Hopefully she saw some good things while she was here. For the most part our classroom runs very smoothly. We dont have a lot of fights that have to be worked out or meltdowns that need attended to. She offered to leave since John was here but I figured if we were throwing a party today, it might as well be big, right ?

At 1030 in time for the kids to go outside John was ready to go over his audit findings with me. He said he is proud of us , that we have a wonderful reputation in the state. He actually made me smile and said ” I am a Debbie Mays fan. ” Aww… lets cut to the chase how did I do ? Paperwork is the hardest part of my job. I am not the most organized person and you guys know the amount of paperwork you had to give me. Sometimes you can look through a file 5 times and still be missing something and not realize it… even with a checklist. Its gets a little over whelming. I got one write up. I had one child that I didnt have a birth record for. I had told the mom a couple times when we were going through the files but somehow this child’s name was left off the list for the last time I sent out reminders. Just my luck out of 16 kids he’d pull the one file that wasnt complete. That is the frustrating part of being funded by the state. There is a lot of red tape . Oh well. Lets’ hope that one write up wont stick me in the group of people that have to compete for their slots next year. Mom is sending it today and I will forward a copy on to John so he knows I followed through. Next year I am adopting the same policy that the school has. A child will not be considered enrolled and a slot saved until their file is complete. They wont be able to start school unless its all turned in and everything is complete , including immunizations. ( So, if you have a friend that is on my list for next year you might want to give them the heads up to get those immunizations current and make sure they have birth certificates and social security cards. )

John left at 11:10 and I had a teleconference I was supposed to be on at 10:30 – 11:30. I am on the planning committee for Arkansas Childrens Week . Each year we meet via conference call and decide on the theme and work out the initial details. I popped in on the call at 1115 as everyone was wrapping up. ( Just a side note that Randy and Dallas were outside with the kids from 1030 – 1130 and lunch was almost ready but not on plates . I turned the phone on speaker and muted it. I laid it on my shoulder while I plated up 14 plates of ham, rice, spinach leaf salad, mandarin oranges, pineapple and grapes . When you do my job you HAVE TO MULTITASK or you will be eaten alive. )

It wasnt a bad day . The kids were excellent while we had visitors. One write up wont kill me, even if I do like to have a perfect record. And…. I got through all of this without devouring something.. anything in the kitchen. Yes, it was a good day.

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