Results from Sunday's meetings: The church constitution doesn't specifically say who picks the church services/times, but the elders traditionally do it with the congregation's input. The elders really, really want the kids to perform on Christmas Eve. And it has to be the school kids, not just the Sunday school kids. They were willing to let us go down to one service, but it had to be on Christmas Eve. Except only 40% of families want to do it Christmas Eve. So after making our case for having just one service the Sunday before Christmas (as 60% of families want), the elders decided that school should still have two Christmas services, but families and teachers don't have to participate in both.
Sigh. So that means potentially more work for us planners... If families can only come to one service, we have to find substitutes for speaking parts, make sure their bell parts are covered (or record the bell song ahead of time), assign seating with more/fewer bodies in mind...
As far as teachers only attending one, Mr. D runs the sound system, so he can't skip. Mr. E as principal feels like he has to be at both (and Mrs. E too). Mrs. L directs music and can't just skip. I'm directing bells and the rest of the program, so it could work for me to be gone, if I did a lot of prep work/filmed the bells (which we might need to do anyway if kids aren't going to be at both services), but I would feel so guilty being the only regular teacher gone from a service. (The preschool teachers are taking turns being at the services.)
But again, I'm borrowing trouble. We're sending a program signup home tomorrow, due back November 1st, and then we'll know more of what we're working with.
So nothing different was announced at the church meeting. Just that school will have two services in conjunction with the bible school kids, just like usual. The cast of players might be different, but it will be the same service and it will be amazing.
The rest of the church meeting went surprisingly well. The vocal parishioner didn't say anything when school rolled around (he was going to suggest we cut a teacher because of low student numbers). He raised his hand, but others raised their hands first and were called on, and their questions/the answers calmed the vocal guy down. We got our lp locked in before the prices went up. Mr. E ran through the numbers of students in each grade, talked about how the free kindergarten has helped retain students. There were ten kindergarteners last year and there are ten 1st graders this year. Pastor went through how many baptisms there have been in church the past few years, and the numbers line up with how many kids are in grades at school. So all those things (plus the fact our church is doing okay moneywise) let us squeak by without any negative talk about the school.
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