Week 4 - WARNING this blog may be boring

First off I want to warn you that the following may be boring to many of you but I was asked to give more detail on what we are doing day to day.

4 weeks have gone by and we feel we have settleda in to the routine of things. Routine can be an  arbitrary word. When I think of the word routine I sometimes think of it in terms as repetitive or mundane and most our days are not repetitive or mundane. Our routine is the overall daily schedule we keep in mission life. Bill is up around 6:00 am, study scriptures until 6:30. Susan is up at 6:30. Bill exercises from 6:30 (sun up) to 7:15 am. Exercise schedule is each day, run 2 laps around the school to warm up. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, lift weights in weight room. Tuesday, Thursday, and sometimes Saturday do Insanity Workout. Susan showers and gets ready for the day. 7:15 Bill showers gets ready. 7:30 - 7:50 we eat breakfast and go over the day's activities. Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 8:00-8:30 is the school office staff devotional. Each Monday instead of the office staff devotional there is an all school staff devotional. Then each Wednesday from 9:00 to 10:00 is an all School Devotional. Each day except Wednesdays kids start school at 8:30 - 9:00 in their homeroom. They have a devotional and discuss anything the students need. Then regular classes start at 9:00, lunch is at 1:00 and then school ends at 3:30. On Wednesdays first period is the all school devotional then classes start at 10:00. On Wednesday evening we perform an ITEP function which is administering the SLEP tests to those who wish to take it. The SLEP test is a requirement for those who are applying for University studies. The person must pass the test to be considered for admission. It is an English language test to insure that the person understands both the spoken and written language. It is necessary since all the universities are taught in the English language whether it is BYU Hawaii, or Universities in New Zealand, Fiji, or Australia. Potential students at these schools must have a command of the English language if they are to succeed in their studies and graduate.

The Wednesday all school Devotionals are used not only for spiritual discussions but also for community involvement. There are guest speakers that come from the Kiribati Government Ministry to talk to and encourage the students. There are business executives who come to talk about careers and the importance of schooling. Higher education people come to talk about what is needed for entry into and scholarships for universities. Former students come and talk about their experiences they had at Moroni and what it took for them to get scholarships and acceptance into a university and/or to prepare for a mission. These speakers are exceptional because they were once right there where the students are today and can speak from first hand knowledge the struggles the students are and will face. They give them encouragement and ideas on how to get through it all.

Friday last period is the activity period when all of the school clubs meet. Susan is involved with the Drama Club and Bill is involved with the Dance Club and with the Sports Clubs.

Once classes start, each day is different as to what we are doing at any given time. But no matter what we are doing, our purpose is to help the school improve it's TVET program first, and second to help with the overall school needs including the Facilities Maintenance group. So each day you may find us in a classroom watching or helping a teacher teach a lesson. We may be in our office developing spreadsheets or looking for lesson support material for a teacher. Or we may be at the Service Center working with the Facilities Maintenance group or finance team.

We are assigned priorities from the Pacific Schools TVET Manager and from the School Principal. We have been working at completing our first assigned priorities these last 4 weeks. Those were:

• Work with each TVET Teacher to insure they have, maintain, and understand their live inventories. Help them bring their documented inventories up to date.
• Work with each TVET Teacher to help them understand their respective budgets and help them get ready for the next budget cycle which starts in March.
• Perform some of the ITEP duties until a new set of ITEP missionaries arrive. They are due to arrive in June.
• Work with the FM group to try and help them get caught up on their back log of work orders.

The staff understands the need for inventories and most have attempted to put one together. They had a template of sorts to work from but it lacked all the needed information for a good inventory spreadsheet. Then the concept of maintaining a consumables inventory was not understood. Most of the teachers just ordered what they needed without ever having it as a part of their budget or documented in an inventory spreadsheet. So once Sister Belshe and I understood the situation we began working with each TVET Teacher in developing their inventory spreadsheets which included their consumables. We have been working with them also on preparing their inventories and budgets based on their yearly lesson plans. The budget cycle for 2018 starts in March with requests for capital equipment being written up and submitted for approvals. Then the next phase is consumables and classroom budget requests for 2018 being submitted for approvals sometime in May.  We nearly have all the Teachers completed with their inventory lists. The next training we will do will be on the budget process and how to write their budgets and justifications and then submit their budgets for approval. You would think that with the school being in operation for as long as it has the teachers would know all of this. They don't. The budgets have been submitted by the school Principals all these years without much involvement from the Teachers. It has just been in the last couple of years that budget requests and responibilities have moved down to the Teacher level. In general in the past there has been a lack of structure and responsibility. The structure and responsibility is now being put in place. The Teachers are all for it because it gives them greater input as to what is needed for their programs and lesson plans.
An example of what it was before and what it looks like now is the Carpentry Teacher's inventory sheet. His sheet had a total of 53 line items which included all power tools, hand tools, and consumables. He and Elder Belshe worked on his inventory spreadsheets to reflect what he actually had, what was needed to complete his lesson plan and projects. The result was a power tool spreadsheet which showed all of the power tools he needs in the shop, a hand tool spreadsheet which shows all of the hand tools needed, and a consumables spreadsheet which has all of the consumables needed to complete the yearly lesson plans. Now with this inventory list he knows what capital equipment he needs and what lesson module he needs it for. This helps him in writing his justifications. He also knows what hand tools he lacks that need to be ordered, and what consumsbles he will need to include in his operating budget. Those spreadsheets together now have a total of over 200 line items which reflects exactly what he needs and uses each year in his training programs.

So as you can see we are not just sitting around. Each day is very busy in helping the TVET program here get to that next level in accomplishing their goal of having certified programs which are recognized throughout the Pacific area. And that is not all, Elder Belshe is also helping the Facilities Maintenance group streamline some of their work processes and assist them in areas they are weak in such as electrical troubleshooting.

Well I won't bore you with any more of this. We are enjoying what we are doing knowing that it will help the lives of the students and faculty.