Budgeting by Faith

The school I teach at is having financial difficulty. There are several reasons why, and as not to accuse anyone of anything I won't go into them. Just that the conference is charging more per teacher, and returning less per student in subsidy, which is close to $12,000 that we had budgeted for. They also informed us we were no longer allowed to hire auxiliary teachers, and aides are not allowed to teach threw a wrench into our abilities to play with our budget. This was only made known in August, just before classes started. We had four families move away (7 students lost there) and we lost some planned for students and their tuition Then the rest of the problem is that which is tricky, political and confidential, but in part it caused us to loose between $20,000 and $30,000 and the loss of 20 students between Preschool and 3rd grade and their budgeted tuition.

So, we have come to the problem in order to keep our school going, from preschool-9th grade, we could potentially be $77,000-$79,000 short. We had two weeks to gain pledges from the members of the churches to help us out for this school year. WOW! $53,000 dollars came in just in faith pledges. People said, "we can't make changes in the middle of the school year, we need to make it through this year, and work on making changes next year". Then there is more that people are willing to pledge if the board decides to keep the school set as we have it. So as of right now, if we never grow during the school year, we are only short $17,578. But with keeping open, we have the opportunity to bring in more students in Preschool-9th grade. Come 2nd and 3rd quarters, parents start to become disillusioned with the Public schools in the area, and look for something else. Last year, we gained 15 students during those quarters.

We know we can't necessarily count on new students, though we have faith we will gain them, calls have been made daily, and we've already enrolled an new 9th grader starting next quarter, and three more preschool students. So we need to raise close to $18,000 before the conference executive committee meets.

If we do not, we will have to loose one teacher, and then the rippling effect with that will lead to a one teacher school and a huge disgrace with the community.

So, please, I ask each of you, pray with us, pray that hearts are opened to give as they feel needed and that students come that need to be here will come soon.

I hate asking people for money, but if any of you know someone who has the financial means and a desire to support christian education and need a place to do so, our school and our children need their help.

Thank you all for your encouragement and prayers over this last two months and thank you for your continued prayers. :)