Surrounded by Angels

I am surrounded by angels.
No kidding. I have a support team that would knock off your socks!
Today, I attended a meeting officiated by the new educational team in the Kansas City School District. They asked question after question about our program. I was worried and nervous, and showed it during the meeting. Afterwards, I received the best advice anyone could receive under the circumstances. I was told to hang in there and just do my best. We have a great program, this person said; we just need to be responsive to the District's concerns.
Then, this afternoon, our Board President listened to me as I described my worries and fears. He urged me to listen to the message we received from these officials, and said that I shouldn't try to read too much more into the way it was delivered or to try to interpret the personal dynamics in the meeting. "Do your best", he repeated to me.
I was motivated to immediately begin drafting procedures to address the concerns expressed at this meeting. I had to look deeply at some of the ways we operate, and realize we needed to change. At first, I didn't think these procedures would help kids. I was being a bureaucrat, I thought.
But as I wrote the procedure, I realized I was doing something very positive. Rather than feeling sorry for us or for myself, I was trying to meet these officials halfway, or better. Writing policies and procedures is not the most exciting thing in the world when you are working with kids who often need your immediate attention, but it will make us a better agency, and help to focus us and to standardize how we help kids. And that's the whole point of our work at DeLaSalle.
I'll tell you about my other angels some other time. They are all around me!