Now Open!

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

Tuesday was a big day for our church!

The official opening day of The Kessler Park Day School!!!

It was a joy to welcome new parents. LaTara and our teachers did a great job welcoming back old faces and new…and even set up a place for families to take pictures on their way to their new classes.

If you have not yet had a chance to tour the new rooms and the upgrades to the common spaces, I certainly hope you will join us at the potluck Sunday and do just that.

And as we have been saying in our last committee meetings….all of this is due to the extremely hard work of so many church members and staff.

I’ve also said more than once recently: this project of “turning around” these new rooms, of refinishing the common Day School areas, could easily have been a six month project.

(Probably should have been…)

But due to time constraints (ones we don’t need to rehash yet again…) and also the hard work of so many of you, it’s been accomplished in about 2 ½ months!!!

There is a great deal of thanks that we must all share for this. Certainly, our Trustees, led by Christine Holley, have been key. Christine managed all this while simultaneously moving to a new house and dealing with family medical concerns.

Thanks to all our current Trustees and to Lisa Rodgers and last year’s Trustees, too.

We should thank Church Council of the past several years, who initially approved moving forward with expansion of our school after we learned TKS would be leaving.

Our own Ron Nichols did excellent work as our contractor, not only providing quality work, but also keeping that work moving.

But probably no one deserves more credit for the project being finished on time than Ken Kelley. All Summer Ken has functioned as an unpaid project manager for this process, kept a lot of balls in the air, and spent way too many hours up here during the summer months. Some churches pay tens of thousands of dollars for project managers. Ken often stepped in to solve problems before anybody besides himself knew they were happening.

I do hope you all continue to express your gratitude to him when you see him next.

I want to also thank Kay Ash as well. Her passionate shepherding of the PDO program through some rocky times during these past several years was also crucial. Our school would not have been able to make this step without Kay’s management during the last years of Pastor Wes and the first years of the pandemic.

Kay not only managed much of the school administration during this time, but also helped us understand the state regulations concerning things like the playground expansion, and helped us manage that process.

Finally, LaTara Thompkins has stepped into her role as full-time director of the Day School with a lot of enthusiasm and considerable skill.

During these past weeks, LaTara and the Day School staff did a great job sharing the progress of our new rooms via social media.

I hope you’re following the KPDS social media accounts, where they’re posting updates:

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/KesslerDaySchool

Instagram:
https://instagram.com/kesslerparkdayschool

It’s hard to express just how excited and motivated the young parents I personally saw Tuesday morning are. They are thrilled with the upgrades to the school and the staff, and many expressed great gratitude for KPUMC’s commitment to their families and our neighborhoods. This is gratitude you all need to hear.

I certainly hope you’ll be with us for Sunday’s potluck as we tour the building. We’ll also plan to have the Day School staff present at worship soon and offer prayer for them and for the school year. And we have a playground dedication being planned for October.

So, on this special morning, I just wanted to be sure and thank you all….and some of you very specifically.

Tuesday was a very good day for Kessler Park UMC and I hope you share the excitement.