Like Harrison Ford I am Frantic....frantically seeking a Dominican
Ministry of Education Code
Back in the early days of Makarios, I remember as a board member
having discussions and making decisions about whether or not we would
try to become recognized by the Dominican government, which we
decided to not pursue. What this means is that our students still go
to the public school in the afternoons (there are two sessions) since
the government doesn't see Colegio Makarios as a recognized
institution. If a student were to move they would have no credit for
their time with us if there were to go to Colegio Makarios
exclusively We were really at a place where we needed to decide if
we are going to merely come along side of the public school or if we
were going to pursue being a recognized school and not need to share
our students any longer.
I am really pleased to share that we decided to pursue recognition
by the Dominican Ministry of Education. This is actually no small
task. It has involved many conversations with many schools on the
island and a change in curriculum school-wide. Our first step was to
obtain our non-profit status in the D.R. We should have that
officially in a few weeks. My vice-principal, Johan Castillo, and I
have been working on a hefty document that is needed which is
basically our school on paper.....and in Spanish! Who is Mak, why is
Mak, who does Mak serve, who has worked with Mak, what did they do,
how have we grown, what do our buildings look like, what are our
resources, what is our mission, what are our values, what is our
vision, how are people hired, what do we teach, what are our goals,
etc.
While we have been piecing together this document, we also
realized that a lot of our students were in a different grade than
they were in the public school—for various reasons. We needed to
remedy this, so on Monday, 18 November we basically started school
again. Some students had new classrooms, new teachers, and new grade
levels. We had to actually add a class as our students in 4th
grade are in 5th grade in the public school. We had to
put them someplace on a campus that really had no more space—so,
Makarios bought a piece of land right next to our existing land and
now the 5th grade is in a casita which is super
fun! :) I am humbled by the Makarios staff and how they have
handled all these changes and were able to make the Big Day o' Change
seem like any other day! It was a seamless transition and all the
credit goes to God and the outstanding teachers of Colegio Makarios.
Please pray that we can get our code and be able to better serve
our students by having them all day.
