A WEEK IN THE LIFE...

Even though school is out for the summer, and we had two weeks in between the time school ended and camps begin, things certainly did not slow down at Love City. With many moving parts, below is a snapshot of how the week went for us last week.

Two would be thieves approaching the back door to the old parsonage next to the new preschool.

Sunday Night

It started Sunday night. It was about 11:30pm and I woke up to Shawn on the phone with 911, directing them to the old Grace Lutheran parsonage house that we own. It is located right next to the old Grace Lutheran church which is going to be the site of the new preschool. We have been having problems with people trying to break in, so a couple weeks ago we installed a security system with cameras. Shawn gets alerts to his phone whenever the motion detectors for any camera are triggered. At 11:30 Sunday night, his phone buzzed an alert and the video showed two thieves with power tools and crowbars, taking the storm door off the hinges, and unscrewing where we had screwed it shut to the door frame and then breaking the glass on the back door to attempt entry. Shawn was on the phone with 911 immediately giving them the info. He then called our neighbor Mike, who is actually starting on staff with Love City this coming week to meet him and the police at the parsonage. The police were 30 seconds too late to catching the would-be thieves. As the police pulled up front, the thieves ran down the back alley.

Shawn and Mike then spent another hour and a half, getting plywood from the garage at St Cecilia and re-boarding up the back door to the parsonage. By the time Shawn got home around 2am he was already tired, and we still had a full week ahead of us.

Joe and Kim working on weeding and mulching the flower beds around Mackin.

Monday

Monday morning, we both hit the ground running. I had a full day of meetings with the school administration team to discuss new student admissions, staff training preparation and some interviews for some of the open staff positions we have at the school. The week before a couple of the kids who used to come to open gym when we first opened 7 years ago, who are now young men, had reached out to Shawn to see if he had any work while they were in between jobs. They met Shawn Monday morning and started moving furniture, boxes supplies, in between buildings to help us prepare for school in the fall.

While Shawn had them working, Nicole our school administrator had arranged for a couple of our middle schoolers to come help our instructional coach and behavior interventionist as they went through our storerooms, cataloging supplies and building an inventory list so teachers would know what resources we had available in the fall. I also met with Alexis, a young mom from the neighborhood who had worked off and on at Porkland over the years and was looking for a way to get more involved in community. She had been through a lot in the last year with her family and just needed some positive people to be around. I invited her to our community dinner on Tuesday evening and asked if she would be interested in coming to help out at the fish fry on Friday. Also, on Monday our kindergarten teacher and new art teacher met and planned out our creative arts camp for the week of June 20, coming up with ideas for art projects, and field trips to keep the kids engaged and excited for that week.

Tuesday

On Tuesday Dante and Damien were back helping move furniture. While they worked inside, Kim and Joe, our front desk receptionist and P.E. Teacher from continued weeding and mulching all the flower beds around the school building that they had started on Monday. Eli, who runs St. C’s Tees and also moonlighted as our art teacher at the school last year, got started on a mural on the front of the building under the front porch overhang. Shawn had found education related quotes from Albert Einstein, Mother Theresa, Muhammad Ali, Harriet Tubman, and Nelson Mandela he wanted on the front of the building. Eli started planning out large abstract portraits of each person to accompany their quotes. Nicole and I had three interviews scheduled for open positions at the school, Shayla and Beth continued to tackle the basement and the inventory of supplies. Also, on Tuesday the plumbers showed up to install two new water fountains, one on the main floor and one upstairs right out ballroom doors. These new water fountains have water bottle fillers so kids can fill their own water bottles throughout the day.

Tuesday night we had our community dinner. Shawn organizes the dinner over at the Porkland space. Every Tuesday night we have about 25 neighbors come and just share a meal together. The average age of the group is about 70, and the combined years of living in the neighborhood tops 500 years. Some of the ladies that live in the St Cecilia Senior apartments come over every Tuesday as well just to share life with one another.

Shayla and Beth working to inventory and assess all the resources at MOA.

Wednesday

On Wednesday everyone was back doing their part of the day, the plumbers were continuing to work in the water fountains (and a punch list of other items Shawn had put together that always seem to come up when you have 3 large properties that total close to 100,000 square feet of space). Eli was back out-front painting murals, Kim and Joe were working on flower beds and mulching, Shayla and Beth were making headway on the resource organization in the basement, Nicole was having regular meetings with the admin team to talk about training, admissions, and developing school policies for the fall. We had two interviews scheduled for open positions for the school. Added to this mix, Brad who maintains all our security cameras and security systems stopped by to replace a couple of cameras that had gone out at the school and at the St Cecilia campus.

Dr John Blandford from Bellarmine working in the High Tunnels

Thursday

On Thursday we added a few more people to the symphony of activity happening around Love City. Dr John Blandford from Bellarmine University came down with one of his graduate assistants to start working on our gardens. He is planning an undergraduate honors course in the fall semester around food security in lower income neighborhoods and is partnering with Love City and Mighty Oak Academy to hold the class in our greenhouses, growing food and then working with us to reach out to the community around fresh food options. Also of note, Dr Blandford is the nephew of Dr Joseph Blandford, the doctor who originally bought the Mackin building from the Archdiocese in 1986. It was the first time the Archdiocese had sold anything related to St Cecilia. Dr Blandford subsequently sold the Mackin to Bobby Otis who owns the use car lot next door to the Mackin in 2004, and then Bobby sold it to us in 2015. Dr John Blandford told me and Shawn stories about how he used to play in the Mackin building when he was a kid. His uncle still lives in Louisville, he had taken some video of the building to show his uncle what the Mackin had become after he sold it.

Also on Thursday, Shawn prepared for the fish fry on Friday. The only team member we were able to keep from Porkland, Jay, now comes in on Thursdays and Fridays to prep for and help work the fish fry. Shawn had to run go pick up supplies that morning, picking up fish, bread, all the food inventory we would need for the fish fry the next day. The rest of the team were still hard at work, Dante and Damien came to finish up moving furniture throughout the buildings, and also worked on cleaning up some demo we had down the week before in the basement to make two small offices, one big room that we could then use as a classroom. Shawn and I also had a family that had scheduled to come down and take a tour of Love City. They had been involved in Love City for a while, but their grown children were in town, and they wanted to bring them down and show them what was happening. Shawn and I took them around, showing them everything that was going on here at Love City. I then had two more interviews for open staff positions at MOA.

Alexis back volunteering at the register on Fish Fry-Day!

Friday

Fish Fry-Day! Even though it’s fish fry day, the rest of Love City keeps on trucking. Joe continued to finish up the mulching in the flower beds, Eli needed a mental break from painting murals, so he jumped in to help in the kitchen for the fish fry. The plumbers had finished up installing and fixing all the repairs throughout the buildings. Alexis who I met with on Monday came and helped most of the day at the fish fry, running the register like she hadn’t missed a beat from her old Porkland days. Mike, who starts full time at Love City this coming week also jumped in and helped in the kitchen, along with his younger sister Anna, who just moved back in with their dad. I had one more interview for open positions at MOA that afternoon. When Shawn and I got home around 7:30pm that evening, we ate dinner and went straight to bed.

The memorial sculpture at the location Bobby Kennedy made his speech about the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Saturday

On Saturday Shawn and I rested and then got up and drove to Indianapolis to meet with one of our mentors. On the way we stopped by 17thand Broadway in downtown Indianapolis. At that spot, on April 4, 1968, Bobby Kennedy gave a speech about the death of Martin Luther King earlier that day. It was a short speech but powerfully called for love to win. There is now a commemorative sculpture at the location where he gave his speech. We went and sat down on the spot and listened to Bobby Kennedy’s speech from that night. We’re not sure why we felt compelled to go visit it, but as we listened to the speech, if you hadn’t known it was from 1968, you would have assumed it was given in present day. His call for calm, and love and to turn away from division and hatred seemed timelier now, than it ever has been. After a busy week full of things to do and preparations to make at Love City, it was important to be reminded of what everything boils down to, even in the midst of loss and hardship, it’s all about love.

To listen to Bobby Kennedy give his speech clickhere.

MIGHTY OAK IS HIRING!

Even though we had lots of interviews scheduled this past week, we still have lots of open positions at Mighty Oak Academy. Here are the list of positions we are looking to fill:

1 School Nutrition Manager
1 Middle School Teacher
3 Elementary School Teachers
1 Executive Admin Assistant
1 Receptionist
1 Athletic Director
1 Digital Media Instructor/Specialist

Below is a summary of the teacher job posting. You can find a full description of the teacher job, as well as links to all of the additional jobs we have open on our website. If you or anyone you know might be interested in joining the MOA staff this year, please forward them the job posting. All postings are also on Indeed.

TEACHER JOB POSTING AT MIGHTY OAK ACADEMY

The Teachers report to the Instructional Coach and are responsible for leading their own instruction as well as collaborating on a teaching team to facilitate learning across multiple elementary classrooms. Teachers are tone setters for the school and responsible for high quality instruction, culture building within and across classrooms. Teachers will also need to be able to deeply integrate academics, socio emotional learning and health in our classrooms daily. Mighty Oak Academy is a new school, and as we learn and grow, we respond and adapt to the needs of our students and staff. This year we will have teachers working on teams across 2-3 grade levels to address different subjects, integrate project-based learning and adjust classes to skill level rather than grade level.

Some highlights from the job responsibilities:

Annual, weekly, and daily instructional planning tailored to the needs of each child
Instructional delivery in large group, small group, and individualized formats
Collaboration with other teachers to practice skills and jointly problem solve
Partner with instructional support team, behavioral support team and other related service providers to provide personalized supports for students with identified needs
Create a safe and enjoyable educational environment that encompasses project-based learning.
Use the school’s social emotional learning techniques for encouraging the social emotional development of children that builds a healthy, safe, loving school environment.
Manage classrooms effectively so that children feel loved, safe and want to learn.

Some highlights from the job qualifications:

You have a bachelor’s degree
You have a minimum of 3 years of experience as a classroom teacher and hold deep and diverse instructional competence
Your work demonstrates a practice of creating transformative classroom culture for all kids. You take proactive steps to build an equitable classroom practice
You have a parent- and family-centered mindset
You recognize the multidimensional needs of children and families, because in your own way, you’ve been trying to weave education, health, and family support services together for your students

For the full job posting and to see all our other open positions please click on the following link:

Job Postings at Mighty Oak Academy

PARTNER WITH US

At Love City we believe in time, talent and treasure.

If you are interested in volunteering or to find out more information about supplies needed please email: info@lovecityinc.org or call (502) 272-078.

Please consider partnering financially with Love City. We are looking for sponsors for students at Mighty Oak Academy as well as partners to help fund construction of our new preschool. Click the button below to donate today.

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A week in the life...