Hosanna's Board Retreat

Jeannette, MelodyJoy and I spent last night at the Pinehurst Inn, a bed and breakfast about halfway between Klamath Falls and Ashland on Highway 66, near the Box R Ranch. We were there for Hosanna Christian School's board retreat. There are seven of us on the school board and I am its secretary. We decided we needed to get some extended time away to discuss some strategic matters, thus the retreat.

Pinehurst Inn was a very pleasant surprise. First, its chef is Ira Krizo, a local boy from Tulelake CA who studied in New York and he is a great chef. Last night we had salmon, though some in our group had prime rib, chicken or a vegetarian dish. (If I had known that he was such a good cook, I would have ordered the beef.) His breakfast this morning and even the little deli sandwich lunch he fixed were also very good. Jeannette had some interesting conversations with Susanna, Ira's wife, who is Finnish by way of Sweden.

Each of the rooms at Pinehurst has its own bathroom and we were fortunate enough to get the "nicest" room, because we had MelodyJoy with us, which had a bedroom and a separate sitting room. We slept great on a king size bed with a pillowtop mattress and it was very comfortable. We hardly even thought about the three boys we had left behind at home, on their own overnight for the very first time.

(By the way, before any HCS families lose any sleep over this, note that the school did not pay for the retreat.)

I was afraid that the retreat was going to be a waste of time in terms of making progress on real "work," but we actually did get some important stuff done. We looked at our policy manual and reconsidered some important part of it, we discussed how we should be evaluating our chief administrator and also talked about ways of solidifying Hosanna's future and helping more families access an HCS education. We absolutely face some big challenges but are trusting that God will lead us in the right direction and that Hosanna's families will be responsive to our leadership.

I have to say that it's a real pleasure to serve on this school board. I think we have some very competent and godly board members and I appreciate the fact that we can discuss issues and disagree on things but still maintain a positive tone and relationship. I also appreciate the way that we are trying to appropriately function as a board, rather than micromanaging the administration of the school.

As soon as we got home this afternoon, I turned around and drove almost five hours to Reno. I'm staying at the Nugget. Talk about from the sublime to the ridiculous. Pinehurst was peaceful and customer-centered. The part of the Nugget I'm in is right by a highway and it feels like a real dive. At the risk of sounding spoiled . . . elevators that are truly frightening, small rooms dimly lit, wireless that costs $12 a day (so I'm on dial-up . . . which I later found out costs as well!), a bathroom out of the '60s with a chest-high showerhead. (Funny how a clawfoot bathtub out of the early 20th century was quaint at Pinehurst but here it's mildly disgusting.)

Tomorrow is the Reno College Fair . . . my first time at this one in my twenty years of working in admissions. Can't wait to get back home!