Submitted by Janet W.
Please hang in with me, there is a little background information…
I have been an educator for 40 years and have been the superintendent for the Dehesa School District for the past seven. The budget for these past 7 years has been a struggle and we were facing a huge deficit at the end of the 2013-14 school year. It was a 2 am awake in the middle of the night time with GOD last July praying and asking GOD how I could guide the district through this financial crisis. In a truly GOD moment I decided that I could retire in December and then volunteer the rest of this school year through June and the district would save my salary. It was perfectly clear and I would have a wonderful opportunity to give back to the profession that has been so incredibly good to me. I have loved it!
I currently have custody of my soon to be four, grandson. Although grandparents never have custody of their children for good reasons, he is a blessing and complete joy to me. I am a single grandparent and I decided that during Leap of Faith my prayer/s for me were that GOD would give me the strength & energy to care for Daniel and to be financially able to care for Daniel (pay for preschool!), pay my bills and to TITHE. While I know if I keep the faith and tithe that it will be OK, but I am still working on turning this worry over to GOD.
As a superintendent I was in charge of our charter schools. One of our charters is a drop out recovery school that I feel passionately about. The drop out rate in CA is epidemic with hundreds of thousands of kids dropping out. Unfortunately, the incarceration rate is also horrendous for kids who don’t have high school diplomas. The current rate in CA prisons is that about 70% of all inmates do not have high school diplomas. It is critical for kids to graduate.
When the CEO of our charter organization found out I was retired he asked me to please come and meet with him to talk about going to work for Learn4Life. I met with him on March 25th and signed my contract to work on a part time consultant basis until June (I want to fulfill my volunteer commitment to my district) and then start full time in July. Learn4Life has a culture of success and respect for every student like I have never seen before. Young mothers can bring their babies with them, they are given money for the bus or trolley to get to school, and are absolutely made to feel valued. I hadn’t planned on going to work, but GOD is calling me for the next step. As one of the regional leaders in San Diego (we already have almost 3,000 students attending in San Diego) I have a renewed passion to help as many students as possible connect to success. AND, I will definitely be able to TITHE, take care of Daniel, and pay my bills without worry!
OH MY, I still am overwhelmed by GOD’s greatness and how he answered my specific prayers during Leap of Faith!
