Help needed urgently if kinder is to have a home!

Hello kinder parents and friends,

The Carnegie Rudolf Steiner Pre-School urgently needs your help. The lease at our current premises at Tara Grove runs out at the end of term 1, which means that we have only 6 weeks to finish all the work at the new kinder site at East Bentleigh Primary School if the kinder is to have a home for term 2.

We have also had some bad luck on the building site in the last week - a plumbing/sewerage issue arose that will add extra cost and time delays to the project, and vandals knocked down 6 of the masonry pillars on the perimeter fencing (one of several acts of vandalism on the site that have caused delays in the building works).

All of this has made the already difficult task of getting the kinder ready to open even more difficult. The amount of work still to be done is huge – as anyone who has visited the site recently will already know - and it will require a phenomenal effort from the entire community if we are to get the building ready for term 2. But let's not forget that we are near the end of a very long road for this project.

Efforts to relocate the kinder to East Bentleigh Primary School began almost 5 years ago when the Uniting Church informed us they were going to sell the hall at Tara Grove, and there have been many occasions since when it looked like the kinder might close, because our lease at Tara Grove was tenuous and we didn't have the funds to relocate. Each time the community banded together to ensure the kinder's survival. We find ourselves at that juncture again, but this time there is light at the end of the tunnel - we're almost there. With a supreme effort from the current kinder community, and perhaps a little bit of help from our friends - past and future kinder families - we can still get the kinder open for the beginning of term 2.

We know that it is difficult for some people to attend working bees at weekends, so to make it easier for everyone to help, we have divided the tasks up into manageable chunks, and specified the time period in which they need to be completed, so that you can get together with a couple of people (or come by yourself) to help out at a time that suits you. We will still be running working bees at weekends if you find it easier to come along and help then.

Below this post is a list of most of the tasks that need to be done by the kinder community before our new kinder can open (tasks like planting the garden and sewing curtains and other furnishings are not yet on the list). We need to have everything on this list done by the end of March if we are to open on time at the beginning of term 2.

Task & When the task needs to be done:

Internal painting
Paint main room 1- 15 March
Paint toilets 1 – 15 March
Paint store room 25 Feb – 15 March
Paint office & kiln room 25 Feb – 15 March
Paint kitchen & meals area 1 – 15 March

External painting
Fill & patch holes in weatherboards & window frames 18 Feb – 3 March
Paint extension for office & store room 1 – 25 March
Paint new window & door frames 1 – 25 March
Touch up other external paintwork as necessary 1 – 25 March

Shelves & cupboards
Construct & install storage cupboards in the main room 25 Feb – 15 March

Install overhead cupboard in the children’s toilets 25 Feb – 15 March

Install towel hooks in the children’s toilets 25 Feb – 15 March


Install shelf in the adult toilet 25 Feb – 15 March

Install timber shelf over the art trough in the main room 25 Feb – 15 March

Install timber canopy over the window in the office 25 Feb – 15 March

Install overhead cupboards in the kitchen 3 – 18 March

Staining & oiling of joinery
Stain & oil kitchen cupboards & benchtops 25 Feb – 25 March
Stain & oil joinery in toilets 25 Feb – 25 March
Stain & oil joinery in main room & meals area 25 Feb – 25 March
Stain & oil joinery in kiln room and store room 25 Feb – 25 March
Stain & oil joinery in office 25 Feb – 25 March

Fencing
Render masonry inserts to perimeter fencing 7 – 11 March
Paint masonry inserts to perimeter fencing 14 – 18 March
Finish construction of timber fencing 18 Feb – 18 March
Oil timber fencing (school carpark fencing) 5 – 18 March
Oil timber fencing (Bignell Rd fencing) 5 – 18 March
Oil timber fencing (Moorleigh laneway fencing) 5 – 18 March

Gates
Construct & install 3 timber gates & install one cyclone gate 28 Feb – 4 March

Sandpit
Finish sandpit construction Working bee on 24 Feb from 8.30am
Fill sandpit with sand Working bee on 24 Feb from 8.30 am
Build swingframe & install swings 15 Feb – 15 March

Build climbing frame 15 Feb – 15 March


Build pole maze 15 Feb – 15 March

Grade ground around trees near building (so tree roots don’t present a hazard to children) 3 – 15 March

Construct main pathway from Bignell Rd to kinder entrance & grade for pushchair access 15 Feb – 15 March


Construct pathway from kinder entrance to door 3 – 15 March





We are asking members of the kinder community to consider which of the tasks on this list they are able to lead (i.e. be responsible for getting the task done) or help out with. We need many more people to lead tasks – at the moment, we have just a couple of people who are leading all working bees and they are feeling exhausted! Please consider also leading tasks.

You can talk to me – Rachel Carey (0425 739 529/9521 8278, rachel@careythomas.com.au) – about getting hold of the materials you need, finding other people to help, getting hold of the key to the building etc.

Please contact me to let me know which tasks you are able to help out with. The list is also at the kinder at Tara Grove near the sign in book if you would like to put your name down there.

Thank you on behalf of all the children who are looking forward to moving into their new kindergarten and very much hoping that it will be ready soon.

Rachel