Preschool Administrators... very long, sorry!

[misshardbroom]

Are you a preschool administrator or a committee member at a preschool that employs an administrator?

Please can you give me some idea of what your administrator does, and what are the conditions under which she (or he!) works?

I am a preschool administrator myself - I work for one organisation that runs two settings and I work across both.

I do a whole range of things: all the funding stuff for the council, grant applications, manage the waiting list & admissions process, produce / review policies and welcome documentation, basic book-keeping and banking the money every week, some purchasing of items we need, pay the bills, sort out things like insurance... the list goes on.

Basically the only non-curricular thing that I don't do is payroll, which we outsource.

There are a million advantages to my job, the greatest being that it is school days & term time only.

But... I work mainly from home, other than one meeting each week in each setting to catch up with the supervisors and handover / collect work. I'm starting to feel very isolated, especially as our Chair works f/t so I don't feel that I report to anyone or have any real feedback on what I'm doing.

Working from home can mean that the lines between work and home get very blurred, e.g. I'll get calls from preschool parents at 4.30pm on a school day when I've just walked in with my own children and I'm trying to get their tea on.

I'm also quite uncomfortable about the fact that I end up with large amounts of the preschool's cash sitting in my own house between banking days.

I'm worried that the isolated way in which I have to work could put me at risk of allegations in the future.

I guess I'm also finding it difficult that I don't really belong to either team and don't know whether I'm doing a good job or not.

Having probably 'outed' myself on MN with the detail in this post, I'll stop now, but if anyone can tell me how their administrator's job works, I'd be very interested.

our office manager does similar to you, but works 3 days a week only, based in gteh office at preschool, so nophone calls on a personal number, and no taking money home.

Our pre-school administrator is an employee works similar hours and does similar things. As it's her job I don't feel comfortable discussing on here, but if you'd like to discuss in more detail then feel free to send me a message and I'm happy to fill in how we organise things.

Could your employers supply you with a mobile phone so you can be contactable for staffa nd parents but you also get to turn it off when you're not working?
Does either of the pre-school's have an office you can use? Ideally a company of this size should have a safe onsite that cash can be safely stored.

It's interesting to hear your post is paid. At my son's pre-school all the administration, admissions, billing, finance, fundraising etc is shared between volunteers on the committee.

I also work from home - which is school day/term time only - I find it isolating too, as well as the feeling I am never truly off duty. I've decidided to stick with it for the time being until my youngest is in Year 3. All the time keeping my eye open for other school hour friendly roles

I did this kind of stuff on the committee. with regards to money, all cash was handed in to the pre-school and put in the locked filing cabinet. Every few days myself with another member of the committee would open and countersign etc and then it would go straight to the bank.

We implimented very strict deadlines for payment so that it was all due in the first week of term or there were overdue fees added. Was a necessary evil to get the fees due in on time and it worked.

Hi - don't know if I'm too late, not checked in for a while!

I'm a pre-school administrator and know exactly how you feel. I think its the lack of routine or any separation between work and home that's the most difficult (I also do book-work for my dh so I get it first thing in the morning and do bills at 10 O'clock at night so almost no definite time-off).

I also feel quite lonely, I am not one of the pre-school team exactly, but also am not on the committee like before so miss out on that as well. I do feel appreciated however, mainly due to the fact that there were so many problems with the last administrator that I am plain sailing, I can imagine it would be soul-destroying if you aren't.

Our jobs are actually pretty similar, I am in charge of banking and have access to the bank account on-line which really is quite a responsibility. We out-source our pay-roll as well which is good as I wouldn't like the responsibility of this. Our treasurer pays every-body on-line.

We do not really have a chairperson at the moment, we are between AGM and the next meeting so feel I am a bit lost, the present chairperson is not willing to stand again and nobody wants to do it, apparently I have to get somebody to volounteer at the next meeting which I'm not looking forward to.

So, I may not be helping much, but just to let you know that you are not alone! Like you say, the job suits quite well being flexible and can be rewarding, but it certainly has its drawbacks (I have been there twice today to let a plumber in to mend the boiler and should be filling in a grant form and applying for courses which go quickly, so no "switch off for the holiday for me).

I also feel that as a charity I cannot charge for as many hours as I should so I often end up going to the bank for nothing when I wouldn't be going any-way.

Any-way, I waffle, must go and make lunch, will check back later.

Hi mIssHardBrom

I do the same role as you, plus the payroll (which I hate doing). However, I have nothing ot do woth the actual cash, or bank account, whoich I like.

However, I ma based in an office in the preschool which really helps. Prior ot this I never gave out my home phone number, only the preschool one, or the mobile one. I think this is crucial.

WRT money, if it can't be left in the preschool, then I would bank it asap.

I also work as a play assistant in the preschool which helps in some ways, but also is tricky as it blurs the boundaries a lot. Our committee are there in name only, excpet for the Chair iccasionally doind recruitment, and the treasurer deals with physical cash side.

Can you be based in one of the preschool each week?

Hi, thanks for all your replies and sorry for not getting back to this sooner, we've been away on holiday.

It's really helpful to know the parameters of all your roles (thanks 5ofus for the stuff you sent me). Very interesting that there seems to just be Helennn and I who have to handle cash.

Sadly, there's no office space available for me to use in either setting, so I have to do it at home. I think I'll definitely ask for a mobile though because I'm really tired of work calls outside work hours. If I was CEO of the Post Office it might be different, but I'm a preschool administrator on £7/hr!

The blurring of boundaries is a big one too: I'm an employee, and a parent of a preschool child, and ex-Chair. Perhaps it will get easier next year when DS2 isn't there any more.

On a separate note - Rach, did you get the policy stuff I emailed to you? Been having a couple of email problems so apologies if it didn't get to you!

Yes, thanks ever so much.

I haev been adapting the E Sfatey one htis week.

I think it will get easier once you're not a parent, it did for me certainly.

You can get v v cheap mobiles on a PAYG tarif.