I recently became engaged. Although I am on cloud nine as I write this, I do realize this is an article for the Charter School Monthly, not Arizona Bride. What makes this milestone in my life actually pertinent to this discussion is how similar the two experiences – starting a school and planning a wedding – really are. Allow me to explain.

First, in order to get the love of my life to actually take the first step toward engagement, I had to chase him for months. Now, for all of you who have recently started a charter school, you know that courting is a huge part of getting a family to enroll in your school. Instead of showing up with flowers and candy on Valentine’s Day, you carry a pencil and an enrollment form. The items used may be different, but the approach is the same: “I want you in my life, so please accept me.” And that is only the beginning of the courtship. You do not have the ring until that student walks through the door on the first day of school, so you sweat and you worry and you wonder, “Will they see how great I am?” until that wonderful day arrives when a young person, scrubbed clean and ready to choose you and only you, arrives on your school’s doorstep. See, the similarities are eerily clear.

Once you have the commitment, everything starts to move very fast. How will you budget for this wedding/school? Well, it all depends on the guest list. But will you ever know exactly how many people will attend? No! But, heaven forbid you do not have a place setting ready for them, so you stress and you crunch numbers and you hope you are reasonably close to an accurate number of people. And why are people so important? It is the same reason in both a wedding and a school: It affects your revenue. Now, granted, the two work in opposite ways, but still, one too few heads at a wedding, and I am eating a lot of chicken dinner on my own. A few too few students and I am looking around wondering, “Do we really need electricity? Eliminating it would really save the budget.”  Every head represents not only a person you love and care about and want to be a part of this special place, but, to be very crass, a lot of dollar signs. But eventually, you find the equilibrium of perfect number of students to balance out the number of chicken dinners and you are ready to move on to the heart of the wedding/school.

The ceremony! Once you get all these people to gather around, you have to make it worth their while. If what you teach is no more interesting, pertinent, or challenging than Jane Public School, they may disengage. Just like Uncle Sam, who snored during the wedding ceremony. You have to keep them guessing and anticipating because they are investing in you as much you are in them. Every minute must repeat the mantra, “I want you here because you are someone special.  We have a lot coming up ahead of us, but together we can do anything.”  It is plain exhausting!

But the greatest thing starting a charter school and planning a wedding have in common is a lot of love and an urgency in that love. I want to marry my sweetie now so as to not waste a single second of this short life together. I feel the same about my students – I want to get them all up to grade level and then beyond so that we do not waste a single moment in preparing them to be the next generation of leaders. Love is the driving force behind all of this. Why else would we stay up past our bedtime planning and talking and dreaming of the next day? Love and urgency create the perfect storm to ensure that whether it be the big day in a white dress or the big day in a new school uniform shirt we are all there for the right reasons.

Rachel Bennett is the School Director at Phoenix Collegiate Academy, which opened in July. PCA opened with grade 6; it will eventually serve students in grades 6-12. The school is located at 5610 S. Central Avenue in Phoenix. Feel free to email Rachel with your questions or comments at rbennett@phxca.org.