Chapter 80 Propaganda
Then Li Jiandong was asked to build the kindergarten while the staff were asked to promote the kindergarten in each compound.

After leaving the street, Li Jiandong returned to the courtyard and summoned Liu Haizhong and Yan Bugui.

"Old Li, what do you want from us?"

Yan Bugui asked curiously. The hospital has been peaceful recently. Except for occasionally holding a health or labor propaganda meeting, Li Jiandong rarely calls them together.

Liu Haizhong also sat up straight and looked at Li Jiandong seriously.

Li Jiandong told everyone in detail his idea of ​​building a kindergarten, and especially informed them that this was a public welfare industry.

With Li Jiandong's financial resources, he could have done the rest on his own, but the nature of a kindergarten run by himself and one run collectively are different, and the impression they give people when they make it known is also different.

If Li Jiandong runs a kindergarten himself, he would easily be called a capitalist even if it does not make a profit.

After all, many people only see that he collects admission fees from children, but they cannot see the costs of the kindergarten and the teachers' salaries.

But if this kindergarten is opened in the name of a collective, there won’t be so many problems.

Yan Bugui laughed: "Old Li, don't lie to us. Will you do business that will lose money?"

In Yan Bugui's opinion, Li Jiandong is the most capable and intelligent person in this hospital. He is bound to make money from his business. How can he not make a profit?

Liu Haizhong's perspective on this matter was completely different from his. He said in a muffled voice,
"If you want to open a kindergarten, please include me in the list. I, Old Liu, will always follow in your footsteps."

He had no idea whether running a kindergarten would make money, but he knew that Li Jiandong was a high-ranking official and was worth his trying to please.

Therefore, Liu Haizhong was not investing for the purpose of making money, he was just simply licking Li Jiandong.

"Well, since both of you have ideas, let's call a meeting of the whole courtyard to count the numbers. If there are others willing to join in, we can open this kindergarten in the name of the courtyard, just like a tavern."

Li Jiandong made the decision and convened a meeting of the entire institute that evening.

At the meeting, Li Jiandong repeatedly emphasized that this kindergarten would not aim to make money, but there were still many people who supported Li Jiandong and chose to contribute money to participate.

So Li Jiandong asked Yan Bugui to calculate how much each family had invested and then distribute the dividends in proportion in the future.

Although the purpose is not to make a profit, with so many people supporting him, Li Jiandong will not let them lose money.

The next step is the construction of the kindergarten.

Li Jiandong drew the blueprint himself and then invited two construction teams to start work together.

The area next to the tavern is quite large, and the total area approved for building a kindergarten is quite large. Li Jiandong was afraid that there would not be so many parents to send their children to school, so he only built 6 rooms in the first phase.

One of the rooms is the dormitory for kindergarten teachers, which should be sufficient for children of different ages.

In less than a month, the main body of the kindergarten was built.

The next step of decoration is very simple. Just hang a white wall and paste a ceiling. It is estimated to be completed in a week.

Li Jiandong also took advantage of this period to broadcast on street loudspeakers the recruitment of bait teachers.

In order to reduce expenses, Li Jiandong initially set teachers' salaries at 9 yuan per month.

I thought that with such a low salary, there wouldn't be many applicants. However, after the announcement was made through the loudspeaker, more than 100 applicants came to apply on the first day. So Li Jiandong had to reduce the application requirements overnight.

Claim:

1. Female under 35 years old.

2. Be caring, educated, and have at least a junior high school education.

3. Good at communicating with children, patient, and have parenting experience, preferably with experience in raising children.

……

Li Jiandong listed a total of 9 recruitment conditions, requiring at least 7 of them to be met in order to apply.

This immediately eliminated a lot of applicants, but the number of job seekers was still as high as that of fish in the sea.

“It would be nice if there were so many people coming to drop off their children.”

Li Jiandong stood on the second floor of the tavern dormitory, looking out the window at the long line of job applicants coming downstairs, and couldn't help but sigh.

3 cents per child per month, which is the price of half a pound of meat, is a good deal for many families. After all, the time wasted on taking care of children is enough for them to earn several 3 cents.

However, there has never been such a thing as kindergartens before, and many parents would definitely feel a little worried if they were suddenly asked to send their children to be taken care of by others.

Therefore, Li Jiandong was also prepared for the fact that there would not be many children at the beginning.

"Master, I think that when the kindergarten opens, there will be more children coming than this."

Jia Dongxu next to him suddenly said.

"Oh? Why do you think so?"

Li Jiandong glanced at him and asked.

Jia Dongxu grinned: "Because there are so many benefits to going to kindergarten. First of all, parents who don't have time to take care of their children can free up their time. Secondly, some parents have never been to school, so sending their children to kindergarten can help them learn something. Thirdly, the more children there are in kindergarten, the more playmates they will have. Anyway, I am 100% in favor of letting Banggeng go to kindergarten."

Yan Jiecheng said, "That's because your family has two working parents. You have money but no time. Of course you want to send your child to kindergarten. There are not many families in our street that have the conditions like yours."

"That's what you said."

Jia Dongxu thought about it carefully and realized that this was indeed the case. Not to mention that both of his family members were working, he was also a cadre.

At least among the surrounding large compounds, his family's living standard can be ranked among the best.

The master and his disciples were watching the job applicants and chatting downstairs when they suddenly heard a quarrel coming from downstairs.

Jia Dongxu and Yan Jiecheng stood up and leaned their heads on the windowsill to look down: "What's going on? Why are they arguing?"

Li Jiandong has been paying attention to the following,

"There was a young girl who came to apply for the job, but she didn't seem to meet the requirements. She didn't want to leave even though she was rejected."

"Let me see, let me see."

When Yan Jiecheng heard that it was a little girl, he became even more anxious to look down.

From their angle, they can just see the applicant team below.

Standing in the front is a little girl who looks very young.

At this moment, he was saying something angrily to Yan Bugui, who was in charge of recruitment, and Yan Bugui was also arguing fiercely.

"Wow, this girl is quite fierce. She dares to be so stubborn despite her young age."

Jia Dongxu said cheerfully that he was just watching the fun.

Yan Jiecheng said nothing, and no one knew what he was thinking.

"It seems that Old Yan is having a hard time convincing her. I'll go down and take a look first."

Seeing that Yan Bugui seemed unable to convince the other party, Li Jiandong had to go downstairs himself to see what was going on.

Seeing this, Yan Jiecheng suddenly followed and said, "Master, I'm with you."

"Count me in too."

Jia Dongxu also followed, planning to go down and watch the fun together.

The three of them quickly came downstairs, and Li Jiandong asked Yan Bugui: "Old Yan, what's wrong? What happened?"

Yan Bugui said angrily, "Old Li, you came at the right time. This little girl is almost pissing me off. She is only 15 years old and she is applying for a kindergarten teacher position. Is she here to see the children, or to let the children see you?"

The girl was not to be outdone and said:

"What's wrong with me being 15? You only said you wanted someone under 35, not over 16. I meet all the requirements except that I've never given birth to a child or raised a child. Why don't you hire me?"

The girl was very emotional and felt very wronged.

Li Jiandong and Yan Bugui haven't said anything yet.

Yan Jiecheng, who came down with him, suddenly said, "Yes, Dad, if the girl didn't lie, then you are wrong. We only require girls under 35 years old, but we don't say they must be over 16 years old."

"You little bastard, your elbows are bent outward, aren't they?"

Yan Bugui glared and shouted.

When the little girl saw someone speaking for her, she immediately followed suit.

"Uncle, you are wrong to say that. You are unreasonable, but you can't teach your children to be unreasonable. To be honest, if someone like you were the principal of a kindergarten, I don't think anyone would dare to send their children to you, for fear that you would teach them bad things."

"Hey, Lao Li, look at this girl, she's very sharp-tongued and won't give in to any loss. She's so powerful, can we take her?"

Yan Bugui was so angry that his beard was crooked. He pointed at the little girl and asked Li Jiandong.

Yan Jiecheng next to him also said to Li Jiandong:
"Master, I think this little girl is pretty good. Children are the future of our country, and their teachers must be reasonable.

Moreover, if a soldier is bad, the generals will be bad all the time. Children educated by such teachers will be very good. Master, don’t you think this is the truth?”

Yan Bugui was almost angry to death.

Being criticized by a 15-year-old girl already made him angry, but he didn't expect his own son to speak for an outsider. Fortunately, Li Jiandong was there, and Yan Bugui felt that Li Jiandong would definitely stand on his side.

"Old Li, please give us your opinion. Can we accept this girl?"

Yan Jiecheng and the little girl also looked at Li Jiandong.

Li Jiandong did not answer but asked: "What's your name?"

"My name is Yu Li."

The little girl answered with her head held high. Hearing this name, Li Jiandong was stunned for a moment.

I didn't expect that when I was recruiting a kindergarten teacher, I would hire Yu Li.

Yu Li is only 15 years old now, but you can tell at a glance that she is someone who will not suffer any loss.

The first time they met, I made my future father-in-law so angry that he was fuming. I don’t know if I can ever enter this family again in the future.

However, judging from Yan Jiecheng's performance just now, the couple should be able to get along well with each other.

Li Jiandong thought a lot in an instant.

After a moment's silence, he said, "Old Yan, since we set the rules, we can't break them casually. I think we should accept this girl first, and start with the next one. We just need to change the conditions of the first one."

"Lao Li, he is only 15 years old, what does he know?"

Yan Bugui said unconvinced.

Li Jiandong smiled and said, "Even if she doesn't understand, there's nothing we can do. This is our requirement. If she doesn't do a good job, we can just fire her."

Yan Bugui thought about it and it made sense. These kindergarten teachers were not on the regular staff, so there was no such thing as a "iron rice bowl".

As long as she doesn't do her job well, I can fire her at any time.

Thinking of this, Yan Bugui felt much more comfortable.

"Little girl, you've taken advantage of us this time, but don't get complacent. If you're not competent for this job, we can fire you at any time."

Yu Li craned her neck and said, "Sir, let's wait and see."

"Okay, let's wait and see."

Yan Bugui finally let Yu Li pass.

The next step is to recruit children.

Although the street office helped with promotion, just as Li Jiandong thought, when a new thing first appeared, many people were waiting and watching, and not many people were willing to send their children to kindergarten.

Therefore, four kindergarten teachers including Yu Li had to recruit people themselves, teaching during the day and going from street to street to recruit students at night, but the results were very limited.

Li Jiandong finally realized where he was wrong.

Because he underestimated how much parents in this era valued their children, thinking that they were like future parents who were willing to give everything for their children.

In fact, many parents of this period just give birth to children for the sake of giving birth, and they let their children do whatever they want after giving birth. They have no idea how to fulfill their responsibilities as parents.

They think that if they can raise their children and prevent them from starving to death, they are already qualified parents.

In addition, many children are unwilling to pay tuition fees for going to school, let alone attending kindergarten.

“There is a reason for being poor.”

Li Jiandong sighed, and then changed his mind. He decided to let the kindergarten take the elite route and transform an ordinary kindergarten into a government kindergarten.

The first thing to do was to go to the street office to find Director Zheng and ask him to mobilize the cadres in the street office to send their children to kindergarten.

Then, we contacted the leading cadres of some small units in the street, such as the director and deputy director of the guesthouse, the director and deputy director of the bathhouse, as well as the director of the supply and marketing cooperative and the director of the grain station.

These people have a relatively high quality of life and have spare money to send their children to kindergarten. I heard that the leaders of the street office have sent their children to kindergarten, so naturally they have to follow the pace of their superiors.

Li Jiandong was also very shameless. He secretly raised the fee standard, from 3 cents per month for a child to 5 cents per month.

If lunch is provided, there will be an extra fee every month.

As a result, not only are there more and more children in kindergartens, but ordinary people also know that the children in kindergartens are all children of leaders.

Suddenly, they all subconsciously felt that entering a kindergarten was a very prestigious and advantageous thing.

Soon after, a large number of wealthy parents also wanted to get their children in.

The four classrooms were soon not enough, but fortunately the space allocated by the street was large enough.

Li Jiandong immediately asked the construction team to build a second batch of classrooms nearby.

"Mr. Li, I told you that you wouldn't do a business that would lose money. Guess how much money our kindergarten made this month?"

After the first month ended, Yan Bugui went to see Li Jiandong with the account book in hand, smiling.

"How much did you make?"

Although Li Jiandong had never looked at the account book, he had some idea in his mind. Now all four classrooms were full, so at least the money for teachers' salaries and buying chalk had been earned back.

Yan Bugui laughed and said:

"Don't believe me, I made exactly 60 yuan this month, of which 80 yuan was for tuition, 120 yuan for meals, 36 yuan for wages, and 94 yuan and 3 cents for books, utilities, and food."

"That's it. I haven't even taken into account the tuition and food fees for next month that some people have paid in advance. Quite a few people have also reserved the next period's admission fees in advance. At this rate, in less than two years, we will be able to earn back the cost of building the kindergarten."

After all, kindergartens are non-profit organizations, so it is normal that they do not make as much money as pubs.

Li Jiandong is already very satisfied with being able to earn 60 yuan a month.

However, this is also because the families of young children are relatively wealthy. More than one-third of them are willing to eat in kindergarten, and more than half of the 60 yuan income comes from meal expenses.

If we open a few more sessions in the future and the children we admit come from ordinary families, then the income will naturally be relatively lower, but there will still be no problem in making a profit.

"Gather the entire hospital later and distribute the money. Also, ask if anyone is willing to invest in the second phase. If so, we can make additional investments."

Li Jiandong gave the order, and Yan Bugui immediately prepared to go.

Some residents have regretted missing out on investing in a tavern.

This time I invested in a kindergarten, but I felt so regretful that I didn't make any money and didn't invest at all.

So, when they heard that there would be a second phase, everyone rushed to invest money in it, so that Li Jiandong had raised enough money for the second phase of the kindergarten without spending a penny.

But Li Jiandong didn't care. What he lacked the least now was money. He just wanted to do something practical for everyone. He had fame and fortune and just wanted to feel comfortable in his heart.

…………

The hot summer has arrived, and it is the most difficult season of the year.

Before leaving get off work that day, Jia Dongxu found Li Jiandong.

"Master, can I buy a bicycle?"

Li Jiandong looked at him and said, "Sure, why not?"

Jia Dongxu scratched his head and said, "I saw so many elders in the courtyard didn't buy it, so I was afraid of being criticized if I bought it. Now the weather is getting hotter and hotter, and I don't mind it because I have thick skin, but I'm afraid that my Ladi will be sunburned."

Li Jiandong laughed: "You really dote on your wife."

After thinking for a while, he said, "How about this, you can buy what you need, and I will discuss it with the others after get off work. No one in our hospital is short of money, so who will we leave the money to if we don't spend it?"

Jia Dongxu smiled and said, "Master, you are sensible. I will go buy a car after get off work tonight."

Li Jiandong waved his hand: "Go ahead."

With Li Jiandong's reply, Jia Dongxu left happily.

After get off work, Li Jiandong bought some meat and vegetables.

After returning to the courtyard, he gathered together several old friends including Yan Bugui and He Daqing.

"Daqing, I'll leave these things to you. We haven't gotten together for a long time. Let's eat and drink together tonight."

Li Jiandong put the meat and vegetables he bought on the stove. When He Daqing saw the two bottles of Maozi, he immediately grinned.

"Don't worry, just leave the things to me and wait and see."

Yan Bugui also smiled and said, "Old Li, isn't there any happy event today? Could it be that your Qin Huairu is pregnant again?"

After hearing what he said, Liu Haizhong and Xu Fugui also widened their eyes and looked at Li Jiandong with interest.

"What? Nothing like that. I just wanted to get you guys together and give you some news."

Li Jiandong said with a smile, and Yan Bugui and others became even more curious after hearing this.

"No, Lao Li, you've learned to keep things secret like Lao Yan. What good news do you have? Tell us now."

Xu Fugui asked anxiously, the news that Li Jiandong cared about must be very important.

(End of this chapter)