The inherent potential of a church-sponsored school

I've thought for a long time that our school ministry has inherent potential that we haven't realized yet. It's a little uncomfortable to put into these terms, but from some perspectives, Grace Church is a medium-sized business with a multi-million dollar budget. The resources that come along with that type of business creates a world of educational possibilities.

Think about all the resources we have to offer in the building:
A fully functional office - administrative functions
A fully functional computer network - computer tech support and network administration
Building maintenance - electric, plumbing, HVAC among the other building systems
A fully functional accounting office
A plethora of ministry opportunities

We can use our day-to-day operations to educate kids. We haven't tapped that potential as much as I'd like. One recent project gave me renewed hope.

It was clear that the project could be more efficient if we had a mathematical formula. Though I love numbers and studied computer science for a while, math isn't my greatest strength. I sought assistance from the school math teacher. We talked through the problem and the solution I was seeking and the teacher said they would work the problem and get back to me. A few days later I was handed a solution (the formula pictured is not the actual formula). My schedule turned upside down at the time, so I didn't have time to test or work with it, so it sat on my desk for a few weeks. Then the teacher contacted me again and said that one of her students had streamlined the formula. I finally found time to work with it and found a bug or two which gave me the opportunity to work directly with the teacher and the student. In the end we came up with a formula that solved the problem and one that I'll be able to use quite frequently. In addition, a couple of consultants I know were aware of what I was trying to do and were very interested in the solution as they face similar problems on a regular basis.

I was thrilled to have a real time, practical problem that we could use as a teaching opportunity. I think there has to be a world of other things like this that we can leverage for educational purposes, giving our students the benefit of seeing their solutions applied in real situations.