School's Out for Summer

Yay, summer has finally arrived. We were beginning to think the school year would never end. The kids are enjoying sleeping in and, I admit, so am I.

I've had numerous conversations with parents of students in a wide range of grades and I don't know whether to be relieved or more anxious after talking to them. It is a relief to know that my family is NOT the only one with concerns. Quite often I get attitudes from the school staff members conveying that only I have problems, that no other students/parents ever contact the schools or want a discussion. Yes, yes, yes. I am the troublemaker, yadda yadda yadda. It's all me.

And yet... I wish it WAS only me. Because the problems are so widespread and invasive and the school board and individual schools work hard to ignore or cover up the problems. (Think of how the school board reacted to the video of the dangerous water recently). There are teachers and subs that are so well-known for their horrible outbursts and bizarre antics that they can be identified just by describing what they said or did. It gets to be like a horrible, twisted game where the winner has the most horrifying story of something that happened at school.

Why doesn't the school board actually step in and correct the issues instead of covering them up or flat out denying they even exist? Credibility is compromised or lost when parents know the facts and get blanket denials in the face of the evidence.

I did receive an interesting suggestion today. That was: whenever I send an email to a teacher, principal etc.. to send copies to the superintendent, school board members, and people in other counties and to state that I had done so to improve accountability. I wish I had talked to this person at the beginning of the year. I'm at the point where I'm ready to send all correspondence to the local news and Frankfort about all the issues I have. Hmmm, would that be better or worse?

Still working on moving my daughter out of her current elementary school. I hate to move her. I've had at least 1 child in that particular school for the last 15 years. That's a big part of why I've held off moving the kids even though we were growing increasingly unhappy with the situations; I kept telling myself "this school is better than this, there must be a way to resolve this". But that usually wasn't the case and hasn't been for a few years. At least she is very excited about going to a different school, luckily. She's been miserable and mistreated for too long and she's ready for a better option.

So here's to bigger and better things.

HURRAY FOR SUMMER!!