Can I join in on the whining about schools when I technically still have a week before DS starts? I posted this on the CB but I guess I will post it here as well. Do you guys think I am just feeling upset for no reason just because I am new to all this?
DS starts K next Tuesday and we have all been so excited. Tonight was the Back To School Night for K students at his school. When we get there they take the kids off to the playground and out for a bus ride and the parents go to the library for an overview of the K classrooms by the K teachers. The school has two K teachers both of whom are very experienced with teaching K and who have both been with the school for a long time. Their reputations are both very good. I was feeling very good about DS's year since I knew he would have some experienced teachers.
Well we have the discussions and they go over how their classrooms are run (how they do snacks, rest time, folders, etc..) and then we find out that they have 5 more K students registered than the limit for the 2 teachers so they are going to have to hire a 3rd K teacher. They just found out about 30 minutes prior to the meeting. They don't know who it is, where they are coming from, how much experience. They don't even know what room they are going to have. This school is already really crowded and they were thinking that the new K teacher might take over the art room.
At the end of the meeting they read out the teachers for the kids and of course DS has the mystery teacher. Nathan was so excited that he was going to meet his teacher and see his classroom tonight and now he couldn't because they don't know who it will be. On top of that the teachers stood up there and said that after the screenings that happened last week they divided up the kids into who they wanted in their classes and based on parent requests. #1 I didn't know they had parent requests and #2 they just then told everyone that has the mystery teacher that their kids were not "wanted".
So now we get to wait until the school-wide Back To School Night on Thursday and they hope to have somebody hired and have them a room. On such short notice I cannot imagine what kind of teacher and how organized everything is going to be in DS's classroom. DS really does pretty well with structure and I can't imagine that at first his class is going to be all that structured.
On top of all that we go to pick up DS from the playground and I notice he has red stains on his mouth. Well they had popsicles. I asked him if he told the principal (who was the one out there with them and provided the popsicles) that he was allergic to milk and corn. Nathan said he told him several times but the principal told him it would be fine. I go to find the principal to see what popsicles he had and I find out the popsicles had corn syrup in them. The principal said that Nathan told him several times that he was allergic to milk and corn but he said he just didn't think about corn syrup. Thankfully DS does not have terrible reactions and just breaks out in a rash but still I can't believe a kid tells him he has allergies and they still hand over the food without checking with a parent or at least reading the box. The principal seems very nice and was very apologetic but after the whole mystery teacher thing I was already a bit frazzled.
So am I just new to this and overreacting? This is not exactly how I pictured sending DS off to K.