Surprise trip over Memorial Day weekend

[edk35]

50 cents now! Pay phones are 50 cents! OMG bcuz of the wind I'm freezing but I feel SO much better now! I went out & found a pay phone in front of a Blockbuster and I called the school & talked to the Attendance Secretary. I started out being all vague & anonymous & hypothetical about "what if a family has a kid that hasn't missed any days & makes the honor roll but they want to ask for an exception for an early release & an extra day after a weekend to go away to celebrate a birthday blah, blah, blah...and then she started asking WHO is my kid and when were we planning this etc. And so I got all paranoid & told her I'd rather not say 'cuz I don't want to get him in trouble and that I'm even calling from a pay phone so they wouldn't know who was calling! She was like OMG. Do NOT even feel like that and please just tell me who your kid is. So she eventually coaxed me into telling her and she was like "I don't even know who he IS so I KNOW he doesn't have an attendance problem!" She said she cannot guarantee that the principle will excuse it but that I should go ahead & write a letter addressed to him & ask for "an administrative exception". Hopefully he will excuse it and everything will be on the up & up and DS will be allowed to get any work ahead of time so he can do it on the plane.

As worried & worked up as I got over this I can't imagine how some people cheat & lie all the time about things. But thanks for listening ya'll!!! NOW I'm excited & ready to add a ticker to my siggie! (And now I won't worry about jinxing him into being sick for real!!!!!)

I am still laughing over what you did. This totally cracked me up. What lengths we will go to take an impromtu trip to THE WORLD?? Psssst by the way....both my high school kids were for our Jan. trip. Not only did I send in notes for each of them to take to the attendance secretary the day they went back. THEY HAD TO GO TO THE GUIDANCE DEPT. that same morning (after missing 1 day would have been 2 but the ice storm helped out there) TO PICK UP THEIR SCHEDULES. The day they missed was the first day of the new semester so new schedules for each of them. No one said a word.

 

[Sandisw]

50 cents now! Pay phones are 50 cents! OMG bcuz of the wind I'm freezing but I feel SO much better now! I went out & found a pay phone in front of a Blockbuster and I called the school & talked to the Attendance Secretary. I started out being all vague & anonymous & hypothetical about "what if a family has a kid that hasn't missed any days & makes the honor roll but they want to ask for an exception for an early release & an extra day after a weekend to go away to celebrate a birthday blah, blah, blah...and then she started asking WHO is my kid and when were we planning this etc. And so I got all paranoid & told her I'd rather not say 'cuz I don't want to get him in trouble and that I'm even calling from a pay phone so they wouldn't know who was calling! She was like OMG. Do NOT even feel like that and please just tell me who your kid is. So she eventually coaxed me into telling her and she was like "I don't even know who he IS so I KNOW he doesn't have an attendance problem!" She said she cannot guarantee that the principle will excuse it but that I should go ahead & write a letter addressed to him & ask for "an administrative exception". Hopefully he will excuse it and everything will be on the up & up and DS will be allowed to get any work ahead of time so he can do it on the plane.

As worried & worked up as I got over this I can't imagine how some people cheat & lie all the time about things. But thanks for listening ya'll!!! NOW I'm excited & ready to add a ticker to my siggie! (And now I won't worry about jinxing him into being sick for real!!!!!)

Congratulations and good for you!!! On a side note, even if they consider the absence unexcused and do not allow him to make up work, I think that it would be very difficult for the school to justify that out of an entire marking period, work done on those 1 1/2 days could count that heavily toward some ones grades. And, being an educator, we would never make an issue like this over someone who was a good student without chronic absences.

Have a great time with your son at Disney!!!

 

[bobbiwoz]

Your a teacher, right Ms. Bobbi? Have any opinion? I have no fear when it comes to the school system...don't you know the parent is always right?

When it comes to the DGC, DS/DDiL are bosses. Right now, the oldest is in Kindergarten.

As a parent, I never took our DS's out and part of that was because I was teaching. Our DS's went to different schools, one was private, one was public...I taught in a different public school at that time. I teach college now, p/t, and it is very very hard for a student to catch up after missing even 1 day out of 20, if it's one night out of 10...it's almost impossible. It's just what happens. Many people have difficulty with mathematics.

I arrange for student project or a sub for my classes, which is why I'm not taking the whole week off before the cruise. This means the family has the whole 2 bedroom BCV without DH and me, we will have a studio for the 2 nights before the cruise. I always said that I would not do that, go in a studio and give them the 2 bedroom, but there it is....I just don't have the heart to bump DS/DDiL out of the king bed.

I have mellowed over the years...but you know, I never cut/missed a college class in undergraduate/graduate school (this was in the '60s 70's). I just wanted to be there and think that it's important. Others have a different view of things.

Bobbi

 

[BWV Dreamin]

When it comes to the DGC, DS/DDiL are bosses. Right now, the oldest is in Kindergarten.

As a parent, I never took our DS's out and part of that was because I was teaching. Our DS's went to different schools, one was private, one was public...I taught in a different public school at that time. I teach college now, p/t, and it is very very hard for a student to catch up after missing even 1 day out of 20, if it's one night out of 10...it's almost impossible. It's just what happens. Many people have difficulty with mathematics.

I arrange for student project or a sub for my classes, which is why I'm not taking the whole week off before the cruise. This means the family has the whole 2 bedroom BCV without DH and me, we will have a studio for the 2 nights before the cruise. I always said that I would not do that, go in a studio and give them the 2 bedroom, but there it is....I just don't have the heart to bump DS/DDiL out of the king bed.

I have mellowed over the years...but you know, I never cut/missed a college class in undergraduate/graduate school (this was in the '60s 70's). I just wanted to be there and think that it's important. Others have a different view of things.

Bobbi

Oh, I totally agree with college, and esp. MATH!!! Hmmm....but we won't go there with my college attendance! Lets just say I passed, got that BS, and be done with it!!

 

[daisyduck123]

Missing just 1.5 days of school?
I wouldn't even give that a second thought. Honestly. (and I'm a 1st grade teacher)
A year from now, your DS will have great memories of that trip, but I guarantee you he WOULD not be able to recall what he learned in school those 1.5 days.

Denise can even tell you that my kids miss school all the time (for WDW and other things). Life is too short to sweat the small stuff.

Go & have a wonderful time!!

 

[bobbiwoz]

Oh, I totally agree with college, and esp. MATH!!! Hmmm....but we won't go there with my college attendance! Lets just say I passed, got that BS, and be done with it!!

It is really a shame that we are on different cruises....we should plan better!

I feel for parents these days when they are up against the school districts. As I said, it was my/Dh's decision, I don't like being told what to do about taking our children out of school for a vacation/learning experience. DDiL is a tough cookie in the best sense of the word...she gets a fire in her eye when I asked if it's alright with the school district! The DGC will be there as she runs her 1/2 marathon in 2010, with a few days before/after to acclimate to the temps...as I said, they live in Boston, Boston in January is cold!

Bobbi

 

[edk35]

Missing just 1.5 days of school?
I wouldn't even give that a second thought. Honestly. (and I'm a 1st grade teacher)
A year from now, your DS will have great memories of that trip, but I guarantee you he WOULD not be able to recall what he learned in school those 1.5 days.

Denise can even tell you that my kids miss school all the time (for WDW and other things). Life is too short to sweat the small stuff.

Go & have a wonderful time!!

Oh and don't tell anyone but Laurie aka daisyduck123...... also misses when her kids miss. Couldn't resist!!!

 

[spiceycat]

50 cents now! Pay phones are 50 cents! OMG bcuz of the wind I'm freezing but I feel SO much better now! I went out & found a pay phone in front of a Blockbuster and I called the school & talked to the Attendance Secretary. I started out being all vague & anonymous & hypothetical about "what if a family has a kid that hasn't missed any days & makes the honor roll but they want to ask for an exception for an early release & an extra day after a weekend to go away to celebrate a birthday blah, blah, blah...and then she started asking WHO is my kid and when were we planning this etc. And so I got all paranoid & told her I'd rather not say 'cuz I don't want to get him in trouble and that I'm even calling from a pay phone so they wouldn't know who was calling! She was like OMG. Do NOT even feel like that and please just tell me who your kid is. So she eventually coaxed me into telling her and she was like "I don't even know who he IS so I KNOW he doesn't have an attendance problem!" She said she cannot guarantee that the principle will excuse it but that I should go ahead & write a letter addressed to him & ask for "an administrative exception". Hopefully he will excuse it and everything will be on the up & up and DS will be allowed to get any work ahead of time so he can do it on the plane.

hey understand - would have done the same thing.

college since I was paying for it - no skipping. that say was sick a couple of times.

mother send us to school regardless. She got called from the principal office several times to come get your sick child... in those time we didn't have a nurse.

got send to school several times with fever. other times with stomach viruses - so see how these things get passed around. once with measles....
a parent can go the other way.

 

[Anal Annie]

I am still laughing over what you did. This totally cracked me up. What lengths we will go to take an impromtu trip to THE WORLD??

I think that's how I got my tag! I AM a kook!!

 

[Anal Annie]

Congratulations and good for you!!! On a side note, even if they consider the absence unexcused and do not allow him to make up work, I think that it would be very difficult for the school to justify that out of an entire marking period, work done on those 1 1/2 days could count that heavily toward some ones grades. And, being an educator, we would never make an issue like this over someone who was a good student without chronic absences.

Have a great time with your son at Disney!!!

Well, here, it depends on the assignment in MS. For example, in his English class his homework is only worth 10% of his grade. Unit Tests are worth 30% and then there's other assignments that are referred to as "common tasks" and they are worth 60% of his grade. He can have 17 A's on homework & 2 B's on Unit tests but then if he gets 1 'C' on a Common Task it blows his whole average because of the way it's weighted. Assignments that are turned in late get 1 letter grade cut for every day they're late. So if it WAS going to be a 'B' then it's automatically a 'C'. His math class is downright scary to me (but then I also take a calculator to the grocery store with me!! ) He's only in 6th grade but he's in a pre-algebra class. The recommended course sched. for 7th grade came home the other day for us to sign & return. Next year, in 7th grade he will be in an algebra class that is a HS credit course. He will have to take the HS Assessment test next spring and this will satisfy his HS Algebra I requirement! At this pace he will have Honors Geometry in 8th grade. But so missing 2 days of math in a row kinda IS a big deal for him. I still can't believe he's only just turning 12 in May when I think about this.

School is so complicated these days. His school runs on a rotational schedule so it would take some time going thru his planner to know if he will have his math class on both that Fri and that Tues 'cuz I don't know what period days they will be this far out. With this kind of a schedule he has 7 diff. classes but only 5 (70 min.) periods per day. So on a period 1 day he has periods 1-5 and does not have 6th or 7th periods. The next day would be a period 6 day so he will have periods 6-3 and will not have periods 4 or 5. The next day would then be a period 4 day and he has periods 4 -1 and will not have 2 or 3 and so on. (And if you think THAT's confusing...the 6th graders either have 'A' lunch or 'B' lunch depending which period day it is & which teacher they have at that time on that period day. 'A' lunchers get interrupted 20 minutes into the period. They have lunch then return to finish the class. Thankfully he has 5 'B' lunches & only 2 'A' lunches. It's all too much for my little pea-size brain to grasp!!

I'm just glad I got up the nerve to call and talk to the school about it.