Good morning, DDA! I haven't had time to read back yet, and I should be in the shower. I did want to finally check in quickly.
Monday we had the orientations at preschool, and we had our first class (3 year olds) yesterday. Everything went very well! We had two that cried when their moms first left, but with a few hugs and a little encouragement to try some of the toys, they stopped crying in minutes. YEAH! Now, I know not to get too comfortable. Sometimes the crying is worse after they have been there a few times and the novelty wears off. They are all such sweet, wonderful kids. Today we will have the 4's for the first time, though I know many of them from my 3's class last year.
We've had one cross country meet already and have a whole season of Tuesdays and Saturdays to look forward to. Fortunately there wasn't a meet scheduled today. It was rainy, and I wasn't in the mood to stand in the rain. Maybe some DDA pixie dust will keep Tuesday afternoons and Saturday mornings clear for us. We really do need the rain here, though.
Now I have a little school vent, and I'm hoping that you all can tell me if I'm being completely unreasonable and maybe give me a little advice. It seems rude of me to be gone so long and then pop in looking for advice, but I do really appreciate everyone's viewpoints here. Please feel free to completely skip this next part. I should be able to get on a bit more now that we have the preschool open.
Our property backs up to the elementary school's property. It is up a hill to the school, and there is a little pathway (just dirt/mud, depending on the time of year) that leads to the school. The hill is the schools property; our property ends where the hill begins. My kids have been using it for 12 years (since Matthew started Kindergarten). The previous neighbor's kids used it for years before that. The neighbors on either side of it use it now, too. It takes at the most 2 minutes to walk to/from school using this route. We have a new principal this year who has implemented a whole new dismissal system in the interest of safety. I can't find fault with safety, I guess, but she seems to be going a bit off the deep end (IMHO). It started with no parents are allowed to pick up children unless they choose to pick them up every day. They are required to sign the children out inside the school. If you do not do this, you are not allowed to meet your child on school property at all. I often met Miles at school and walked home with him, but I can't commit to doing it every day. There are times that I get involved with something or I'm on the phone or the older two are watching him after school while I am out. He has been walking himself home since Kindergarten, so I decided to suck it up and never meet him at the school to follow the new rules. Next a form came home for us to choose which way our child was to walk home from school. None of the three choices fit our situation, so I wrote a note on that form about Miles walking down the hill. After that, he walked home for several days as normal. Today, without any notice of any kind, he was forced to walk a completely new route home that used one of the three choices. This isn't horribly out of the way, but it does force him to walk in the street (no sidewalks here, but not busy streets either) and takes 5-7 minutes instead of 2 minutes. It also brings him in our front door instead of our back door. Since he was late today, I almost walked up the back hill to find out what was taking so long. Fortunately, a friend called at just that time, and I was still in the house when he was trying to get in the front door. Otherwise, the house would have been empty, and he would have been out front wondering what was going on. The principal decided today without notice of any kind that the walkers would all go into the gym, wait for all the buses to leave, and then be escorted to one of the three main routes. He was forbidden to come down the hill into the back yard. I immediately walked back up to school with Miles to speak to the principal. Miles had to come with me, because no one else was home. She didnt listen to anything that I said about the safety of the route. To be perfectly honest, it is not a particularly unsafe route, but it is definitely less safe than having him walk down the hill into my backyard. She kept going on about having to be responsible for over 300 children and that she couldnt make exceptions. She told me that there was safety in numbers and at least 15 children use that route home (though they break into smaller groups along the way and go different directions). She told meet him once he was off of school property to walk him if I was concerned about his safety. At the beginning of the conversation, she told me that it was only going to be until the playground construction was done and then later indicated that he would never again be allowed to walk home down that hill. When I called that on her, she wouldnt say whether he could use the hill after the construction was complete. I am sure that the issue is covering her (and the school districts) butt and liability issues with using the hill that is still on school property. She doesnt care about the condition of the path or stairway that they have to use on her route, because that is on town land, not school land. It is also more convenient for her. She never admitted that, but it was like talking to a stone wall. If she had told me the truth, I would have had much more respect for her and would have conceded that she had a valid point. Instead she made me feel like I was being a lazy parent that cared more about my own convenience than my sons safety. I then told her that I would have appreciated at least being informed that my son was walking a completely new route home. She told me that she had no way of knowing which way he normally walked home. She had seen us walk up the hill on the way to school the day before and made a joke about it. I reminded her that I had completed a form for her, and she actually told me that I had checked the one route home. I told her that I had, in fact, written a note detailing Miles walk home, and she told me that she had never seen it and that I must be mistaken. Again, if she had just admitted that she had made that mistake and apologized, I would have accepted that apology and moved on. She also had me in the middle of the main office where teachers could see and hear our discussion, and Im sure that I looked like an overprotective, oversensitive parent. There really was nothing more that I could say to her, especially in front of Miles. At the end of the conversation, she bent over to my son, and said, I want you to know that you shouldnt be in trouble for listening to me. When you are at school, I am the boss, not your mom. Now I never in a thousand years would ever consider Miles to be in trouble for this, and I certainly never made him feel that he was in trouble. We discussed it on the way up to the school, and he knew that he wasnt in trouble with me. I felt that was a completely inappropriate comment, and I needed to leave before my mouth got me into trouble. Now, I need some advice on where to go next. There is going to be a PTA meeting tonight, and dismissal procedures will be on the agenda. Do I bring it up further or let it drop? Would it be rude of me to tell the principal that I would have more respect for her and the school system if they just admitted that it was all to cover their butts instead of hiding under the safety umbrella? Because, quite frankly, my child is not safer with the new policy. Do I go to the superintendent/school board and offer to sign a waiver absolving the school district of any responsibility if Miles is injured walking down that hill? Im afraid of that last option, because it is more important to me that we can walk up to school in the morning on the hill, and I dont want them to tell me that the hill is completely off limits. It seems a little dont ask, dont tell at this point. The principal never told us how he had to walk to school. I guess the best thing to do is let it drop now. I dont think that Miles is at a great risk walking home on the new route only that he is less safe than walking home the old way.
I'll be back for a little while this afternoon, and I'll try to catch up then. In the meantime
to all that need it. I have thought a lot about all of you even though I haven't been posting.
Beth
Good Luck getting everything done! You are going to have such a great time once you get there!!!!
Long time no see.
to everyone all!
It was extremely unprofessional of her with what she said to your son. It was really directed at you and I would be fuming. Their new policy is a little rigid and it's really not very realistic.
at Tia! 
She asked on Ask Yahoo! as soon as she has an answer we will.
!!!!!!!!!
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