Hump Day

Yep, Yep, Yep; my last posting was May 19th… (QofD!) I’ve been very busy putting together a presentation, buying new undergarments, sending out information for a background check for a job, and just generally hangin’ out and reading information about school bus safety and my little project. Although… my mom took me to lunch yesterday and we spent two and a half hours gabbing, eating, and enjoying each other’s company. She took me to this really nice, swanky restaurant and we dished and slurped for hours. Man, it’s so great to be able to do that! And, by the way, Thanks Mom!

I’ve also been watching the events unfold around what has now been termed, “GradeGate” in Albuquerque Public Schools. The fur is flyin’ and the media is pouncin’ and everyone is back-peddling, trying to get their agendas out there, and the community is completely outraged. What a show! Lights, cameras, fireworks; ACTION! The whole thing is infuriating and, as a parent, I’m sitting and watching and hoping some good comes out of this. I’m also thanking my lucky stars that we don’t have a kid in high school, right now.

I think APS should just do a complete audit, get it over-with, identify the problems, work out the solutions, and move the hell on. Why they won’t do it is a mystery to me. It would seem to be in everyone’s best interest for APS to accomplish this (major) task and restore the community’s trust and commitment to better education, better parent involvement, better teacher pay/satisfaction, better policies/procedures, and, for Johnnie’s Sake… better COMMUNICATION. Jeez-Loo-Ease! Get on with it, already.

Yesterday, according to news reports, some 60 teachers from Rio Grande High School (the school directly affected by the grade change) had a meeting with Beth Everitt (superintendent) and gave her a petition as well as their thoughts on this grade change debacle. Oh, how I wish I were a fly on the wall for that one!

I will be a fly on the wall at tonight’s Board of Education meeting. These teachers have said they will be there to present Beth with their petition and I’ve heard there will be others there demanding many changes. It’s gonna be a rip-snortin’, Halleluiah brawl, methinks. Maybe I should set-up a green Kool-Aid stand in the parking lot… to go with the Paxil, Popcorn, and Petitions… what is becoming the essential “Three P’s.”

I am meeting with representatives of the Council of Great City Schools, other parents, and some APS administrators tomorrow to discuss safety in our schools. I finally have an opportunity to speak about school bus safety and holding bus contractors and schools accountable for keeping track of our kids. There is no policy for this concern, although what policy there is has parents maintaining vigilance at school bus stops, and I hope to present facts and figures supporting the need for standardized methods for ensuring kids get on and off the buses safely… at the schools.

Every school does it differently and the bus contractors are only held to “Best Practices” which means, when a kid is lost, stolen, abducted, etc… there is nothing to hold anyone particularly accountable. I’ve dealt with many issues of non-compliance, a lack of communication, switched buses, lost bus drivers, anarchy, mayhem, and bullying on buses, and a lost kid (three separate incidents!) in just this school year. I’ve heard many of the same stories from other parents/schools and I believe it’s time to standardized for, at the very least, K-8th grades. We’ll see what happens. So far, communicating with the BOE, the Superintendent, the Director of Student Services, and the Director of the Student Transportation Department have yielded nothing but circle talk and passing the buck. I’ll let ya know how that goes.

I will also have the opportunity to put my two cents worth in regarding general school safety, school police being armed with guns, and whether or not APS should have its own police department. An hour seems hardly enough time… but I guess they have to include parent comments in their reviews. I wish it were more. God knows, I could spend that amount of time just telling the horror stories I’ve heard and experienced, first hand.

So, yeah… it’s been a few days since I posted. The only anecdotal note I have is… school is almost out and the kids are chomping at the bit for it to end. Oldest is mad I’m making him continue reading every day, middle child is back to speaking in his Leprechaun voice and is using air quotes to convey his message, and youngest is on a new medication that has made him absolutely whacko. The other day… just after having taken this new medication for the first time… we were all sitting around the table eating our lunch and I noticed youngest fixating on the Mother’s Day roses in the middle of the table. He kept looking at them with a glazed-over look in his eyes. S and I finished and retired to the living room. Shortly after we sat down, youngest started screaming and jumped out of his chair. He is now deathly afraid of roses. Something is amuck with his meds.

We were just called and told he was in meltdown at the school. S went to pick him up but he wasn’t having any of it. I ran down to the school hoping to entice him into “The Truck.” He did eventually come with me but it wasn’t easy. As I rolled up to the school, I noticed a car from Children and Family Services, the sheriff, a detective, the police, and a state vehicle. It freaked me out for a minute ’cause I didn’t know how bad his meltdown was or what had happened. Luckily, it had nothing to do with us. (And, what the hell?) But ya know… I had a terrible sinking feeling…

::UPDATE:: It turns out it wasn’t necessarily his meds. It seems another student dumped their strawberry milk on his head and attacked him. He couldn’t articulate himself and the poor boy got frustrated and upset. Then… he thought he was in trouble for it and was furious because he didn’t do anything wrong. He had an incredible sense of justice and just could not tell his side of the story. He’s never attacked another kid, been the perpetrator, or started anything with any other kid. He’s really great like that. We just didn’t know what happened and he couldn’t tell us. So, he got to eat all of the watermelon he wanted for the rest of the day. Poor little guy!

Ahhh… life is grand. And Complex. And Freaky. And Wonderful. And full of surprises!

Happy Hump Day!