Messed Up School System

My apologies beforehand but this will be a long post. I got enough exercise today to last me the rest of the week all because the administrators of my kids’ schools are a bunch of bozos. Each Monday Dolly brings home a homework calendar of what homework is due each day. Along with the sheet are the worksheets she has to do for Monday. When she’s done with the worksheets I look at the calendar to see what homework she needs to do in her notebook. I do this every day and I generally only read the calendar for that specific day. This past Monday, however, I actually read the entire calendar for the week and found that, on Wednesday, there was a note written that her school was having its Christmas concert for Pre-K and K at 10:00 in the morning. Had I not read Wednesday’s homework on Monday I would not have known about the concert. I was pissed. Not only did it put a crimp in my already-planned weekly schedule, but I didn’t like not being given any notice. What was done was done, though, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I let it go.

Tuesday I was helping the kids with their homework and looking through their folders when I found a notice from Ty’s teacher – and this story doesn’t have anything to do with today’s exercise but it leads up to it and it a part of my gripe. The notice was telling me that the class will be making gingerbread houses in class, today, and that I had to get a list of supplies for him to bring to school: graham crackers, frosting, grapes, oranges, apples, pretzels, tree cookies, and gingerbread man cookies. I got the notice yesterday that the supplies were needed today. Are you fucking kidding me? So I had to get the kids to quickly do their homework and rush them out the door. See, Zach has wrestling practice on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and we had to get there by 6:00 after picking up three other boys who attend. After practice last night we had a Christmas dinner to attend. Lots to do and no time to do it.

Anyway, I rushed the kids out of the house to go to the supermarket before going to my friend’s house to pick up the other boys for wrestling. We got all the supplies Ty needed and went on to Kia’s house. Since we were early we went inside and visited for a few minutes before time to leave for practice. As we’re talking Kia was telling me that the boys, the ones who attend MLK – Ty, Zach, and her son KJ – were having their Christmas concert today. Dolly and Kia’s younger son Keon attend LFH. Both schools are in the same huge building with a very long and winding hallway separating them. So she’s telling me that MLK was having their Christmas concert at 9:00 this morning. Now, I’d called the school yesterday morning to ask when MLK was having their concert. Since I had no notice of Dolly’s I didn’t want to be surprised about the other school. Believe it or not the school secretary had no idea when the concert was. That, to me, seems unbelievable. She’s at that desk all day every day and had no clue when the school was having a concert.

So Kia was telling me that the concert was this morning. I asked KJ if he’d gotten a notice from school and he said that he didn’t but that the music teacher had told him when it was. I asked Zach if he knew about it and he said that he was told it was at 9:00 this morning but didn’t know anything else. Ty said that he was told it was today at 10:00. That really ticked me off because there was no notice from the school and the boys were all told different times. Okay. I had to call the schools this morning to find out times. Guess what. LFH’s concert, Dolly’s, was this morning at 10:00; MLK’s, Ty and Zach’s, was at 9:45. I blew a fucking gasket! How in the world do the administrators of two schools that are housed in the same building schedule their Christmas concerts for the same day at the same time?! Do they not realize that there might be a parent or two who has kids in both schools? Apparently not. I was fuming!!

I called MLK to speak to the principal but she wasn’t in yet. I explained the problem to the secretary, the same one I spoke with yesterday, even telling her that I called yesterday and nobody had any clue about the concert. I guess she didn’t remember me. I told her that I was very unhappy that I wasn’t given any notice of the concert, and that neither of the principals conferred with one another when they scheduled these events. I also wanted the principal to explain to me how I was going to be in two places at once, or what I was supposed to tell the child or children who didn’t get to have me at their concert when they asked why I wasn’t there. I told the secretary I’d call back when the principal was at the school.

Then I called LFH and asked the secretary there the same questions. She was a little more sympathetic and even apologized for the mix-up and for the parents not having more notice. I didn’t get any further with her than I did with the other secretary and decided not to even speak to the principal. I’m just going to write a letter to both of them explaining my displeasure. This isn’t the first school event that’s been fucked up because of them and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Maybe I’ll even send the letter to the Superintendent so he can see what’s going on in his school.

Jump to the concerts. Zach was going to be playing the recorder in his concert so I certainly didn’t want to miss it. Dolly would be singing at her first Kindergarten concert so I didn’t want to miss that either. Ty would be singing and I didn’t want to miss that. A sacrifice had to be made and I didn’t know what to do so I decided to be in two places at once. I arrived at Dolly’s school with another resident from here whose daughter is also in Kindergarten at LFH. We got there and the parents were being led into the cafeteria until the classes were ready to start their concert. So I ran, or I’d be better saying I sprinted, down that long hallway to MLK to get to the gym to see all the classes entering the gym and taking their seats on the floor. Zach was sitting at the front of the gym with all the other recorder and instrument players. I was chatting with a teacher who was keeping watch of them until time to perform. They weren’t ready so I sprinted back to LFH. Still not ready. Another sprint back to MLK.

Get back to MLK and Zach is getting ready to perform. The teacher I was talking to told me to go to the back of the gym and that she would move Zach right out in the open so I could get some good video. That she did.  They played three songs; I got all three on video, they took their bows, I yelled for Zach’s attention, blew him a kiss, and sprinted back to LFH. Still not ready. I took a seat to catch my breath. Still waiting so I sprinted back to MLK to see if there was any singing. Not yet. Back to LFH and they were moving into the auditorium, late but finally getting started. Thank goodness because I was getting tired. Then I got annoyed again. They were singing by class – either one or two at a time – and I was going to have to wait for Dolly’s class to sing. I didn’t have time, however, to sprint back to MLK because the Pre-K and K were only singing one song each and they only lasted about a minute and a half each. FUCK!! I was missing the other school concert.

So Dolly’s class finally got up to sing and they did great. I got some good video, blew her a kiss after her bow, and sprinted back to MLK again. Mother fucker! The gym was empty, the kids all returned to their classes – the concert was over. I was almost in tears. I ran back to LFH so I wouldn’t miss the entire group singing together. Got that on video, watched the last class sing and was done. I stopped in the LFH office to take care of some business and went back to MLK to speak to the principal who was on the phone at the time. I never got to talk to her. It was then that I decided to write the aforementioned letter rather than speak to anyone. I walked home really upset that Ty was going to be disappointed that I didn’t get to see him singing. Then I got a bit of grace.

When the boys got home from school Ty told me that, after the recorders were done, the group practiced a couple of songs while sitting on the floor waiting for the third grade to take their seats on the floor. When they all got seated the school band began to play and that was it. It wasn’t a concert with singing, it was just instrumental, and neither of the boys was singing so I didn’t miss anything. Bonus! Now I don’t feel as bad since I got Zach on the recorder and Dolly singing. I got it all even after all those trips back and forth between the schools. Now my legs are hurting and I’m limping but I got in a good deal of exercise today.

I’m still pissed that the principals of both schools fucked up so badly and they will be getting a letter from me. I doubt it will change anything but at least I’ll have my say. This school district really sucks. It’s poor and most of the parents don’t give a shit about their kids’ academic progress or any school functions. There are still some of us who do, though, and I think it’s really unfair to screw the rest of us because the majority don’t care. But it is what it is and I can’t change it. With some positive energy my kids and I will be back in Missouri before we know it and we can put all of this behind us. Hopefully it won’t be that much longer. Fingers crossed.

Until next time…peace to all.