We’re on the last day before the school year, and still trying to scramble to get ready.

The Monster’s uniforms arrived on Wednesday, so we had him try them on yesterday to be sure that they fit and everything before he’s expected to wear them on Monday.  The pants need to be hemmed, but the shirts seem just about right.  I’m not so sure that I think preschoolers need to be wearing school uniforms, but hey, what do I know.

We’ve gotten all of the usual school supplies from the list for his age, and have them ready to go as well.  I think it’s a huge shame, some of the things they request, when it’s clear that they’re for the whole class because there’s no budget for them.  It makes me wonder why I’m paying so much in taxes and getting so little, to be honest – we pay double what folks two blocks from us in the County pay, after all.  But that’s a separate fight that I imagine I’ll be going on about for some time, even after both kids have moved on to bigger and better things.

Now, the Monster’s going to be bussed to school every morning, since his school is across town.  Supposedly, the city schools’ transportation department was supposed to send us a letter with the details on his bussing, but as of last night, we’d still not received it.  I grabbed the bull by the horns this morning and called the transportation department…

Well, I should have a brief segue here.  I should add that, as mentioned in the post I wrote about kids being excluded from things, that I’m oftentimes not a nice person when it comes to people treating my children other than how I want them treated.  So when I brought up last night that I was willing to make the phone calls today, my wife expressed a concern that I would get hostile too quickly, and let me only have the phone calls where such wouldn’t be a factor… which was the transportation department.  (Because, bluntly, we don’t care if they don’t like us.  His teachers and the staff at his school are another question, but I’ll get to that momentarily.)

So I called the transportation folks this morning.  The man I got was a little brusque with me on the phone as he got the basic information to satisfy their security requirements to release the data to me, and was giving me the bare minimum I was asking until I mentioned that my son’s 4, that he’s going to public school for the first time, and that he’s on an IEP.  I wouldn’t say afterwards that he was ‘warm and friendly’, but I would say that he became more helpful at that point and stopped treating my questions like they were a nuisance.  While we still don’t know the bus driver’s name or the aide’s name, we have the rest of the information we cared about.

I’m hoping that the wife gets through to the school today to arrange a quick visit for the Monster so school isn’t an unfamiliar place when he arrives on Monday.  Otherwise, I might have to call them…