Three days into the school year, and the IEP chair from the Monster’s school is still ignoring the single, easy question that I asked her. Of course, so is the person who is in charge of implementing IEPs in the district, so I might have to pick up a phone and start being my normal self again.
On the other hand… things are getting off to a good start with the specialists. Continue reading
Today was the second day of first grade for the Monster. Continue reading
The new school year begins on Monday.
As I’ve mentioned previously, my wife took the Monster to his new school today to get him familiarized with the place before the chaos of the official “seat sneak peek” tomorrow night. it was a quick breeze-through visit – the staff were busy in a meeting, and so he was given the chance to go see his classroom and the like, and my wife briefly met his teacher and the vice-principal of the lower school.
I have to say, honestly, that I’m already concerned. Continue reading
In my last post, I mentioned that we had the Monster’s IEP meeting. This obviously means that I was at his school, in the morning, rather than my usual Thursday afternoon stop to grab my kid. While I was waiting for the meeting-time, I saw a school bus pull into the school lot, discharging their kids and then going on its merry way.
The problem? It was 9:25, and the school starts at 9 AM. Continue reading
So yesterday afternoon, the operations guy from BCPSS called me to let me know that the bus would be switched immediately. Another company – not Durham – would be transporting the Monster effective immediately, with bus run times that were far shorter – 30 minutes in the morning, and 35 in the afternoon.
Except by 4:45, the Monster had still not materialized. Continue reading
Yesterday evening, while I was driving to the curling club, my phone started to hum with incoming messages. The transportation head had finally deigned to respond to me, saying he’d get back in touch with me by noon. The CEO of BCPSS followed by telling him to contact me sooner, and he asked if he could call me at 9.
Now… I don’t like dealing with these kinds of things over the phone. I prefer to have a written trail to document what was discussed… but I also know well enough that it would drag the process out, so I agreed.
So at 8:45 this morning, the head of transportation called me at the office. Continue reading
So it’s now nearly two days since the late bus… and nothing.
As a few of my readers of my tweet feed have suggested, I should go full-bore and start causing more trouble to get a response – any response – from the school system. The problem, really, is the other item that was in the news… and frankly, that’s going to have everyone’s attention here for a few more days.
The fact is also that I shouldn’t have to go this far to get a response for my son. The city should already be aware that the bus was late, they should have already responded or have a response ready, and they should have an apology for the trouble that it caused. Continue reading
For about two months now, we’ve been going on a decent schedule vis-a-vis the Monster’s school. He has some predictability with regards to his morning routine, followed by school, followed by homework, gymnastics or therapy…
And then this morning, the bus had to go and screw things up. Continue reading
Our morning routine is fairly straight forward – while the wife’s finishing getting the Monster ready for school, I typically head downstairs five minutes or so before the bus is supposed to arrive, take his backpack with me and start watching for it. The idea is to be ready for when the bus comes around the corner, so we can take him out and get him on board as quickly as possible.
This morning, when I walked downstairs, I could hear a diesel engine idling. Already having a good idea of what to expect, I opened the door. Continue reading
Just to warn my readers – I have a feeling that, like the first two weeks of school last year, the first two weeks of the Monster’s school this year are going to be full of bussing posts.
After my post yesterday, the operations manager from Baltimore City Public Schools’ transportation forwarded my email to the bus company, relaying my direct requests (that they work to shorten the route and stabilize the driver/aide pairing on the Monster’s bus), and requesting an update by end of business on Friday. We went to bed with that being the state of affairs.
A certain Mr. Murphy and his infamous law, clearly, are involved now. Continue reading