Sphygmomanometer
Next week is Pearlsky’s last week of school for this school year. It so happens, I need to travel again (hey, remind me to tell you about the business trip I just found out about that will take me to a specific place I always wanted to go, far far away, and it’s filled with my absolute favorite kind of women people).
Doing due diligence, I check the school calendar (both of them, actually) and I line up coverage for Pearlsky, but it is tight. If she gets sick or does not go to school, I will be in trouble, but that is very rare. So, no problem, right? All set! Leaving in 4 school days …
Then WHAMO! School is normally from 8:20 AM to 2:45 PM. I get this email from the teachers at the end of the day, it is specific to Pearlsky’s classroom:
Dear Parent/Guardian,
I hope this week is going well for all of you.
We would like to inform you about next week’s schedule.
For students who are not taking finals for general education classes, please follow the schedule below:
Monday, June 20, 8:20am – 12:30pm
Tuesday, June 21, 8:20am – 12:30pm
Wednesday, No School
Thursday, June 23, 8:20am – 12:00pm
…
Thank you very much and please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions/concerns.
Oh yes, I did not hesitate to contact them. It was the end of the day, I wanted to get an email right out before people left, and I started to scramble to figure out what to do.
This went out to the teachers, all they cc’d, and I added the Special Education Coordinator at the school (who, for those interested, is an incredible woman) and the Assistant Superintendent for Student Services …
Please give me a full explanation how you can change both official calendars that are on the school district web site. In addition, these are make-up days that are replacements for full days when school was canceled. How will you make up the additional hours?
Why does Pearlsky get less days than others (Wednesday is a make-up for all except the disabled?)? Why are they partial days?
Why is NONE of this on the official school calendar?
How can you just cancel Wednesday with no notice?
I am traveling, now I need to cancel my business trip because of your randomness?
WHY IS THIS NOT ON THE DISTRICT CALENDAR? Why is this the first notice?
My cell phone rang about ten minutes later. Ms. SpedCoordGoddess tells me, “Relax, take a deep breath. That email is totally wrong and the classroom is on the regular school schedule.”
I expressed my undying love and affection and it took about twenty minutes for my blood pressure to get back to normal.
Two hours later …
Dear Parent/Guardian,
We are writing to deeply apologize for misinforming you about next week’s schedule. M and I have made premature decision and we are very sorry for this confusion and inconveniences that we have created.
Please allow us to correct the schedule as follows:
Monday, June 20, 8:20am – 2:45pm
Tuesday, June 21, 8:20am – 2:45pm
Wednesday, June 22, 8:20am – 2:45pm
Thursday, June 23, 8:20am – 12:00pm
…
Again, we are very sorry and would like to please ask you to discard our previous email and follow the schedule on this email.Thank you for your understanding in this matter.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Hmmm, what is it I always say? Wait, it’s coming to me … something about … idiots? Oh yeah, have I told you I hate idiots?
They were simply trying to get away with more time off. It didn’t occur to them someone might actually PROTEST instead of just grumble.
Does school ordinarily end at noon on Thursdays??
Alisha: No, just the last day of school, I’ll give them a pass on that one.
They pull the same kind of crap on the kids here…only they are allowed to attend the regular day, but have to be shuffled to the unaccomodating church next door to watch tv and run/crawl around the fellowship hall all day for a week! All because they “make too much noise and are a distraction”. I call BS.
Check the contracts for the aides. Are they hourly or salaried? The school department might be trying to save a few pennies by telling the aides to stay home and pushing the children off on the parents or other caregivers.
Clearly they have nothing planned for the “specials,” only the test-takers.
They have nothing for any of the kids who are not taking tests for any reason. All of the graduating kids are usually let out early, kids exempted from finals are let out early. It’s a pain in many a working parents’ tush to have to pick up the kids on a half day exam schedule and for my kids there were 2 weeks worth of this.
The question for you and Pearlsky, and others in her situation is what should be done with her during any of the times the other kids are being tested. You don’t want her to have to take the test like the sham they go through for the NCLB and other testing. You have made that very clear in prior posts what a joke that is. So I think these very unimaginative clouts need some help in figuring out what to do for this kids (not with this kids but FOR these kids) while standardized tests and finals and mid terms are taking place.
For that matter, what sort of school schedule would be ideal for Pearlsky? I don’t mean time wise. How should her day go, and how should this be integrated with other students? Frankly, I resisted having children with cognitive disabilities so severe that they could not possibly do the academic work being presented in a classroom, to be in that very classroom. Any child with the ability to handle the academic material with help should get that assistance and be allowed to learn with his/her peers, but I draw the line of inclusion when it is not possible for a child to comprehend the material being covered in a classroom. I feel those kids are better served in a classroom where their abilities can be addressed and enhanced, independent of what the academic curriculum has for the majority of the kids. I think it is a sham to have some kid in a classroom who can barely read if at all, sitting in on a high school level history class with a aid, watering down the material to his level of comprehension which is no where near the adequacy level. So for a child like Pearlsky to be there seems to me to be the same sort of lunacy that you rant about in your testing posts.
What should be done with kids in terms of inclusion when there is no possible way such kids can meet the academic standards of the level of instruction in a given class? At what point is the accommodation so much more of an accommodation that it has nothing to do with the subject matter being taught? Does this truly serve any of the children well?
I have read DreamMom’s postings on what she feels school should be doing for her son. She seems very much on the mark for him. But I do question why those totally unrelated activities should be taking place in an academic classroom situation when the purpose of that class is to impart a certain body of knowledge to the students in there, and there are students who don’t have a chance at all to even come close to getting those concepts.