Rickert Family Adventures

It has been an interesting month. This period of time is called the Choice period for school districts in Colorado. Each school has a choice meeting to high light to parents the differences of their school from other schools. The school district we are in has 24,000 + students. Each school basically acts as a separate entity from all the others schools. The right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing. Within a five mile radius of my home, there are 5-6 elementary schools. We visited about five different schools on their choice nights, and we were hoping that we would just choice into a new school for N for next year. However, things have just continued to go down hill with his teacher. We have had several meetings including the assistant principal, and there has not been any possitive progress. Let me interject here that I know he is not entirely free of blame. He is an average 4th grade boy, which means he does not sit still very often, loves recess, is still learning manners, and can become silly at times with his friends. But this teacher is seriously the worst any of my kids have ever had. So we asked for the principal to transfer him to a different school since they didn't seem to be able to switch him to a different classroom teacher. Some one really needs to explain this line of thinking to me, because I sure don't understand why that is so difficult to do. So far the transfer process has also been an interesting ordeal. The first principal of the school we had choosen informed us that she does not accept any transfers after Christmas. This would have been an ok line of thinking, but she added that it is because funding does not transfer with the student. OK, so if that is how it works, we should not have tried to work things out with the teacher during the first semester. We should have just transferred him because now our options are more limited. Plus, we found out that funding does not transfer period. It all depends on how many students are in school on a couple of days in October. Your school gets funds based on those numbers. Why lie to us about this? The second principal had two fourth grade classrooms; one was full and the other had a teacher who is resigning at the end of the school year. I was impressed that this principal cared enough not to put us in the middle of that situation! So on we went with our search. One school said they had no space. Another school couldn't be bothered to return a call to me to answer questions I had about their school. Finally, we found a third school that has room, and Kris and I met with the principal. He is a very nice man, and the atmosphere of his school is warm and friendly. We were impressed with the technology available to the kids, and we liked the layout of the classrooms. I then went and took a tour through another school. The highlights of that school are that it is a title one school. The focus is on individualizing the education to meet the needs of each student. I also really liked that school. We don't know if this school has room for any new 4th grade students, so that is the next step. Wow! Who knew that elementary education could be so complicated! I am very nervous about the change for him. I know that going to a new school will be intimidating at first.  I hope in the long run that this is what is will be best for him. I never realized that schooling would be such a difficult part of parenting.