The School Doesn’t Hate Me
Rerun is starting at a brand-new elementary school this year, and it’s not one that the kids have ever attended before. (It’s also 8 miles from home, which is crazy in traffic, but that’s another story.) Rerun is going to be attending a special ed class, and I knew the teacher’s name, but I didn’t know anything else.
I didn’t actually get confirmation that Rerun was actually going to be AT this school until his new bus driver called last week to confirm times.
So, I took him to yesterday’s school open house with a little bit of confusion, and needing a lot of information. I had to go to the main office to start with, because I didn’t even know which classroom he was in.
We met Mrs. D, his new teacher, and the staff of paras that will also be in the classroom. The entire special ed class is jointly run with the school resource room, so the class itself contains 1st through 6th grades – including two former classmates of Tad’s. He also got to meet the class pet – a smallish yellow lab named Jaya, who is a therapy dog. Lucky kid.
Mrs. D was able to tell me who Rerun’s general education teacher would be, so we went to go meet Mrs. B in her classroom. I told her that I had just learned 5 minutes before that Rerun would be in her class. Fortunately, both Mrs. D and Mrs. B knew who Rerun was, but I expressed my dismay that I hadn’t heard a thing from the school at all. They both told me to stop by the main office to make sure our contact information was correct.
As soon as I consulted with the office manager, a lightbulb went on in her head. “OH! Your information packet was sent back to us! The district forgot to put postage on it when it was mailed out!”
I finally tracked down the packet (which the office thought was in Mrs. B’s possession initially) in Mrs. D’s room. She was horrified to find out that the two envelopes that she had for Rerun and for another first grader were actually the information packets with class assignments and newsletters – pretty much everything I was looking for. “I thought these were just copies of their IEPs” – and, of course, they weren’t addressed to her, so she didn’t open them.
At least the school doesn’t hate me, but the district couldn’t be bothered to put a stamp on an envelope and mail the packet properly the first time – OR send it again when it was returned.
I really hope Rerun has a good school year. I liked both of the teachers, and I know he likes the idea of having a dog in the classroom. Here’s hoping this school year runs more smoothly than last year!
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