Evening prior, we shopped to ensure a good impression at the new school. Girls in pink and purple, with Hanna Montana shoes, High School Musical back-packs, matching hair clips and butterfly tummies, late to rest as nerves set in.
Early ro rise, the girls looked adorable. Neither would eat because their tummies hurt. Poor babies. I gather their belongings, check my ever-growing red binder for all my needed documentation and head out, descending 3 flights of stairs to load into the mountaineer. Programming the GPS is a new task I hadn't planned time for, but had to be done. It was the 1st day of school so I figured being late might be better. We weren't, after all, registered yet.
We arrive after most of the kids had found their way to class with the exception of one little asian girl crying in the front office. Turns out she spoke no english and didn't know her name. The found her on the front step. I felt so bad for her. She was so scared. Who would do that to a little kid? I'll never forget that.
Anyhow.... I waited my turn and was eventually called 4ft. over to a new chair. I pulled out my contract on the new house, birth certs, all that jazz. As the woman begins the process, a man walks in and says, "you must be the family from florida".... I had spoken to this "transfer student officer" before.
See, Howard county in MD. praises itself on its great schools. This man refused to enrole and educate my chilren based on the fact that I was residing in Anne Arundel county in a temporary corporate apartment. He insisted that We should find temp. housing in their school district or enroll the girls in AA county schools until we close. That would be 6 weeks. I, surprisingly calmly expressed that psycologically my children had suffered enough loss in the past few weeks with such a life change and I didn't want them to make friends and go thru more loss. He said that was my problem. Then I explained it was almost $300 a night (where we are is paid 4 by Austins work) for an appt. style, fully furnished unit and we can't afford that Xtra cost (with 3 mortgages and trying to buy another!). This As#$ole! said, and I quote "If you can't afford to live in Howard county, your kids can't go to school here".
(I'd like to see HIS W2)
If you know me, at all you know it took a lot to contain myself. I had luckily forseen the possibility of running into a person with to much power, and I had a plan. I calmy asked for some resources for homeschooling. I figured I could pull it off til we close on the house.
Guess what this dude says to me... " You don't live in Howard county, We can't help you. You'll have to contact the Anne Arundel County School Board." He grinned and turned then walked away. In my mind, I ran up kicked, him in the arse and watched him hit the pavement, and then I spit on him....in real life I took my girls to the car, tried to explain why they couldn't go to school, yes, tears, then went home to research my homeschooling future...... and in real life, I WILL speak to the Howard county superintendant. Thats how I roll....
(GOD HELP ME)
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Where is this 'lame excuse for an educator who is supposed to care for children's' HEART?!? Or is sense of morality?! I would definetely call the superintendent-though do not expect too much, except a chance to vent. After twenty years spent in education, I learned that the people closest to the kids (teachers, aides) were USUALLY more caring and sympathetic. Al least those that were not burned out or in the profession for the vacation schedule. THe further away you get fro the people that actually interact with the kids, the less understanding and caring they had. OF course that is not universally true, but I found it true in many cases. I am so sorry you are going through so much-it will even out eventually. I do know (and you probably already know this) that there are home schooling courses that can be purchased. There are also home schooling organizations all over the place that get the kids together for outings and such. They could probably help you a lot, even if you plan to home school for just a short time.YOu could probably find some on line.
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