Life around me really is never boring. Remember how happy we were that F1-2 was in a class with 4 students, 1 teacher, 2 aides, and 1 intern? It didn't last long. Yesterday I was informed that he class had been scrapped. Yes, scrapped. Now his class had 1 less teacher, and 3 extra students. The school board decided that the kids in his classroom were over-served, and decided to combine the two functional classrooms, ship his teacher off to another school. Now he is in a classroom with 7 kids, 1 (different) teacher, and 2 (different) aides. All of the kids in F1-2's room were non-verbal,they now constitute more than 50% of his new classroom, and the new teachers has very limited experience with non-verbal kids.
So why was the teacher better qualified to teach non-verbal kids moved to another school, one might ask. And the answer is, she had not been there long enough. Yep, the other teacher had seniority, did not want to leave, forget about having teachers to meet the needs of the majority of the pupils. We've got our priorities straight here. And we most certainly wouldn't want to involve any parents while these decisions are being made, they might point out these little anomalies that will mess up the way we work. And around here, seniority rules. We'll inform the parents once it's too late to change stuff. We can't swap the teachers anymore, F1-2's teacher has already been assigned to another school. Never mind that she is leaving kicking and screaming that she is concerned that the children's aren't being met.
So here we go, having to fight for our son's already shaky future. He is going to be in the same classroom for the most important of his formative years, from Kindergarten through 5th grade. Whatever we do now, will impact the rest of his life. Overly dramatic? Maybe. But it just infuriates me that decisions can be made based on anything except what makes the most sense for the kids. If it wasn't for the fact that his current school is the *only* school in the county with therapists on site, I would have demanded him going to another school.
We haven't made up our minds yet where to go from here, but you can rest assured that noise is about to be made.
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2 comments:
argh! you can't change schools, and you can't get the teacher back. i guess the next stop is the school board. remember, they are elected officials and public opinion does mean something to them. letters to the editor of the local fish wrapper aren't a bad idea either.
Well, I think we're going to go gradually up the food chain. First the principal, then the Exceptional Student Education office, then the school board. And who knows where we'll end up. Adding to the issues is of course the fact that we don't have the right to vote. This may limit our effectiveness.
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