Its fall. Taylor is on a work trip to Philadelphia for work, and I can’t sleep, so adding another blog post is the obvious best thing to do.
In our neighborhood, one thing we look forward to is the “scary house” that goes all-in for halloween decorations. They are a few blocks away so we haven’t had a chance to trick-or-treat at their house, but the setup is pretty extreme. Have you ever seen anything like this?
The new teacher fake-out
On Wednesday of last week, we got an email/voicemail/letter home from school informing us that Rosie’s teacher would be leaving. This was really sad. She really likes Mr. Robertson, her third grade teacher. He is new to the school, and has made a very big impact.
When I got home from running a few errands, this was how Rosie greeted me:
It was devastating for a third grader to lose her favorite teacher!
Why was he leaving? He was leaving because of a state law that stipulates how many teachers are needed for each class/grade. The letter/voicemail sent to us said that due to a miscalculation on student enrollment for the year, there were too many teachers for the third grade, and Mr. Robertson (the newest) would be re-assigned to another school.
The letter stated that the following day, Rosie would spend 1/2 a day with her current teacher, and then transition to 1/2 a day with her new teacher. Effective Friday, she would be with her new teacher.
This was not ok. Rosie was sobbing about this. Who made the decision to trade teachers 1/2 way through October, and in what universe is this in the student’s best interest?
After Rosie had a minute to calm herself, she said “I have to go make Mr. Robertson a card.” Rosie is a gem; what a sweet kid to have that be her first instinct:
I wrote emails. I was hot; I don’t usually write emails about these kinds of issues, but because of the impact it had on Rosie, I wanted the people in charge to know the fallout from their decisions. In the big picture, I know Rosie would be ok; she has plenty of friends, and her home life is stable. But someone, somewhere had to see the ring video that I captured of this sweet little third grader just devastated to know that her teacher was leaving.
The teacher, principal, School board representative, and the superintendent were copied on this rather hot email. What did the email say? In short, we are with you through all the things that are beyond your control (and I listed a few things like Covid, a lockdown, etc), but this is not beyond your control. And whoever made this decision should see the impact that it has on THIRD GRADERS. For older students, this would not be a big deal. For eight year old kids, this is a bond that is being broken from a new teacher that they have grown to trust; and it disrupts the learning process for her class, and all of the other classes that they are dispersed into.
The other parents were pissed too. With only 1/2 day warning, there wasn’t much time, but the parents of Rosie’s class got an email thread going of 37 people providing the names of who to contact at every level of the school system, and I am left to believe that there was a very high percentage of people that took it upon themselves to reach out to voice their concerns.
That’s when we learned that it would be on the radio. It turns out one of the parents from Rosies class is also a morning anchor on a local radio station. She brought this issue up and it must have received near 20 minutes of airtime about how bonkers this decision is. The school board must have been pretty pissed about this exposure. Here is the bit, as a link to watch it on Facebook:
When Rosie got back from school the next day, I asked her how her day was. She said “all we did was cry all morning. One kid cried so hard she had to go see the nurse.” Again, this adds fuel to my fire. Who makes these kinds of decisions for third graders?
On Friday at noon, a day-and-a-half after we received the first notice of the teacher leaving, we got a an automated call at around noon saying that, “after carefully reviewing enrollment numbers, it has been determined that they WILL KEEP all third grade teachers.” The voicemail was tone-deaf to say the least.
So, next week I will be attending my first school board meeting to address this issue.
UNC Dominates Syracuse on the gridiron
On Monday, I got a call from my buddy Charlie Hiser asking if I could make it to the football game that weekend. Charlie has been my buddy since sixth grade, and though it is probably for the best that I cannot find any solid pictures from the early years, here is a good early, appropriate picture of Charlie and Taylor from 2007:
Yes, I could make the game! Just like old times, going with Charlie and his set-dad Jerry, we made the 1 hr drive to Chapel Hill, capitalized on Jerry’s long-time donor status with great parking, and were at the game. UNC basically dominated, but Charlie and I got some great laughs in. It was great to catch up with him. He lives in Chapel Hill now, and though it is close, we haven’t gotten to see each other too often. Maybe more games in the future is the best answer? Anyways, here are some pics:
We saw the basketball team coming in before the game:
Here is a completely unrelated video I wanted to share: Rosie reading to her sister the day before her birthday. Nevermind Rosie’s face: it had facepaint from the Greek festival we attended earlier that day:
And Mercy crushing it on her scooter on a Saturday morning: