Dear Minneapolis Public Schools

[naomikritzer]

The school district is doing a survey of parents this summer -- there was news coverage, plus I got an automated recorded call telling me how important it was that I filled it out, and then the survey finally arrived the week after this automated call said it would, which sad to say, reflects my relationship with the school district pretty well right there.

The survey was surprisingly well written. I've written surveys, so I know how difficult it is to write a good one. (If you've never written one -- collecting comments is easy, but collecting data that you can analyze statistically and make sense of in the aggregate is much harder than it looks.) I was mildly amused by the question where I needed to assess how important it was to me that the staff be able to communicate with me in my native language. (Ed's deadpan response: "that'd be 'extremely important.'") Other than that, though -- well-written survey.

And yet, it ignored (or barely touched on) some of the biggest frustrations out there regarding the school district. There were no questions whatsoever about transportation. Molly was dropped off at entirely the wrong intersection once last year by an idiot substitute driver who ignored the older children who told him that he was in the wrong spot -- and some of her friends were dropped off in the wrong spot repeatedly. All of these kids were kindergarteners and first graders who were being met at the stop by a parent or caregiver -- but the grownup is waiting at the correct corner and the kid is dropped off at the wrong corner, WTF are you supposed to do? (A cell phone in the backpack is the simplest solution, except that those are explicitly against the rules.)

They also didn't deal with the "promised communications that don't arrive as scheduled" issue, which has come up a lot. Unless by "dealing with it" we mean "demonstrated it."

Right now, FYI, I can't do our school supplies shopping because I don't have a supply list. The supply lists are put together by the individual teachers, so I can't really take care of this until I know who Molly's teacher will be. They used to send out letters in mid-August to tell you who the teacher would be, but they've decided to stop doing that because they want to be able to move kids around at the last minute to racially balance the classrooms. Now we're not going to find out teachers until the ice cream social before school starts. Except I don't know when that is, either. My vague recollection from last year is that it was RIGHT before school started, like possibly the week before. But the school's website doesn't say -- in fact, it doesn't have any current information, only info from last year. I called the school's number and got a message saying that right now they're in summer session and they do not want any questions regarding fall until Monday, August 13th.

I don't think it's entirely unreasonable that this situation makes me hyperventilate.

Comments

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

You know, I went to obtain a bussing form yesterday from Marcy Open, and basically buttonholed the principal, Donna.

(Accident! She was reorganizing furniture in her office.)

"My secretary is kind of a dope," she explained to me. "Plus she's off until August 15th. Has everything been ok?"

So I let her have the whole story of how Robin apparently was mislisted in the system, leading to the secretary insisting that he wasn't enrolled at Marcy and the Student Placement people insisting that he was.

She paused. Then, "Welcome to the Minneapolis Schools. I don't mean to frighten you, but if it can go wrong, it will go wrong initially. I mean, we'll get you there EVENTUALLY, but..." Another pause. "...why don't I just check and make sure he's still in our system."

Upshot: I had to travel to two other different offices for the bussing form, and I had to fill out a Form 13 for the third time while sitting in the principal's office, but at least I know he's still registered for school.

I also know that KG classroom assignments won't be made until August 13th, and lists of school supplies won't be up until 2 days before labor day.

[naomikritzer]

How the hell do they expect us to buy them? The stores clearance them out before the lists are available. ::tears out hair in sheer frustration::

(I will, of course, go down to Target sometime next week and lay in a large supply of markers, because they are so damn much cheaper during the back-to-school sales and we want to have a supply of markers around anyway. But I will bitch and moan in my blog about the stupidity of not making supply lists available at a reasonable point because, well, that's what blogs are for. They could simply have a supply list for Children's House, E1, and E2, and publicize THOSE lists on the website starting July 1st. This would be a win-win because they could ALSO include a list of supplies they love to have donated and generous-spirited parents could stock up when stuff goes on super-clearance.)

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

That's seriously hyperventilation worthy.

Regarding the dropoff locations - man, I don't think there are words for how pissed that would make me. I literally believe that my head would explode. IF that kind of thing happens - and happens on a regular basis - to any child who takes the school bus, I would want my own child to have a cell phone. Rules be damned. If the school cannot arrange to transport your child to the agreed upon location, they are going to have to suck it up and let your child have a device that allows her to inform you of where to come get her. How else is a five or six (or seven or eight) year-old supposed to cope with being dropped off in a strange neighborhood?

When you are done with the justified hyperventilation...

[katana-girl.livejournal.com]

Might I make a suggestion on the bussing issue. Paraphrase what you say, nicely of course, and point out that you would like to see this rectified because you would hate to have the school district spend money because it was being sued by parents of children who were injured after being dropped off in the wrong place. Then send it to every single school board member and the superintendant and maybe a media outlet.

It's always the squeeky wheel that gets fixed.

Re: When you are done with the justified hyperventilation...

[naomikritzer]

I have a friend in RL whose kid got so lost after being dropped off in the wrong location that she was found sobbing curbside by a random school employee, who took her back to the school and called her frantic, hysterical mother.

This mother, FYI, does not shirk from confrontation and called everyone she could think of.

No one in the school district or the local media, so far as I can tell, gives a shit.

Re: When you are done with the justified hyperventilation...

[katana-girl.livejournal.com]

That just sucks. I hate it when Orgs stick their head in the ground instead of fixing the flaws especially ones that increase their liabilty(and by extension, in this case, increase the amount of my tax dollar that go towards stupidity instead of schooling).

Still and all letters are frequently more powerful than calls.

I wondered what would happen if someone setup a website asking for horror stories from the MPLS public school system.

Re: When you are done with the justified hyperventilation...

[naomikritzer]

Sadly, my guess is that transportation issues would be the least of it. There are some mind-bogglingly bad schools in this city.

[jmartin2.livejournal.com]

Regarding cell phones: even if my child were allowed to carry one in her backpack, I'd be scared silly that she wouldn't be able to clearly communicate to me where she was. I know *I* wouldn't have been that with-it when I was in Kindergarten. I suppose I could practice with her exactly what to do in such a situation -- but in that case I know I'd get so angry with the school system that I'd gather a posse of other pissed-off parents and storm the next school board meeting.

If I were you I'd be livid.

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

Wow.
WOW.
WOW!

I think I must be really lucky that I got a notice telling me who Arie's teacher will be next year.

We haven't gotten a school supplies list yet, though . . .

Isn't the point of Seward and Montessori education that you are with the same kids every year? WTF?

[naomikritzer]

Kindergarten teacher is different. Then you stay with your E1 teacher for three grades, and E2 for two grades.

We found out the K assignment much earlier. To be fair to the school, a good part of why E1 assignments take so goddamn long is that they allow (even solicit) parent input on which teachers would be a good fit. There was this week-long period in the spring when Ed and I frantically coordinated schedules and childcare to go observe E1 teachers. This is, not surprisingly, incredibly stressful for the teachers, as well (both emotionally -- because, egads, you've got parents coming in and watching you teach for the express purpose of evaluating whether they think you're any good on the basis of what they see in 20 minutes -- and logistically, because you've got parents coming in and distracting your students). Despite the stress, though, I'm glad they accept input. But egads, the process was a PITA.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Oy vey. Yes, I can totally understand the hyperventilation.

A kid got dropped off in the wrong place somewhere in Toronto last year, and a media circus resulted. I'm not sure what it means that your school board doesn't seem to care, but it would certainly freak me out! (It also makes me happy that DD isn't going to be riding any buses except with DH or me, since she's going to a JK-8 school under optional attendance, ergo no busing available.) I'm not a paranoid parent, as these things go, but OMFG!

And I hadn't even thought about the whole buying-school-supplies thing (maybe that isn't required for SK here? But how would I know? If you call DD's school you just get a message saying, essentially, "It's summer. We're not here. Hope you're not too miffed -- Byeee!"). Oy.

[squigsoup.livejournal.com]

I'm lovingly stroking my internet-procured list of school supplies for my daughter and wondering if Eden Prairie schools have the same problems as Minneapolis schools.

You're justified in your lividity. It's a shame the local media doesn't seem to care; is there a TV station or newspaper that specializes in investigative reporting? Seems like they could do a nice series on this and perhaps reap some benefit.

[joykins1.livejournal.com]

Being put on the wrong bus almost happened to my Kindergartener this year.

The reason it didn't happen is because he paid attention and told his teacher that he was supposed to go on the "pink" bus and not the "blue" bus. She listened to him and asked enough questions to verify that he was right; this resulted in about 5 kids actually being put on the correct bus rather than the wrong one.

It's kind of sad that a 5-yo is smarter than the system...unless it is your 5-yo then you can be proud of him :)

You okay?

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Argh! Just saw the news and thought of you. Please log on and let us know you and your family are okay.

[jimlawrence.livejournal.com]

It's not just kids (and their parents) who are affected by this school system confusion. My wife is a middle school math teacher. For several years she has been teaching 8th grade math in a team-based school. However, to save money (declining enrollment) they have eliminated a team and this fall teachers will be on combined 7th and 8th grade teams, so she will be teaching 7th grade math as well as 8th grade math.

In the past she always taught one class of "Honors Algebra" (a class for advanced students who, if they passed with a "B" or better, would skip Algebra as high school freshman and go straight to geometry). With less than four weeks to go, she still does not know if she will be teaching Honors Algebra or not. Nor does she know anything else about her fall classe schedule (other than that she will be teaching both 7th grade math and 8th grade math).