Reagan Goes to Kindergarten.

Reagan started school 3 weeks ago.  I've held-off from writing about this momentous occasion; not because I'm a blog slacker, but because I've needed time to cool off.

So, the elementary school we are zoned for is H.C. Burton Elementary.  It is the same elementary school that both of Nick's parents attended.

Back in January, as soon as the paperwork was available, I  registered Reagan for Kindergarten.  I listed my preferences: PM Kindergarten.

Fast Forward to August...  Burton Elementary didn't post class lists until 6 days before school was supposed to begin.  And Reagan was in AM Kindergarten.

I could live with it.  The only reason I requested PM, was because Elsa has Preschool in the afternoon, and Cohen still naps from 1-4 PM.  So, Reagan in PM Kindergarten would have been convenient.  Having Reagan in AM Kindergarten is fine, it just means that my Tuesdays and Thursdays are pretty crazy.

Anyway, the first day of school came.  Reagan was excited.  I took her on a "date" and let her pick out a backpack.  It's a blue backpack with butterflies on it, and when you hit it, it lights up.  Very gaudy, in my opinion, but to a Kindergartener it's neat.

 We live close enough to the Elementary School to walk.  Reagan met up with her friend Taytem, that morning.

 Reagan got in line with her class.  Sidenote: There are 7 little girls from our neighborhood that are in Kindergarten this year.  Reagan's best friend, Evia, is in afternoon Kindergarten (another reason I wanted it); the other 6 girls are in AM Kindergarten, but all of them are in the other class.  I am actually, VERY OK, with this.  I think it'll be less distracting for Reagan if she doesn't have friends in her class.

 Here's an up-close picture of Reagan's backpack, on her specific hook.

 That first day of school, both Reagan and I were all smiles.  I didn't cry.  And neither did she.  There were only 16 kids in her class.  I was so grateful for a small class-size.  And optimistic that the school-year was going to go well.  Reagan's a July birthday, and I thought long and hard about putting her in Kindergarten, when it would make her the youngest kid in her grade.  I decided it would be OK, after speaking to her preschool teacher.  And there's also the fact that she's tall for her age.  Size wouldn't be an issue.  I was well-aware of the fact that Reagan's fine-motor skills need some work; so we practiced writing a lot, over the summer.

Sooo... on the fourth day of school, Thursday morning; I dropped Reagan off.  An administrator was standing outside the Kindergarten entrance, and she told me that the flip-flops Reagan was wearing were against the dress code.  On my part it was a mistake of ignorance. I hadn't known.  I had read everything the school had sent home, up to that point; and hadn't seen anything about a dress code.  My feather's were a little ruffled.  But things were about to get a whole lot hairier...

As Reagan was hanging up her backpack, her teacher, Mrs. Olsen asked me if I had heard about the shake-up that morning?  She told me that they had cancelled her PM Kindergarten class, because they needed her to teach at another school in the afternoon.  All of the kids from her PM class were being farmed out to the remaining Kindergarten classes, and Reagan's class size was going from 16 to 26!

Boy, was I ever mad.  When I went to pick Reagan up 2.5 hours later, it was obvious that all of the parents to Kindergartners were angry.  One parent was passing out fliers with the phone numbers for the school principal, and district superintendent.

I went home, and started making phone calls.  This particular day, was the Thursday before Labor Day weekend.  I tried to speak to the principal, but apparently she was at home, sick.  The superintendent was out of the office for the holiday weekend.  Grrrr.

I kept making phone calls.  I left a message for the Vice Principal.  And I spoke to a man named John Sheffield, at our district offices.  Our conversation went something like this:
Me- "What is going on with the Kindergarten at Burton Elementary is unacceptable.  My daughter would be more successful in a smaller class size".
Mr. Sheffield- "Well, in lower socioeconomic areas, the parents usually don't register their children until the first day of school, so we have no way of knowing what our final class size numbers will be until after school starts".
Me- "Surely this cannot be your first rodeo?!  You had to have anticipated that this would be the case?".
Mr. S- "Yes, we planned ahead.  But this year Burton Elm. had a lot lower numbers than we though they would, and other schools had higher numbers."
Me- "So, in essence, your punishing the parents that are responsible, and register their kids ahead of time?".
Mr. S- "No, we are trying to make everything equal.  The class sizes the elementary school, where we are putting your daughter's teacher were around 38 kids.  It wouldn't be fair to them, to leave it that way."
Me- "Yes it would.  Make them accountable for not registering their kids until the first day of school.  Don't you think that if their kids had to be in large classes this year, the parents would be more inclined to register their kids ahead-of-time next year?"
Mr. S- "No. it probably wouldn't make a difference.  Listen... the bottom line is that Public School's funding was cut by 80 million dollars, and we'd love to be able to hire more teachers, but we can't. We're doing the best we can, with what we've got".

Gotta love the politician mumbo-jumbo.  Way to pass the buck.

Next, I spoke to the Vice Principal at the school.  She was claiming there was nothing they could do, that all of this was coming from the school district.  She told me she was open to suggestion about what they could do on a school level.  Only she wasn't.  I don't think she expected me to have an answer for her.
I told her that the class lists showed that the class-sizes in the 3rd grade were, on average, 20 kids.  I thought they should bring a teacher from 3rd grade down, to teach in Kindergarten, so that there were 4 sessions again.  Better to have smaller Kindergarten class sizes; and larger class sizes in the higher grades.

She didn't agree with me.

And things just got worse. 

A lot of the parents had been making a stink, about this situation, all day.  Apparently, at the end of the school-day the administrators were out reprimanding the parents of the Kindergarteners (specifically, the ones that had passed out fliers, and solicited the other parents to make phone calls); for creating a stir.  They said the Burton Kindergarten parents were being "brats".  That the situation wasn't going to change, and that 26 kids in a Kindergarten class was normal.

It wasn't until after I had made my phone calls, that I got around to asking Reagan how school was that day.  She told me that she had been left out at recess, all alone.  Whaaaa?!  I was freaking out even more now.
When I asked for more details, Reagan said she had been watching the chickens (there are chickens in a backyard that borders the school); and when she looked up no one was on the playground anymore.  She said she found a lady, and told her that she didn't know where her class was.  The lady took her to Kindergarten.  I asked Reagan if the lady was her teacher, Mrs. Olsen.  Reagan said, "No", she didn't know who the lady was?

If I hadn't been in freak-out mode before, I certainly was now.
In June, a child-rapist moved in to a home that borders the elementary school.  All I could thing was: "thank goodness he wasn't out trolling around at the time my daughter was alone on the playground"!

I went to school early Friday morning, and spoke to Reagan's teacher.

I forgot to add: that Reagan's elementary school got a new principal last year.  All of the parents like her, but I've heard that the teachers aren't as fond of her.  And the principal apparently, did not like Reagan's teacher, Mrs. Olsen.  Last year, she tried to get rid of Mrs. Olsen.  But so many of the parents opposed this (all of my neighbors love Mrs. Olsen), that the principal "demoted" Mrs. Olsen from 1st Grade (where she had been teaching for 20 years) to Kindergarten.  I also imagine, the principal was totally "on-board" with having Mrs. Olsen be the teacher that the district took, and put in another school for half-day.  Workplace politics are baloney.

I wanted to talk to Reagan's teacher directly, about the incident at recess.  I didn't want to give the principal more ammunition to fire Mrs. Olsen. 
Mrs. Olsen was profusely apologetic.  She said that she doesn't go to recess with the kids.  And that Thursday was an overwhelming day for everyone.  The number of Kindergarten children on the playground had increased by 20, that day; and that they playground aides  probably hadn't noticed that Reagan was missing.  She said that Reagan found a Mom, that had been bringing lunch to her child, and that Mom was the one that took Reagan to her class.  Guardian angels were watching out for Reagan that day!
Mrs. Olsen said that she would personally make sure that she took Reagan by the hand, at the end of recess, every day, and she'd escort her to the classroom.
That waylaid a lot of my fear.

Friday morning, I also found out that Mrs. Olsen would be teaching 3rd Grade at an elementary school in Layton, in the afternoon.  She gets to spend her lunch period, in the car, driving from one elementary school; to another.  And every day, she will have to do a shift, from Kindergarten mentality, to 3rd grade mentality.  This whole situation is so messed up!

I went in to the principals office, and spoke to her.  I was disgusted at the way the whole situation had been handled.  Could they have executed things any more poorly?  I think not.
Also, I was concerned that my "access" to Mrs. Olsen was going to be limited, since she would be at a completely different school in the afternoons.
The principal was very professional, and personable.  I was impressed that she never said anything negative about Mrs. Olsen.  But in the end, she let me know that it was a situation that wasn't going to change.

I went in to the weekend mentally exhausted.  I never expected to have the broken public school system "in my face" this soon.
It was sickening.

Reagan's second week of school was rough.  So, difficult, that I feared I was going to have an emotional breakdown.  Reagan cried, every day, when I dropped her off.  Mrs. Olsen said that Reagan wasn't following direction, that she wasn't doing her work in a timely manner, and that her fine-motor skills were severely lacking.
For an entire week, I was filled with worry, and it was on my mind 24-7.

I will give "props" to Mrs. Olsen.  She was great about communicating with me.  She kept telling me to not be too hard on myself.  And she said Reagan was making progress.

This past week, things have been like night and day.  Reagan has gone to class without trouble.  She's done her work.  She's paid attention.
Her fine motor skills need work.  But she comes by her bad handwriting honestly.  My handwriting is atrocious.  Always has been.  So, I'm not sure what to do about improving that?

Academically, I think Reagan will do well.  She can already read several sight words.  She can do basic addition.  The work she does, in class, she does correctly.
But I still have nagging worries.  And I will say, It was been a difficult pill for me to swallow; to think that Reagan might not be an automatic genius, just because both of her parents are two smart cookies.

It hasn't escaped my notice, that Reagan has a difficult time concentrating/sitting still.  It has crossed my mind on (far more) than one occasion that Reagan might have ADD (not the hyperactive part, thank goodness!).
I'm planning on making an appointment with Dr. Swensen; to take Reagan in on Monday, to discuss this.  Also, to get the kids flu shots.  Shhh.... Don't tell them.

So, that's where it all stands.  I think Reagan's Kindergarten teacher is great.  But I think the public school system sucks.  We'll make the best of it.
Nick says that our kids' success is far more about the instruction they get at home, than what they get at school.  He says that he & I, are prime examples.  We went to crappy schools (Brockbank JHS, & Cyprus HS, we're looking at you); and both of us turned out to be well-educated, intelligent individuals; thanks, in large part; to our parents.

So, Thanks, Dad & Mom.  Here's hoping we can do half as good of a job as you did.