School starts Monday

Today we went to pick up a few things for school. With the exception of Lydia's binder, Park City School District provides everything you need. Some of the teachers have a wish list for donations or you can chose to provide your own things as well.

We were also able to visit the classrooms and meet the teacher's of both girls today. Lydia will be in the 5th grade with Mrs. Hopkins who just moved here with her family from Northern California. Maille will be in 2nd grade with Mrs. Lee. She is very young and doesn't have any kids yet.

Everyone we meet who finds out Maille has Mrs. Lee exclaims "Oh we LOVED Mrs. Lee!" Apparently everyone LOVES Mrs. Lee and she did seem very nice.

Maille's classroom was decked out with 5 of the nicest Apple Computers I have seen and Lydia's class will be starting the district's new "Computers Across the Curriculum" in January. I'm not sure what that means exactly yet, but I'll keep you posted.

Apparently the program will eventually put a laptop in the hands of every student in the district starting in 6th grade, but this year the implementation of the whole program starts with the 5th graders. I don't think they will be getting laptops, but I do think it is intended to help the teacher let the kids learn at their own pace. This will be great for Lydia and other independent, bright students. We will see how it goes for the others. Like anything else, I think it has stirred up some controversy with people on both sides of the spectrum.

Speaking of controversy, I have been stirring up some of that myself. According to a neighbor, I was on the local radio today. I guess my appeal to the School Board on Tuesday evening was local newsworthy. You see, I have a bit of a bone to pick with the School Board about the busing situation in our neighborhood.

Getting on a school bus here is not something you take for granted. I could bore you with all the gory details, but I'll just say this...our neighborhood is considered a "walking" neighborhood. Even though the only way for the kids to actually walk is a mile down the highway. A highway that is traveled at 45+ mph by THOUSANDS of vehicles a day, most of which are transient (vacationers) to this town. There are NO sidewalks and it is 2 lanes in each direction with a center turn lane. Not to mention the 10 foot wall of snow that builds up along the edge of the road in the winter. Basically NO ONE makes their kid walk to school from our neighborhood. My kids make numbers 21, 22, and 23 for kids in a few short blocks. Sixteen of those kids are elementary school aged.

All of the parents have been paying $200 a year per student to have their kids bussed to school or driving them. The problem for me is that the bus is full. Basically they told me I was tough out of luck and my kids either walk or I drive them. The other half of the story is that I am supposed to be going to work, which makes driving them nearly impossible.

For the most part the district has A LOT of walkers. WAY more than where we moved from. But from talking to other parents in neighborhoods who have already fought this fight, its a HUGE battle to get them to approve the funding. To me its absolutely flabbergasting. But I refuse to back down and my neighbors are all just laughing. But I'll bet they won't be laughing when I save them $200 per student, per year!