This first week has been an absolute roller coaster of emotions. The high of the first day of school and all of the promise that it brings was tempered by some very sobering realities throughout the rest of the first week.
I have been in education long enough to realize that the first week of school is always one of the most difficult. Everything cannot and will not go the way you would like. We plan all summer for the beginning of the year and things never turn out the way we would like them to. The first day is usually great, and mine was, but then the realities begin to settle in.
Dealing with buses has never been a great issue for me. Thankfully, I do not have to do too much with them because my assistant principal does a great job. However an aspect that is new is the amount of buses. In my previous school, we had three buses. One for special needs students and two for the general population. At my new school, we have one special needs bus and seven for all other students. The amount of kids riding the bus is triple what I am used to. To compound the problem, we have a lot of kids who ride one bus to school, but a different one home or they ride different buses depending on the day of the week. We have "tagged" our younger riders to ensure they get on the right bus. There still seem to be problems each day. The problems generally occur when a student fails to get off at the correct stop or they do not have a parent waiting for them at the stop. The bus company then returns them to school and we have to call for a parent. I was at school until almost 6 o'clock one day waiting for a parent to come and get their child. To top that, many parents have not updated their phone numbers and we have trouble getting in contact. We continue to work around these issues to do what is best for our kids.
This week has truly been a roller coaster for me in more ways that I cannot go into detail about. I hope that week number two is less centered on highs and lows and more about enjoying the ride. I do know that I have learned more about what it takes to run a school successfully in the past week than I had in much of my previous experience combined.
Week number two starts in 10 hours!
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1 comment:
Oh my gosh...our school "lost" Alex more times than I can count! On her first day on the bus last year, she got off at the very first stop in our neighborhood after I was guarenteed that the drivers had a list of which stops they were supposed to get off at. When the bus got to our stop and there was no Alex on the bus, the driver just shrugged her shoulders!!!! It was the most frustrating process and no one seemed willing to take charge to impliment a more effective bus strategy. So on behalf of parents and lost kids everywhere, I thank you for your efforts!!!
Misti
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