Layout:
Home > Politics and Weekend Doings

Politics and Weekend Doings

December 6th, 2010 at 02:43 am

**Just got news that the District intends to deny our request to expand our Charter to Grades 6-8. Rolleyes

I don't know if it matters because the district is on the verge of bankruptcy and will probably be taken over by the state. I don't know if we were trying to get this through before all that, or if it is possible we will have more luck with the state, anyway. At least we are solvent.

The main arguments I have heard is "we will take more money from the district" and that "we will cause teacher layoffs." Considering our classes are about half the size of the rest of the district, I don't quite understand how this means teacher job losses. Unless the laid off teachers are not high quality and we not want them. ???

Just, frustrated. IT is just one episode in a sea on a completely incompetent school district. Why they approved our first charter in the first place - lord knows. It's the only thing good they have done, in my opinion, the last 9 years.

Will see what comes next - I am sure this is just the first battle in the war.

That said, a friend of mine ended up getting her kids in another charter school in the city (no luck with the charters in our district - too hard to get in). It was just another reminder that there are plenty of fish in the sea!

--------------------------------------------------

**Anyway... In other news, dh and I have not spent much time together lately. Can't say I particularly noticed. We have spent at least 1/2 of the 2 months since our Hawaii trip sick it seems (one of us sick at all times - some nasty bugs going around).

We had a nice relaxing weekend at home, and I couldn't really remember the last time we went out. Today I just noticed it had been forever, so suggested we go out. Dh was very excited about this.

Our date was ruined by bad planning. BM had a friend coming over at around 2. So we rushed out around noon (fed LM first because he refused to the srop-in daycare lunch). Got to the drop-in place and it was closed. DOH! It's been so long we forgot. Opens at 1:00 Sundays, but didn't work with our time crunch.

We just took the kids with us to lunch. I got an entertainment book for my birthday - I think I forgot to mention that one. Decided to try a Greek restaurant downtown - had a coupon. At least LM was fed, and we'd save the babysitting money.

Got downtown and manyroads were closed due to a big race. We trekked on, but realized it was about 50 or 60 blocks down. We didn't bring our GPS - we just assumed it was closer to the freeway/downtown. It really wasn't downtown after all!

We finally gave up, turned around, and had a delightful lunch (though no coupons) at this Indian cafe we love. The place is usually empty (though the food is divine and on the more affordable side since it's more of a cafe). When we walked in, they had a new menu (mostly the same in the end) and had opened up the space and put more tables in. The place was actually kind of crowded. We thought maybe all this was a good sign - business may be good? We had a nice lunch with the kiddos.

After all that, told dh we just need to do a lunch date some time. We just got out of the habit for whatever reason - seems easiest way to get our date time - with both kids in school.

----------------------------------------------------

In other news, I found the gift receipt (so I thought) for those shirts. LookingForward gave me the tip that I could return the clothing no tags (Kohls). I had looked up their policy and that is not what it said! But, I googled around and found that was mostly true.

Dh was skeptical - said he read stores were cracking down this season. I told him if it didn't work, I'd try another location later.

Anyway, I took it in and the gift receipt was the wrong one. (Doh!) But, she told me she could give me $45 store credit for both shirts. Holy Moly! Didn't expect that, with everything on deep sale, etc. I had just picked up the same shirt (another color) for $13 on Friday! But they credited me $21 or so per shirt.

That was 3 Kohls visits this week! I intend to not go back until after the holidays. The place was crowded as heck today.

Right now I just plan to buy some pants in January or so. I have lost a bit of weight. Waiting is probably best, because with my thyroid issues, I could lose or gain a ton of weight post surgery until my hormones even out. After having LM, I gained about 15 pounds in the matter of a couple of weeks. just, whacked out hormones. I lost the baby weight fine, and then everything went wacky. I had to stop breastfeeding just to feel normal again (weight gain was just one nasty side affect of many!) I don't look forward to going through something like that again. But, it is what it is! As long as wacky hormones are only temporary...

7 Responses to “Politics and Weekend Doings”

  1. ThriftoRama Says:
    1291604771

    Funny, hubby and I went on a lunch date with the kids today-- for Indian food! We clearly are leading parallel lives.

    Also, we drove around the town where we are thinking of moving for schools. I just don't have the heart to deal with all the charter/ lotteries for good schools stuff that it would take to stay in our current district. Kudos to you for sticking it out.

  2. zetta Says:
    1291648237

    What do you think you're likely to do when BM gets to 6th grade, if the charter is not expanded? Is there a lottery to transfer? Live with your assigned school? Private school?

  3. ceejay74 Says:
    1291650729

    Funny, tonight we're having our anniversary dinner out--with baby in tow! Guess it's a trend... Wink We already had a sitter planned for Friday's work party, so it seemed like it would get expensive. (Although that sitter--a friend--would only accept snacks and treats for payment, so cheaper than we expected.)

    Great news on the shirts! I'm always surprised when places accept returns without receipts, since I'd understand if they declined it. I guess there are a lot more aggressive, entitled people who paved the way for us to get our way even when we probably shouldn't! Smile

  4. MonkeyMama Says:
    1291656615

    Thrift - too funny!

    Zetta - We will research public options in the city. We live in a big city and there are hundreds of options outside our district. (There are also 2 charters in our district that we can try the lottery).

    I find that like the public schools, some are more heavily advertised and harder to get into. But others are of really high quality and just not so openly recognized by the masses. So there are some really good schools that aren't that hard to get in to.

    Worst case is we might send our eldest child to private school while we were waitlisted at a public school. While Kinder may be impossible to get into at our school, the higher grades actually lose kids. So if we can transfer him in 7th or 8th grade, maybe LM can attend one school for middle school. (Which kind of works out since BM is very social and adaptable, I think LM would do better not switching schools so much). There is usually priority for siblings.

    Mostly, our approach to education has mostly been "we will cross that bridge when we come to it." Things are constantly changing, and this seemed to have been our best strategy all along (we didn't spend a fortune for the best school district, but we have the most amazing school for K-5. The school was not even formed until after our eldest was born). On the flip side, I have friends who bought in certain neighborhoods, and the schools are closing and the district is going down the tubes. So, I kind of feel like we should just take one year at a time.

    I have learned it is all in who you talk to. If you know what is going on, sometimes you can skip to the head of the line. Exactly what we did with our current school (we are founding parents - top priority for admission - we helped form the school).

  5. MonkeyMama Says:
    1291669656

    More news - I have since heard that the district has no legal grounds to deny our charter. This seems to be true. I suppose we don't want to spend our limited resources appealing. We also are still under the umbrella of the district, so probably don't want to piss them off too much. Gotta love politics!

    Definitely just the first battle of the war!

  6. Frugaltexan75 Says:
    1291700623

    Good deal on the shirts!

  7. Looking Forward Says:
    1291746079

    Great news on the returns. I would have been happy with them giving me store credit at the lowest sales price or a straight swap for a smaller size. I heard on the tv/radio about their "No Hassle" returns. No receipts, No tags, etc. all okay. I've always been pleased when shopping with Kohl's. Smile

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]