Tuesday, September 1, 2009

First Day Fatigue

So, this blog will be brief. Why you ask? Cause I'm #$*@! exhausted, that's why!

My kids are starting at a new school this year and the bus situation is a total disaster. They were to be picked up at 742am. That got switched to 755am. Phew. That was better. The bad news is, they wouldn't get to school til 840am. That means forty minutes on the bus which is oh, 5 mins away by car.

We waved the girls off and then decided to head to the school yard to meet them. We got to the school and the bus still wasn't there. No worries. We checked the lists for their names, saw their classmates and where they'd line up and met their teachers. And waited.

School starts at 850am. What time did MY children's bus arrive? Ya, 918am. Everyone but the principal had gone in already. We got our kids off of the bus and found their classrooms in a school in which we've never even set a foot. So, total time on the bus? 1 hr and 18 mins. Ridiculous and infuriating.

Fast forward to tonight. I'm told drop off time will be 418pm. School ends at 310pm. So, that means over an HOUR on the bus. Again. What time did my children arrive??? 451pm. What the??? That's almost 5 o'clock for Pete's sake. Again, infuriating.

Do you want to guess how many letters, emails, phone calls and rants I've made since June to the school board as well as the transportation board? For those of you that know me well, you know it's a lot.

Their standard line so far is that the first few weeks will be a "wait and see" while they try to iron out the kinks in the bus route and figure out how they need to change it. Uh huh.

How about this one? Instead of trying to pick up kids from every single subdivision in the city, limit it to oh.....two? Instead of stopping to transfer kids to ANOTHER bus (I kid you not), just put another bus on from the get go.

This is sooo not going to work. And I'm sure I'm not the only parent out there who was absolutely livid today.

I'm trying to take deep, calming breaths and I'm praying tomorrow is a better, smoother day with a much, much, much shorter bus ride. If not, the people at the transportation board better take cover. Quickly.

What I will do to them, trust me, won't take an hour.

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