Perusing, I also sat on a Bond Referendum committee as secretary. It was our first ever need to have a tax referendum and we were very worried about approaching the community in the right way. Lack of meeting attendees gave us the same initial feelings you mention only to find out that an overwhelming majority of the voters were already planning to say Yes! Therefore, they didn't feel the need to come to informational meetings. What it did was it gave us the opportunity to present ourselves in a way that earned the respect of the few naysayers. Now, five years later, when the school is presenting another bond referendum (phase 2 of a three part plan), the community trusts them to be forthright, honest and open to frank discussions about all sides of the issue. Sometimes the committee's work turns out to be different than you thought it would be but no less important. Have fun with it and see it as a learning opportunity!

And I agree with you! Your son's skills deserved a higher grade if he was capable of doing more than expected.

In K - 4th we have:

B - Beginning
D - Developing
P - Proficient

I always feel like it leaves a lot to be desired. Developing is everything thing but the kitchen sink and Proficient usually is set for only when you get it perfect.

For instance, my K knew 25 capital letters & 19 lower case letters at the end of the first 9 weeks. Both numbers are above what they have worked on in class, yet his report card has a D. ??? Gotta wonder. I realize he's developing the skill of recognizing, but if he's got 75% of the entire alphabet and you've only worked on 35% - wouldn't that be a Proficient?



This last 2 weeks has been crazy and I have another month of it. I went to one of those meetings where I thought I was coming in to be a volunteer. Oops! This was the group they were looking for us to be all of the Chairs... and find volunteers. IIiiiiii should have run that instant. But it's for helping to pass a School Bond Proposal and it's so important. So now I'm out for 7-9 meetings ++ a week while we get the word out and present what the Bond does for our district.

Apathy - did someone earlier mention apathy? Here's one. We had movie night last Friday in the gym. Showed Ice Age 2 and at the same time (next room over with connecting door) we had a bond proposal meeting. Would you believe 5 people came to the bond proposal and over 50 parents preferred to watch Ice Age 2? I'm hoping that since part of this bond will raze our school and replace it with a new one that our parents already plan to say YES! Uggghhh! Talk about priorities and what's important.

Our school district has a list of grade level expectations that are given to each parent at registration. It lets the parents know what will be covered in the classroom for the year and what their child should know by the end of the year. Iowa does standardized testing too(ITBS). It starts at 2nd grade now. I have mixed emotions about it though. Some kids just don't test well(nerves) and what if the child is not feeling well on a particular day. That happened to my daughter one year.

I do agree with sending a letter to the principal, CC. You know there are some kids who won't come home and tell their parents they are getting nothing from a class. They'll just skate along.

I knew I could count on you Shawn! One question.... What's cash? LMAO

OK, I have 450 light bulbs in this house and at any given time, 300 of them are blown out and need to be replaced. The ones needing the most attention are the ones that require a giant step ladder to reach. Seriously, is there some sort of Murphy's Law that says the hardest to reach bulbs blow out most often? Oh, and maybe it isn't exactly 450 bulbs, it just feels like it today. It's probably closer to 45. Really. Whoever built this house had a huge affinity for recessed spot lights. The game room alone has 10 of them - 15 ft in the air. My step ladder is only 12 ft so I'm going to have to break all of those little rules on that sticker and stand right on the top step. At least I know if anything happens to me that the ACLU will be there to defend my right to stand on the top step.....

That is too funny.
I see your point about moving soon. I would probably wait and send a letter too or talk to the principal on the last day. I personally hate conflict but I hate seeing my child put in a bad situation between being shorted his correct answer and being bored, I probably would have dropped by the school during that class just to see how bad it really is.
As for grades, we do a +/-/S/U for k-2 and the 3 on up is letters. On of our nearby districts started a policy where you don't pass with a D. Seems to be starting people talking. We also do monthly goal testing and we get those reports home to stay on top of what the kids are really doing, not just how the teacher feels (which is what I think the lower grades really are). Personally I wish there was some sort of standardized test that needed to be taken to actually see where your child was and whether or not they could pass to the next grade. For those of you that have read the Harry Potter books, something like the OWLS or NEWTS. (God, that sounds so silly.) I took my GED and I know for a fact that there is no way most of my hgh school class could have passed it and the only reason they got a diploma was because they were bodies in a chair for enough of the year. My husband took one of my practice GED tests back then and he would have barely passed and he had a 3.0!

Yes scary... one that it could happen and two that the Assinine Communtist Liberty Union (ACLU) that promotes illegal alien rights (and amnesty), KKK rights, and Man Boy Love (NAMBLA) rights is using scare tactics....

CAsh Only.. How funny :eek: