I was reading your post about Open House night at your school and chuckled. Just wait until conferences come around. When my boys were in middle school, I had to conference with 32 teachers. All 4 boys were there and they had 8 classes each. Luckily a few of the teachers were the same so I did a team conference with them. They set it up especially for me. My dh didn't do conferences so it was up to me to see all of the teachers.

By the time we made it to high school I only had 16 teachers to conference with. If I got there at 2:30 sharp, I could be done by 7:30.

Good Luck!!!!

mom to:
Ryan 32 The Lawyer
Jason 30 The Chief Meteorologist
Chris 30 The College Student
Tim 30 The college grad

I love hearing their versions of their childhood memories!!

Thank a lot...I had not thought about that. Our three boys are in middle school (7th) this year. They only have 7 periods -- they all have the same PE teacher ("Zero" Period, 7:30 am), but I don't think we "conference" with the PE teacher anyway.

There are a couple more overlaps here and there, so I don't think we have much more than 15 different teachers. That's still more than a bucket full!

Back-to-School Night next week will be a bit busy!

Vaughn and the ABC Boys
Alex, Bryce, & Calder
3-31-97 @ 28.5 weeks
http://s515.photobucket.com/albums/t356/vaughn3abc/

I always loved the challenge of getting to each teacher. Many of them were also coaches so I had to time it right to see them. Then others went to dinner and I had to work around that. But I did it!! Even though my kids didn't have any trouble in school, I still enjoyed hearing the comments, compliments and just how these teachers saw my kids as people. They had some great insights into my kids.

Enjoy the middle school years. Those boys are heading towards adulthood.

mom to:
Ryan 32 The Lawyer
Jason 30 The Chief Meteorologist
Chris 30 The College Student
Tim 30 The college grad

I love hearing their versions of their childhood memories!!

Oh, goody. Something to look forward to!

Back-to-school night just about knocked us out. I'm still writing checks to teachers for classroom stuff and hoping I don't miss one! Still need to contact the one teacher we missed.

Conference time will be interesting. With all the budget cuts in CA, it is my understanding that our district cut out the two days at Thanksgiving that conferences are held. Saves on teacher salaries.

Conferences will be discouraged unless there is a specific issue. No need to meet with you if your child has an "A". And that will have to be done on an individual teacher's schedule. Should be interesting, if nothing else.

It's going to be a long year....

Sharon
12 year old b/b/b + 16 year old son

Sharon that is interesting about the conference cutting. Our district had huge cuts this year, but the 2010 school year is going to be a nightmare. I could see those cuts happening here too.

We had to cut $15 million from our budget for this school year. Next year we have to cut another $15.8 million and we are trying to pass a levy for $8 million for that year also. I keep hearing that we are going to be done to the bones for 2010. I just hope I can keep my job, and if I do, that it will be something I like doing. I am in Special Education. This is my 20th year, but that may not be enough when the cuts start happening.

mom to:
Ryan 32 The Lawyer
Jason 30 The Chief Meteorologist
Chris 30 The College Student
Tim 30 The college grad

I love hearing their versions of their childhood memories!!

The budget cuts are just frightening here. The school district cut the two days of teacher pays during Thanksgiving week that covered the conferences. Teacher training days have been cut. They are trying to keep the cuts away from the kids but the money shortages are just too much.

New books are not being ordered. In junior high, the English teacher asked if parents that are able to afford to order a used copy of the thick literature book for home use. There are no school copies so the heavy book has to be carried back and forth from home. I found one for $12 and that will free us two copies of the book to be used in the classroom (2 of my boys can share).

In CA, new taxes and bond measures need a 2/3 vote to pass. Thus, there are very few new taxes or bonds. Prop. 13 from the 1970s stabilized our property taxes. However, property taxes are the primary source of funding for our schools. The UC and state university system are cutting back to the bone. It's horrible.

Teachers have been laid off or reassigned due to budget cuts. Grades 4-6 are now at 34 students, up from 30. Kindergarten went from 20-30 students. However, Grades 1-3 are at 20 to 1 for this year because there's some outside funding for it. But I'm hearing that will be gone next year and that means bigger classes and more teacher layoffs. Some very amazing teachers were laid off or reassigned from our elementary school. I'm glad we've had a great experience at that level before the cuts hit.

All the junior high teachers are asking for money. We have to pay for the English vocabulary book ($10), science workbook ($10), history workbook ($10), and a variety of supplies. The ceramics teacher said last year she got exactly 50 cents per student for the entire year's supplies. Grants are very hard to come by. Parents were asked to pay $25 per child, plus a variety of household supplies (not expensive), plus Kleenex and soap.

We have back-to-school night at the high school on Thursday. I'm expecting another rush for donations at that time. The school was lucky enough to get new books within the last year or two. However, due to budget shortages, no classroom set was ordered. So the kids have to lug the books back and forth to school. My son's backback is about 35 pounds! He's a big kid but still. It's not good for his back. What about the little kids.....

In our area, we're lucky enough that many parents can afford these extra costs. But what about areas that parents can't afford it? I haven't even gotten into the long list of school supplies we had to buy.

Okay, my rant is over!

Sharon
12 year old b/b/b + 16 year old son

Our classes at the high school have gone up this year. I have spoken to a number of classroom teachers and they are going to be sitting with 37 students. I can't even imagine the numbers they will have the next year. Our school is run mainly on tax dollars also. We are a northern suburban school and suffer from a lack of equity funding. The wealthier districts where most of the businesses are located do quite well. We are a suburb with mainly homes and very small businesses. Those two just don't bring in the tax dollars like a multi-million dollar company does.

As far as textbooks go, the only classes that have class room sets that stay in the building are the subjects that can't afford to have a book for each student. The bad part about that is, is that then students have to complete their work at school. No books can go home or the class will end up short books. Our textbooks are sooooo big and heavy. I support World History, Economics, Government, Chemistry, Law and sometimes English. It varies from semester to semester. But, those darn social studies books are killers. My arm gets tired hauling them around each day. We have 3000 kids in our building so that is a lot of textbooks to buy. We cycle every 7 years for new books. Unless, like one year, the books they bought were awful, so they had to dump that series and purchase a better book.

The poor parents getting hit so hard with all the extra fees. I am so glad that my kids are done with the public schools. Now it is just costing an arm and a leg to get my son through his master's program. Sharon, it never ends!!!!

mom to:
Ryan 32 The Lawyer
Jason 30 The Chief Meteorologist
Chris 30 The College Student
Tim 30 The college grad

I love hearing their versions of their childhood memories!!