(no subject)
Sep. 12th, 2017 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckGetting Cordelia enrolled at Community was mostly painless. We had to wait for the people we needed to talk to to arrive, so my worry that we'd be late was groundless. There was one other new 9th grader enrolling, and the woman in charge of the process declared the 9th grade class officially full once she had both kids in the system. Some of the other classes still aren't quite full, though, so she's not done with the process yet. She told us that they had a lot of last minute drop outs this year and that it's highly unusual.
The building is a much more manageable size than Skyline is. It's three floors but still probably not bigger than Cordelia's older school because that sprawls more. We were able to find all of Cordelia's classes. Then her friend who has been there since day one managed to get out of class about twenty minutes early (the classes are in long blocks) and came out to keep Cordelia company. I left then and just barely missed the bus (I got turned around, and none of the people I asked for help in finding the right exit gave me the correct directions). Since it was half an hour until the next bus I started walking.
I missed the next bus because I'd detoured into a park to hack some portals I hadn't before. That was on me. I ended up walking another twenty minutes and then stopping to wait for the next bus. Standing and waiting was much, much harder than walking. I almost fell over while waiting because my legs just couldn't.
On the plus side I earned a silver badge for deploying mods in Ingress.
Cordelia decided to take Spanish rather than to try to find a way to take Chinese. Taking it at Skyline wasn't likely to work due to the bus schedule. We're still trying to figure out how to make choir at Skyline work, but getting back to Community in time requires catching a bus only one minute after the class ends (she can get to Skyline on the school bus because it's a first period class). Basically, any bus option for getting to Community by 9:35-- which she must do-- requires leaving before first period ends.
I'm not enthusiastic about relying on the teacher letting her go early and on Cordelia being assertive enough to point out that she has to. Still, I've emailed the teacher and will try calling her cell phone (which I have because of camp) a bit later one. We need to figure it out by 6:50 tomorrow morning so that Cordelia can got to Community if she's not going to choir. (Yes, the bus to Community is almost twenty minutes earlier than the bus to Skyline.)
I have to get her textbooks back to Skyline. She'll be using the same text in geometry at Community, but bureaucracy dictates using a different copy. If Cordelia keeps taking choir, she can take them in herself, either all three at once or one at a time, but I'm kind of assuming that we're not going to figure out a solution.
Hopefully, Cordelia figured out where to buy school lunch. Community has an open campus, so most kids buy lunches outside, and the school doesn't have a cafeteria. They told us that she can buy lunches at school, using her prepaid account, but they didn't give us a clear idea of where she needed to go. Her friend didn't know because she hadn't ever done it.
The building is a much more manageable size than Skyline is. It's three floors but still probably not bigger than Cordelia's older school because that sprawls more. We were able to find all of Cordelia's classes. Then her friend who has been there since day one managed to get out of class about twenty minutes early (the classes are in long blocks) and came out to keep Cordelia company. I left then and just barely missed the bus (I got turned around, and none of the people I asked for help in finding the right exit gave me the correct directions). Since it was half an hour until the next bus I started walking.
I missed the next bus because I'd detoured into a park to hack some portals I hadn't before. That was on me. I ended up walking another twenty minutes and then stopping to wait for the next bus. Standing and waiting was much, much harder than walking. I almost fell over while waiting because my legs just couldn't.
On the plus side I earned a silver badge for deploying mods in Ingress.
Cordelia decided to take Spanish rather than to try to find a way to take Chinese. Taking it at Skyline wasn't likely to work due to the bus schedule. We're still trying to figure out how to make choir at Skyline work, but getting back to Community in time requires catching a bus only one minute after the class ends (she can get to Skyline on the school bus because it's a first period class). Basically, any bus option for getting to Community by 9:35-- which she must do-- requires leaving before first period ends.
I'm not enthusiastic about relying on the teacher letting her go early and on Cordelia being assertive enough to point out that she has to. Still, I've emailed the teacher and will try calling her cell phone (which I have because of camp) a bit later one. We need to figure it out by 6:50 tomorrow morning so that Cordelia can got to Community if she's not going to choir. (Yes, the bus to Community is almost twenty minutes earlier than the bus to Skyline.)
I have to get her textbooks back to Skyline. She'll be using the same text in geometry at Community, but bureaucracy dictates using a different copy. If Cordelia keeps taking choir, she can take them in herself, either all three at once or one at a time, but I'm kind of assuming that we're not going to figure out a solution.
Hopefully, Cordelia figured out where to buy school lunch. Community has an open campus, so most kids buy lunches outside, and the school doesn't have a cafeteria. They told us that she can buy lunches at school, using her prepaid account, but they didn't give us a clear idea of where she needed to go. Her friend didn't know because she hadn't ever done it.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-12 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-12 08:12 pm (UTC)If you'd like to send me a list of Cordelia's teachers, I'd be happy to offer opinions on the ones that I know anything about.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-13 12:10 pm (UTC)I'll email you the list when we have it.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-13 04:46 pm (UTC)You can probably find the teacher list in PowerSchool.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-12 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-13 12:20 pm (UTC)Community is also much whiter than the general population of Ann Arbor, and I'm pretty sure that it's a matter of transportation and of the hoops that one has to jump through to get into the lottery. The lottery's run by an outside company and really is completely random, so I'm assuming bias in the applicant pool/application process.
If we weren't on a direct bus route to Community, I don't see how we could do it. When she wanted to go to the school where her best friend is, transportation was the deal breaker.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-13 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-16 05:19 pm (UTC)I imagine transportation is an enormous issue.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-13 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-16 05:21 pm (UTC)That's exactly what I reacted to. When I went to school in the 80s and early 90s, you just went to whatever school was in the county you lived in. You could only go to another public school outside your district if a parent worked there. Of course, I lived in a rural area, not an urban one, so it's possible these sorts of choices existed In Town LOL that did not exist out in the county.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-16 07:12 pm (UTC)I really liked the merit system in NYC, because I went to a science high school for bright kids, and it was an amazingly wonderful place to be nerdy and smart. Kids who had been picked on by even the teachers in junior high school were suddenly cool in a high school for bright kids. I loved that, and wish my kids could have that experience. But at the same time I do wonder what was happening at my local high school, back home in NYC, which was known as a place to flee from, because only burnouts went there. I guess it is kind of an Ayn Rand-ian question: Is it better for the bright kids to go to school together and have a good experience, or should they be kept in the same schools as everybody else, to have a much less pleasant experience, but it makes those schools better for everyone else and pulls up the more-average kids and the ones who aren't organized enough to apply to a specialized high school? It's hard to say. But I loved my high school, so I wish every kid could have a school where they are so happy.
Especially Cordelia. And my own kids. Sigh....
no subject
Date: 2017-09-16 10:43 pm (UTC)I always envy people who talk about having an amazing selection of classes and extra curriculars and other stuff available to them at high school. We had sports and band. And Spanish. And that was it. LOL
However, I am clear proof that success without any of those opportunities is possible, so *shrugs*
I hope Cordelia and your kids and mine and all our kids can have a good experience. :(
no subject
Date: 2017-09-13 04:07 am (UTC)Does this mean things are looking up?
And I hope that the choir situation also gets sorted.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-13 12:04 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure Cordelia's at choir right now. (Her phone is off, so I can't use GPS to tell where it is, but it was at Skyline half an hour ago.) She promised to call me when she's either on the bus to Community or certain that she's missed it, so I'll know something more in an hour.
no subject
Date: 2017-09-13 09:59 pm (UTC)