Milford Plaza is in the theater district,

• RE: Hotel in NYC - LinK
  • Milford Plaza is in the theater district, - rr
    • Hotel - LinK
      • Just don't expect a luxurious room unless you are sm - you don't have to go dumpy
        • Rooms in NYC - LinK
        • Very true about booking in advance - sm
          • Thanks you regarding Expedia, etc. - LinK

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A couple of years ago, we got a new superintendent for our school district.  He apparently was dismissed from his previous job due to conflicts (he's rumored to have gotten 2 teachers pregnant in his previous school district).  He's made a lot of changes to our school district that I don't agree with.  I must admit that I am resistant to change; I kind of feel like "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." 

He started out by saying we needed to reduce expenses.  First, he made children go to the school closest to their home/babysitter.  I was okay with this.  I agreed with this, unless the parents were willing to transport their kids to the school they wanted their children at.  Secondly, he changed the bussing schedule, making all kids K-12 ride together, thereby starting the elementary schools an hour earlier (from 9 to 8 a.m. start time).  My kindergartener has to get up 6:00 a.m. to be on the bus by 7:00 for a 45-minute bus ride.  I can't tell you the language my kids have learned.  My second grader came home the first week of this new schedule and asked me what a virgin was.  While implementing this, he then went on to purchase $10,000 worth of mahogany office furniture for himself. 

We are also doing renovations on our high school.  Ours is a junior/senior high school (grades 7 through 12).  They are now making it punishable if 7-8 graders cross over to the 9-12 graders side.  Okay, so why do you not want 7-8 graders mixing with the 9-12 graders, but yet it's okay to put them on all the same bus together with the elementary kids?  It doesn't make sense.

Now, we're hearing that we don't have enough teachers at the 1 school for the upcoming 5th or 6th grade class, so they're going to bus our kids to the other elementary school in our district to accommodate this.  This will cause some parents to have 2 elementary kids in different schools.  It also goes against the first change he made (see above).

We've also been told by some of the school district employees that the schedule for next year has one scheduled 2-hour delay per month to give the teachers extra planning time.  It also has the kids off every Friday in May, and they're going a week later in the summer to make it up.  Additionally, our kids are now being given 2 weeks for Christmas vacation and 1 full week for Easter/spring break, and the makeup is being tacked to the end of the year.  I should mention that we are in the NE part of the country, but we do have some warm days in June and not all classrooms have air conditioners (only the rooms where the teacher supplied it). 

Okay, so my question is how do I voice my opinion about some of these issues that I don't agree with.  It seems the last part about the scheduling was done behind closed doors.  I know of others in the community who voiced their opinions at the school board meetings, but to no avail.  Is there an advocate who can help to mediate some of these issues.  My biggest issue has been the bussing of all kids together and starting the elementary kids so early.  My K'er says he falls asleep in class some days, and he goes to bed at 8:00, and now I've started to drive them to school so they don't have to get up until 7:00, which is still a little early but definitely better.  Before this guy came on, the elementary schools started at 9:00 and they didn't have to get up until 8:00, which was easily managable.

I'm guessing I'm probably in the dark ages on some of these issues.  I'm sure there are schools everywhere that get a week off for Spring Break and 2 weeks off for Christmas and every Friday off in May and a 2-hour delay per month, but how do working parents deal with this?  I'm thankful that this isn't an issue for me, but it does cut into the kids' summer vacation.