Odds and (Loose) Ends

I don't want to leave yesterday's post about the declining rate of mental retardation among African American students hanging out there with out some comment. First of all, I think the fact that the rate is declining, especially among misdiagnosed students, is of course a very good trend. But I admit to being very surprised that this was an identified problem at all. I know that I can be naive, even at my age ;), but after watching the School Board debate grade weighting, it's easy to think that our highly rated school system has to only make some minor adjustments to provide ALL of our children a world class education. Clearly, I wouldn't spend so much time here talking about special education if there weren't serious improvements that need to be made for this group of students. There is another advocacy group for minority student achievement, the Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee. I am not a part of this committee, but support their efforts to improve achievement among the students that they are working with. But now I wonder if the SEAC (special ed advisory committee) and the MSAAC might not both benefit from a joint sub-committee. I know I want more data about the mental retardation rates stated in the goals. How old are these students? What were the conditions they did have if they were misdiagnosed? Is there data that also relates the rate to income level? Are the MR rates of white students from the same planning zones also increased? How did the rates come down? Have they identified nutrition, lead paint, lack of appropriate medical screening or some other potential cause? We need more information about this.

Principals
We are getting a new principal who is currently an assistant principal at a Leesburg school. Our current assistant principal is also leaving to become the principal at a small school in the county. So, we will have all new administrators when school begins in the fall. Will be interesting to see what changes are made.

Summer Programs
Talked to the OT this morning about summer activities for Little Dude - more cursive writing. Actually, I'm going to start with capital letters this summer as this is a specific area that needs practice. Bought a copy of the Type to Learn program that the resource teacher is using for keyboarding and we will continue this also. Going to sign him up for "math camp," which pretty much leaves writing content. Need a variety of methods for this to continue to be interesting over the summer. Most of all, I need to set up a schedule to accomplish this work that starts soon after school is out!

Waiting...

Since I'm sitting here waiting for a car, I can take the time to do an update.

I've been working on the vanity stool the last couple of days. My fingers hurt from pulling out about 100 staples; clearly this was machine upholstered. But I can finally see the end of this particular project. If there's enough fabric, I'll make a reversible bottom cushion instead of the attached one that came with it. Waiting for a car to be available to go get interfacing at the fabric store so I can finish this up.

Watched the school board meeting on TV the other night. ALM thinks I'm out of mind to watch these meetings, but there really is a lot that takes place. Missed the beginning where the new principals for the new high schools were announced, so had to look up the info on board docs. Unfortunately, saw Little Dude's OT listed as one of the employees who is resigning at the end of the school year. We had two OT's last year and then a different one this year, so I'm not anxious to change once again, especially since the last two have been providing both services and information beneficial to the team and our plan. Just learned this year from our current OT why he rights down the middle of the page; wish someone had educated me about this at an earlier date as this has been driving me crazy for years. Now I can let it go and concentrate on the content.

Anyway, back to the school board meeting. There didn't seem to be any announcements on elementary level leadership positions so will have to wait to find out who our next principal will be. I also missed the public comments from Dominion HS parents about the suspensions of students after drinking wine during a recent field trip to France. In other words, all of the fun viewing was over by the time I tuned in! Heard the discussion on grandfathering fifth graders, but didn't hear a single word about special exceptions for special ed students. If Little Dude was affected by a boundary change in fifth grade and I didn't know what options I had, I'd be ticked. We've been planning for his transition to middle school for the last two annual IEP meetings. And his caseworker and I are trying to plan a joint visit to the middle school before finals start to continue this planning.

The discussion on grade weighting was tense, but I was glad to see that all of the advocacy of parents was not ignored. What is the advantage of taking Honors classes if there is no weighting available for the extra work and commitment? And who wouldn't agree that the Science Academy coursework should be weighted? Will have to tune in next time to see what happens. Not going to get involved in the Wheatland issue as it is now a dead deal, and we have our own problems with land and a high school right here in Dulles North.

Yeah, SOL's are finished for another year!

It Helps to Know Management

Got the following letter yesterday by backpack mail:
Dear.... Families,
I will assume another position on July 1, 2009. I have been appointed to serve as principal of ... Elementary in western Loudoun. I am excited to have an opportunity to open a new school however saddened to leave the children and community I know so well.
Sincerely,
...

Little Dude said the teacher read the letter to the class. I like that she waited until after this week's SOL's to give them this news. I commented to him that it would have been nice if she had written more details. What I didn't say is that it didn't take a whole piece of paper to send this out. And it wouldn't pass the 5th grade SOL writing standards. And we will have the third principal since Little Dude started kindergarten at our neighborhood school. I did remind him of how kind the principal was to him when he thought he had missed his ride after school while we had our IEP meeting.

He has strong opinions on who should be the next principal - the current Assistant Principal. But the other students in his class disagree and think it will be someone totally new. Little Dude has a close relationship with our AP. When he was younger and one of his accommodations was "frequent breaks," she would come to his classroom every day and they would go on a "security check" of the building. I love that! When we were getting reports that he wasn't finishing his lunch most days, she checked on him in the lunch room every day for about 3 years. When there was a bully problem on the bus, he went to her. As ALM likes to say, it's good to know management, and Little Dude does.

I don't presume to have any way of knowing what will happen or how a new principal will be choosen, but I have noticed one thing: our current AP is not attending Child Study or IEP meetings that are currently taking place. Is it a sign of a promotion? I hope so for Little Dude's sake.

Heard from Floggy yesterday, the car saga continues. Gramps is going to help him tow the car to the Mechanic School today. Maybe a reliable diagnosis will finally take place so we are not replacing random parts on a trial and error basis. He's still doing very well in Mechanic School and enjoying it. Hope he learns diagnosis skills!

Ms Giggles will put in a twelve hour day today, as she is working both jobs for the first time. ALM has invited a high school friend that he hasn't seen since HS over for a cookout this weekend. No games, no practices for a nice long weekend. Should be relaxing.