I feel sorry for principals. In my district, elementary schools with fewer than 700 students don't get a VP. There is a ton of paperwork that principals are required to do. The discipline is horrendous. And it comes from all grade levels. We have K and first grade discipline issues. And my principal doesn't get to decide how a lot of things are done. The superintendent and the state are dictating things now.

Regarding discipline, all suspensions are supposed to be in school ones now, as directed by the superintendent. She feels there should be interventions in place to prevent the need for suspensions. Unlike junior high and high schools we don't have a dedicated all day suspension room. So these troubled kids get placed in another teacher's classroom. These are kids who are getting suspended for getting physical with other kids, leaving school early, being seriously disruptive in the classroom... And I have yet to see any new interventions being put in place to help these kids.

Stacie maybe the teachers and principal at your son's first school were really crummy. But just maybe they are facing a lot of other issues, that you don't know about. Education is a tough place to be right now. No one is in it for the money. There are huge demands being placed on schools to perform to certain levels. How many of you can evaluate the meaning of archetypal patterns and symbols that are found in myth and tradition by using literature from different eras and cultures? Or solve problems involving linear functions; write the equation and graph the resulting ordered pairs of integers on a grid?

Those are two things ALL my fifth graders are supposed to be able to do by the end of the year. These kids are ten years old! I have kids who are reading at a second grade level. I have kids who can't subtract 5 from 13 without using their fingers. Yet they are supposed to have mastery of those two things plus more than 50 others. And that's just in math and Lang. Arts, science and social studies add in 30 more. If we don't score well enough, we risk being taken over the state. Teachers are under huge pressure to get kids to do well on tests.

What do we do about kids who are so far behind? We can't retain them. That's bad for their self-esteem (whatever that is... I prefer self respect myself.) They don't qualify for extra help. Here the parent has the final say about retention and many refuse. It's a sad situation and one that no one seems to have an answer to.

Each teacher got $100 to spend on supplies for the year. It's gone already for copy paper, pencils, binder paper and composition books. I've already spent nearly $500 of my own money since September. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I run out of supplies.

If the teachers at the first school have had a start of the year anything like mine, their lives have been pretty sucky. My alarm goes off at 4:30, but most days I've been waking up between 3:00 and 3:30 too stressed out to go back to sleep. So I get up and grade, create lessons to fit the demands of the superintendent, look through our curriculum to see if I can make it fit what she wants...If I'm lucky I may work out for 30 minutes in the morning doing yoga or Core stuff. That's if I feel like I've got a good handle on things. Otherwise it's work until I need to get ready to go to work. I have students from 8:00 until 3. Two or three afternoons a week I have meetings until 4:30 or 5. I get home and I work until 8, taking off about 45 minutes for dinner. I haven't ridden my bike, other than my 4 mile commute, on a week day since Sept. 14 and that was only because we had a half day.

I'm glad you found a place that you like for your son. I just want you to understand that there is a lot more going on at that first school than you are probably aware of. And a parent who "corners" the staff, would make me extremely uncomfortable. I hope things work out for you and your family.

Veronica