AM~Erica's Boiling Point Reached

So anyway...

As many of you know, I have shared my disdain for how our school district has handled a lot of things in the last couple of years. Last school year really had me questioning many things. (A reminder HERE <<=== then read the link with it, too, for additional background - then the blogception that will happen. A rabbit hole of background, if you dare.)

With that said, and put BACK out there in the same type of position, again, I feel another open letter is in order. Why the open letter? I need to see what other parents had anything close to what we dealt with. Also, these kids need advocates for them thru this madness. I'm willing to step up & say something in hopes that others will step up to speak up, too. Also, finding anyone from the district, on the school board, or the superintendent are not exactly easy to just find & meet up with.

So, here goes:

**********

Dear Independence School District, ISD School Board, and Dr. Dale Herl,

As a frustrated parent, I am finding this is becoming much more of a regular occurrence than not. Which is not a good sign. The levels of disappointment and anger I have reached are beyond measurable at this point.

Finding a positive, the school district does try to make strides in keeping up with the times. However, I am not sure how tested these methods are.

A couple of years ago, when class registration for high school's upcoming year, there was an idea to do it online. That's fine. But all the students who needed to sign up for classes had to show up to the school AND use any available computer in the library while being on a server that could not handle that much traffic at once. It also included classes no longer available, as well as classes that were supposed to be available, but not listed. The students were frustrated. The parents were frustrated. The counselors were frustrated. The server system was frustrated.

It was a total mess.

Now then, as my son enters his senior year of high school, he has found that he has had to make a schedule change, right off the bat, every year so far except for his freshman year. But he does say it's because he was just starting out and didn't know any better.

For this upcoming school year, the seemingly "optional" online registration (new this year) seemed like a nice amenity to have. So imagine our shock when we went to register our youngest just to find out online registration was mandatory. This is fine, but we took the wording in information to be optional. We found an onsite Chromebook (not our favorite to work with), since we didn't want to head home to register online, just to have to go back up to the school to finish enrollment. (more on this in a moment)

Imagine our additional shock that we had to create yet another online account to set this up. We already have an account set up on Power School to see our kids' grades, and even register for online summer school, but we still had to set this up completely separately. But we still used our kids' ID number from Power School to be able to connect our new account to be able to ensure their mandatory online enrollment. Confusing, but we went with it.

Some of the information in the online fields were pre-filled out from past information we'd given on forms in years past. A little freaky, but fine. Just keep hitting "Save" on all the areas so you could move on to the next page.

This included refilling out information for the health forms, now part of the online process. Odd, but fine. We had to go with it, or the kid doesn't get registered for school. I get it.

When all of that is complete, we can go to the school's office for residency verification & be assigned a teacher (for elementary).

By now, we get it. We realized why we didn't get a large amount of forms mailed to us for our high schooler, like we would usually get. We had to go to the newly set up account, add a kid with their student ID (the one that matches on Power School, but the account isn't attached to the Power School account, remember?) to go through the same process as our youngest.

As I got to the part about Primary Contact, and all my info had been pre-filled in (just like before), I had to put in a couple of things. I tried to save it. It wouldn't save. I tried changing things that might need to be changed, but nothing. I couldn't move on.
I gave it a rest & tried to come back.
The registration process for our high schooler said, "In Progress." It took me right back to the page I'd left off. Still no saving. My stress levels were building. Nothing seemed to be working. So I had to break down and call for help.

When I called the number, I spoke with Edna.

E:   *answers introducing herself*

Me: Hi. I am trying to register my son online, and I seem to be having trouble.

E:    First you have to fill out all the fields, make sure they are saved...

Me: *cutting her off* Excuse me. I wasn't finished & I need you to listen.

E:    Oh, I'm sorry. Please continue.

Me:  I am on a page where everything is filled out, but it won't seem to save. I've tried changing some
        some things, but it won't seem to save.

E:   Well OK. If you don't mind, can I log in to see what's going on?

Me: Sure!

E:  OK, I'll need your email address.

Me: *recites email adress*

E:   Thank you. Now, can I get your password?

Me: Hold on. Let me go to another room so my kiddos can't hear it.

E:   *laughs* Oh, I understand.

Me: OK. *gives password*

E:   Thank you. Now which child are you wanting to register?

Me: *face palm* Umm...[Teen Boy], the one in progress.

E:   Of course. Oh, I see the problem! You need to put in an employer.

Me: I've been trying, but it won't save. I put it in on [Lil Guy]'s registration & it took fine. I've filled
       out everything else, but it won't seem to save here.

E:   Well, this does seem to be acting like a booger...
       Oh! I see the problem. You have a space after your email address, and this system is very sensitive.

Me: Are you serious?

E:   OK. It's saved now.

Me: *a bit irritated how that worked out, but not at Edna* OK. Thank you very much!


Yeah...you know those pre-filled-out fields? That's what screwed me over. I couldn't move on because of an extra space in a pre-filled-out field. How frustrating!! I'm thankful Edna could help me, but what hangup in the process! But I got to move on with the rest of it, including the health form section.

But it's done & now I can get my son to the school, on the selected day he was given, to do residency verification and get his schedule. Fine.

Here's where it gets really hairy...

First, we approached the "Start Here" table in the main foyer. A couple of students, apparently part of Student Council, were there to get us "started." We were asked, "Did you register online?" We answered with a yes, and were abruptly handed a salmon-colored form & told to head down the hall to the library.

There's a line that had formed, even so quickly after the hour & a half lunch break had ended. We took a moment to look at the form, make sure we had our residency verification in hand, as well as the mandatory dance contract that has to be signed to have on file. The salmon form had a list of check-off points to stop by, only 3 (or four, if you count "register online") were required.

As we moved our way SLOWLY into the library, we were SLOWLY approaching a table where parents were signing half-sheets of paper stacked on a clipboard & being handed a booklet of papers. When we finally got to the table, we were asked by a woman in scrubs, "Have you registered online?" Umm...yes, or we wouldn't be there in the line, but yes. Then she proceeded to say they needed me to fill out one of the super-simplified half-sheets to have on file if the student needs major health needs within the first week of school because they won't have access to the health info we put online.
*FACE PALM*

But we filled it out just to hurry & wait to SLOWLY make our way around to residency verification. We finally got there! We were to sit down across from one of the four staff members checking documentation (which is not how it worked at the elementary school, but I digress for now). The first question we were asked was, "So have you registered online?"
UGH!!!!!!! *ahem* Yes. Yes, we registered online. It's noted as "REQUIRED" on your salmon sheet. We couldn't move on to going through the process at the school if we hadn't done the mandatory pre-registering online. Why do we keep getting asked this?
Anyway, we were not asked for the student's name, but instead asked for our address first. It was a weird part of the process. But we got through it fine, and then went on to the next on our list: getting the bus pass.

As we got up to the table, there were 3 people working the table with stacks of papers. The woman stepped away to apparently take some sort of bizarre call, so it left a couple of men to handle the families. When it was our turn to step up, we were asked, "Last name?" (glad it wasn't if we'd registered online) So I replied, "[Boy], first name [Teen]." The man in the middle seat detested, "Whoa! A step at a time! We have files to go through!"
The other man kindly picked up on it, then asked if he was going to be a senior. We acknowledged that he had the right student, but the man in the middle was still sorting.

MiM:  What's the first name?

Me:       [Teen].

MiM:  Ah! There he is. So, a freshman?


Yikes! After we went through that weird station, it was time to head to get his schedule.

Remember when I said that my son has just come to realize he will have to change SOMETHING on his schedule? We could not fully brace for what we encountered...

One of my husband's staff also has kiddos at THS. She gave him a head's up that both of her kids' schedules had major issues...like missing entire blocks: like no 2nd block class listed, as an example. Apparently it had happened to others, too. So we tried to brace.

When my son got his schedule, he was almost immediately handed a schedule change form. And for good reason...
As he looked at his schedule, he was missing 2nd block, 4th block, and had two 8th blocks. Then he was told that if was taking Advanced Placement World History, then they were scheduled completely wrong, so that would have to be changed. And he didn't see any of his 2nd semester classes listed. On the gold form to make schedule changes, my son had to make notes on 4 of the 5 categories to do so. That's insane! And? The room was full of other students doing the same thing. We didn't see a single student leave that room with a schedule that was fine. Not. A. Single. One.

This never should have happened. For a district to, not only add yet another class to the already crowded high school schedule, but to also force online registration all at the same time...it was too much.

My question really is whether or not this was all tested out to make sure any glitches were taken care of.
Also, for a district to want to cut back on budgeting, like paper usage, there was so much paper & ink used to have such a large populous of the student body schedules to be screwed up.

Oh, and we won't hear anything until August 7th...but start calling if we don't hear anything by the 9th.

All. The. Paper.
All. The. Ink.

Half-sheets & screwed up schedules all due to not matching up with the online registration. That was mandatory.

WHAT A WASTE!! Waste of time. Waste of resources. But teachers need to watch their budgeting & such. Especially on those resources. Right?

In this mess, what was actually accomplished?

Then, when my son made his changes to turn back in, he looked so defeated. He showed me something on his schedule that made my heart sink to my stomach...
He got a new counselor. Again.
See, this will be his 4th year at this high school. This will be his 4th counselor.

He's worked so hard to try to build a relationship with his counselor. Not just for helping him through his high school experience, but to help get him a good reference for college. One of the requirements from his top colleges he wants is to get a reference from their counselor. This is crushing right now. Especially since we just visited his top choices & this is what they are looking for.

As he walked out of that room, defeated, we realized we were still holding on to that dance contract. No one had ever asked for it! We finally ended up asking the "Start Here" table students what to do with it. The girl asked him if he'd already gotten his schedule. Well, yes. Then she shrugged, said she just handed hers to the principal at some point & didn't know from there.
*FACE PALM*
So, we are still hanging onto that stupid dance contract!

It took us over 30 minutes to do what should have taken 5-10 minutes.

Realizing that he has a new counselor, it just hit us the amount of turnover in this district within the last couple of years. It's heartbreaking. My older son was reminiscing that, not only is he on his 4th counselor, but his 3rd principal.

When our youngest went to register, we already knew many of the teachers were planning on hightailing it out of the district. Lil Guy's teacher is new to the district; three of the four teachers in his grade are new this year.

Appears exciting, but that is a lot of turnover!

To use a levy to make it look like all of these new teaching jobs are being created, and baiting teachers from across the state boarder to try to fill positions, is really sneaky. There is no consistency, and I'm concerned for all the new teachers entering. Do they have any idea why there were so many teaching positions? It's not because there was a new school building or two to staff.

When we left the high school today, I was infuriated! My son was so let down. When we got into the car to head home, my son, a gifted speaker & debater, could barely finish a sentence about how crushed he felt. I'm not sure he did finish a sentence for most of the way home. He was choked up with so much defeated emotion.

The more I bring up about the direction this district is going, the more frustrated I become. I want my kids to have a good education; I want them to go to good schools. Because of the fact we were sent here, and then provided a wonderful place specifically to get us to these schools now has me concerned about where this district is headed. There are people from here who had/have faith in the district. And they are seeing it crumble as we are. And we have to attend here.

With that said, I will fight for my kids to have better in the district we were made to believe it once was. Because we don't see it. Today had me at my boiling point. My rising senior, too.

My son's final year in this district, and he already wants it done.
That's heartbreaking!

I'm concerned that decisions are being made based on only trying to move forward with times & for the sake of power, but not with the wellbeing of the students or any faculty in mind. That needs to change!

And it needs to change NOW!

Sincerely,

~ A Very Concerned Parent Trying to Advocate for the Kids & Faculty

**********

People who are part of this, raise your voice. Get word out there. Email, blog, call, show up to meetings, etc. ANYTHING we can if you care about your kids in this district. For anyone who grew up here & wanted your kids here, it's not what it was when you went through. It's also not the same leadership, if you want to call it that. If you don't take off blinders, you're kids will fall through the cracks. Not just of our system, but any higher education plans afterward. This is going to affect your kids if they are in sports, too. I guarantee it.

So, anyone else want to speak up? Our kids should not be going through this. At all.
Neither should the educators.

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica

AM~Erica Apparently Needs Address it Again

So anyway...

Another school year is coming to a close. And we have had to deal with some flighty decisions made by a school district who is trying to hide behind a veil of "care", but many of us see the writing on the wall. A veil that can easily be seen thru if you take a moment to actually look thru it. When the light hits it just right, it's clear.

Last night was one of those times that the veil could be seen thru. And we were reminded how not pretty the face beneath it lies.

So, I'm going to take another moment to lift the veil to speak to those who hide underneath, and I will address those who need addressed in an open letter.

**********

Dear Dr. Herl & the Independence District School Board Members,

The flood of changes that have been made throughout these last couple of years have been mostly baffling. Trying to keep up with decisions made nearly out of the blue are concerning.

Many of these changes made have not shown where the kids have been kept in mind. Instead it appears there is an irresponsible wielding of power going on. It's disheartening & disappointing as a parent watching & witnessing the amount of seemingly unnecessary changes going on way too often.

With the recent levy that passed (by nearly a roughly 60/40% passing - which isn't an overwhelming margin by any means), that was supposed to mean it's supposed to bring in more teachers to help control class size. Which sounds great on the surface. But a couple of types of people got their votes to pass it in who either:

A) don't have direct contact or involvement in the schools, but think they are helping the kids without further information expect blindly listening to those pushing in favor of it,

B) have kids in the district because this is where they went & just want anything that sounds remotely positive to happen to keep the veil pulled over their eyes in hopes the bad stuff isn't really happening so their kids could go thru the same buildings they did.

This combination is your 60%. The other 40% know what's up, or at least can see the problems with the scenario. If the citizen remain & continue to be informed, plus letting more of the 60% know, and then that is true power.

And with that said, every year, with each class of seniors that come thru, there will be a whole new round of those kids turning 18. This means all of them will have the power to vote. This means that they have lived the confusing changes, don't trust the district, and, therefore, will not vote for any moves they deem unworthy of their support.

Just like much of what's taken place over these last two years. Great administrators were chased out because there's a district who thought they were also in real estate. Teachers left after being used as chess pieces within the district for not a lot of good reason. The only reason, really, was to prove the district could move them. More money has been taken from anything that is not sports. As there are students excelling in their non-sports departments, even representing the district & their schools on upwards of a national level, funds keep getting taken away right & left. They seem to be the first with swift, chaotic changes that are happening way too often. They can't get settled in changes made.

In just this last year, alone, we have seen a superintendent abusing power, seemingly with the backing of the school board. But the question becomes whether or not the board really has tabs on the district leader. If you click HERE, I have already been giving examples leading up to this letter. (Please read the link within that link, too, for an even greater understanding of where some of this stems from.)

There are many of us afraid of watching a villain coming forward. Someone who is in it for the power & the title. Someone who is willing to hide behind charity to "prove" right decisions are being made. And there's too many who refuse to speak up about it.

Things are not good here. If you look at Independence school rankings, even in just Missouri, it's embarrassing how far down the list this district is listed. If you look thru any given top high schools or school districts in Missouri, NONE of the Independence schools are even in the top 100. On one of the sites, which I'm trying to remember where we found it, Independence was given a 5 out 10 possible points. Neighboring districts, Blue Springs & Liberty, were given 8 or 9. Embarrassing.

With all of these things going down, and teachers being used as chess pieces, or just watching them leave so they don't get caught up being game pieces, something is already seemingly coming to fruition that I was trying to warn voters of when the levy came out. I went on some rants about how I was concerned with who would be handling the money since there has been no trust built as of late. Supposedly, there was to be a tight look on how the money would be spent & it was going to be monitored closely.

Dr. Herl was supposed to be speaking to a Sunday school class at our church about the levy, before the vote. I was prepped & ready to find him to discuss major issues behind my opinion of the levy & how I felt it was a catch-22. Then I found out he had backed out about 2 day beforehand, and a couple members of the school board would be there instead. I was disappointed, but looked at the situation as an opportunity to be able to approach the board about all of my concerns about the proposed levy & about the superintendent that is more than not-trusted. I was willing to lay out the reasons, too. Then it turned out it wouldn't be school board members, but instead a FORMER board member AND a spouse of a board member! Apparently it was against the rules for those who would be handling the levy money could not make a push for the levy, but send cronies out instead. Ugh.

Well, I still took the opportunity to corner one of the speakers about my concerns. He was not at all aware about what had been going on. Everything I told him was complete news to him. And it was after speaking to a class of grandparents...you know, part of the 60%. The clueless ones hoping to get information, but only listening blindly to what is being fed to them. I am glad a few of them are friends of mine & already had an idea from me as to what is actually happening in the district.

I'm laying all of this out, right now, Dr. Herl & Board, so that you will know where this next piece of information is coming from.

Last night, the Truman HS speech & debate squad had their end-of-the-year awards banquet. It was a lovely evening & we were so proud of the accomplishments of, not only our own child, but those of the whole squad. Seniors were giving their farewells. And it was awesome how they did after the major double-change that was a part of the chaos being dealt with this year.

When you wanted to continue to lift up Van Horn, while continuing to lay great focus on that high school (without a great deal of care for the other two high schools that need your great attention, too),  by doubling up the great speech & debate coaching team at Truman by dividing their time between the two schools, that was enough to hurt our hearts to watch our beloved coaches working with TWO separate squads. Squads that still compete against each other at their tournaments. Sounds like a conflict of interest to me. But I digress....
After this had been decided upon, the competitive drama teacher decided it would be best to leave the district instead, going to a neighboring district and taking her talents with her. It was a bombshell dropped upon the squad and parents. This meant bringing in another coach. Another coach who would be sharing their time between two squads. Double bombshell.

So, a new coach was brought in, much to the dismay of the competitive drama side of the squad. But, thru this year, he proved to be a worthy coach & really helped these kids to make great strides! In a school-year's time the kids were so thankful for him coming on board & being the great coach that he has been. The seniors gave him high praise, even apologizing for emotional attitudes out of early defiance...because they came to love him & couldn't wait to see how he would coach the other squad members in the time to come. Heck, he'd even turned down more money from a another school to stay on with this squad because he saw such great potential in this up & coming group of talented kids!

The squad persevered this past year of sharing coaches AND a new coach, too. And my son has been talking to the new coach to help him with some speaking pointers this coming year to help him excel more...

After the closing remarks from the squad president, then it came time for closing remarks from the debate coach...
As she took her place at the podium, she said that she had typed up what she would be saying so there would be no question about what was about to be said & that it could be made available to anyone who couldn't be there....

Uh-oh...something's up. We braced because whatever was coming wasn't going to be good.

Then, she shared these words:

As a celebratory & fun night of memories, tears, and accomplishments was a wonderful highlight, the sharing of this news made the night take a shocking downward spiral. After the last line was read, there was a stunned silence followed by sobs of sadness. Not only were the seniors experiencing the close of their final squad banquet, but the squad, as a whole, lost a whole lot in one fell swoop. Not only the seniors they've been looking up to, but there would be yet another huge change to deal with as they were just getting their footing.

I'm going to take this back to the passing of the levy vote for a moment:
Just because you have that money coming in now, this doesn't mean you should spend it almost frivolously. This lay out has Mr. Stafford on the way out the door within a few short years. It also is costing the district even more money. What has been proposed by the coaches to be able to keep the initial arrangement, set up for just this year, but to eliminate the travel money, would actually save the district a huge amount of money. Now they want to keep hiring staff that may or may not last. The squad just became OK with the set up after seeing they could still succeed, even sharing their coaches with another squad WHILE getting to know a new coach. And that has been torn away from them again.

Now, I'm going to be clear right now. Mrs. Adams did NOT engage in anymore conversation after reading the letter. She did NOT tell anyone to say anything concerning this. The squad members had already taken to Twitter to voice their disappointment. Several of us parents were discussing our great disappointment. And the answers we wanted were not coming from Mrs. Adams. She read the info she needed to, made the speech available, and that was it. Do NOT put blame on her as we express our great disappointment in the district. This is on you!

This is also a parent reaching out to have you reconsider their proposal. They want the kids to succeed & will do anything, apparently, to invest in the success of the kids. What are you doing about it?

We watch you tear away at relationships with teachers & students, messing with futures, education, and careers. It's disheartening.

After one year of a trial, that was a difficult one to get thru, you have decided to shake things up again. So, are you going to keep making huge changes every single year? Change can be good, once in while. If no one has time to settle with the changes, it is nothing but chaos. And I hurt for the kids having to deal with your actions.

The teachers, staff & students whose lives you are dealing with are people. They are not inanimate objects that can just be moved around & changed at random to "try a new arrangement." They are NOT furniture.

Now, if any of you could have been at that banquet last night in support of these students, outside of sports, you would have seen the wave of pain that fell over that room. There was a great sea of tears with the wailing & gnashing of teeth. And, understandably so.

So, when will you be taking responsibility for actions taken? When are you going to see that swift decisions can ruin lives? As we try to parent our kids about what a bad decision can do to mess up a life forever, you are proving in in vast masses.

With a superintendent who tweets with students while other administrators & educators cannot is just the tip of the irresponsibility iceberg. And things are sinking quickly.

The question now becomes whether or not you will see your actions in a different light. Are your decisions actually helping the students? Are you just doing things for money to look good in the public eye? Are you actually listening to concerns & willing to take action over them? And are your decisions actually for the whole student body, all the activities...or do you just want attention on sports hoping the boosters will just keep giving to that & pretending the district is doing well?

The district is failing. It is failing & falling fast. There is no consistency at all. And this community cannot keep up with the amount of change you are putting thru because you can't make up your minds as to how you can handle the district, the staff, the students as you just keep dollar signs in the forefront.

You cannot hide behind this veil any more. You are being watched. How are you going to handle the veil removal to see what is revealed underneath the pretentiousness?

Ball is in your court, but we are watching. Closely. Are you going to be the hero, or just wait to see if you become the villain? Many of us are concerned it's the latter.

Most Sincerely for the Children,

~Erica Williams
a very concerned parent

**********

With all of that said, I feel the need to put it in open-letter form so that many of you will be informed of things that are actually happening within this district. Those who don't want to believe anything is wrong because your kid isn't seemingly affected. But it affects every child in the district.

If these irrational decisions continue from the top, it's going to bite everyone in every school building, and within the families. You will see a greater rise of homeschooling (which I've already seen happen out of this district, by the way).

If you are ones who refuse to question what is happening, you are part of the problem. If you kissing their hands or hineys, you are part of the problem. Eventually, you will see the brunt of this. Especially if you have kiddos still going thru this district.

So, to those reading this within the Independence School District, who's willing to speak up? Many of you are willing to just speak quietly, but we need to get loud. But in a diplomatic way. Name calling & nasty language will get you no where. But we need to corner these folks on the board and the superintendent to let them know what we think. I'm willing speak to them beyond just what I print. If I wasn't willing to talk to them, then I wouldn't put it out there.

Anyone willing to speak up, too? Or share this open letter? Or write your own?

Email, call, write, get word out. We need to let them know we mean business when it comes to our kids, their education, their futures, as well as the treatment of the educators who are trying to invest in the kids if they are given the chance.

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica

~~~~~~~~~~

*UPDATE* (May 15, 2015)

In amazing news....the board has reconsidered & will now leave the squad alone by allowing the same arrangement as this past year. Not sure if this open letter helped or not, but I do know the squad played a big part in it. Leave it to talented speakers & debaters!

From my understanding, the superintendent wasn't willing to budge...but the board decided to override that. This speaks volumes as to how the district is being run & hope it sends a message for how things should be taken care of in the future.

Change can happen!! This is amazing news!!

AM~Erica Will Be One to Call Out the School

So anyway...

Today is cold in the midwest. This is super important to know.
Frigid.

There was a major windchill advisory in place. It was starting at low temps, with much lower windchill temps. The temperature and windchill was going to continue to just...keep...dropping...

After just over two-weeks off for "winter" (cough-cough-CHRISTMAS-cough-couh) break, today was supposed to be the first day back to classes for the kiddos in our public school district. I know I was READY for them to go back!! I love my kiddos, but they needed a change of scenery. And to see their friends. And to get them out of the house. They needed to go back! (said with all the love of a mother)

As we switched between all the local news stations, the numbers might have been different, but we knew that today was going to be miserable outside. To the point that we were discussing whether or not school would actually be called off.

~~~~~

Our school district has changed some stuff up this year in how things would work for a regular school day & for inclement weather cancellations.

1. No more half/shortened days. It's a full-on regular school day or nothing.

2. Instead of just calling off school for nasty weather, there would be the 2-hour delay option implemented, if the superintendent deemed it necessary.

See, Missouri is ridiculous when it comes to education right now. Between horrible standardized testing & attendance expectation extremes as a carrot to hang in front of districts & individual schools to stay accredited & tax payer funded, it's put the schools & districts in an ugly position of trying not to consider our children dollar signs. But they are calling our kiddos dollar signs.

Yes. We even have each school displaying what percentage of school body attendance is present, and they like to keep it in the forefront about how high the attendance needs to be to maintain tax dollars. Oh...and the teachers need to just put their actual teaching plans to the side & worry about how the kids are going to make the school & district look on impossible standardized tests that make no sense.

Don't get me started on the common core B.S. coming our district's way.
Brace yourselves, parents.

We also have a former superintendent who used to like getting a lot of face time on local media. About once a week, we were seeing his face on the screen for something! He left before he could implement year-round-school, and went to a neighboring school district, just on the other side of the state line. We still see his face on the local news media from time-to-time.
When a new superintendent was being searched for, it was absolutely no surprise to the local public they went in-house. Not much would change.

Although seemingly more approachable & connected, quite often we can see our district superintendent's face gracing the screen of our televisions with how great our district is. Some days, our current AND former superintendents will appear on back-to-back stories. A whole lot of face time...

~~~~~

I told you all of that to get to what happened today.

Come time to go to school, several major school districts were waiting for another one to close. So they tested the busses. The busses were running. So now it was about the attendance situation & that state carrot being dangled...
Guess they needed to get the dollar signs into the building.

No child should have been waiting out in this cold. Even though it was said that just wait for 5 minutes before the bus comes, tops...you would chill to the bone in less than 2 minutes, even being completely bundled and layered. Also, the busses were not exactly running on time waiting for kids to get to the bus. That 5 minutes turned into 10.

I'm glad we could drive our kids to the bus stop or to school...but not everyone has that luxury.

My youngest was so angry about having school today, I'm surprised he didn't stage a protest at his school. I also know that attendance was down in many area districts due to frustrated parents wanting to keep their kids safe at home. I don't blame them.

However, surprise-surprise, our district superintendent got screen time this afternoon defending the decision to have school. He used the story about how there are kids who need the warm meal, and they could come & get a coat, hat &/or gloves if needed from the schools' surplus.

Don't get me wrong!! There are a whole lot of students in our district who are on the free or reduced lunch program. Really too many. I'm certainly not saying they need to fend for themselves, but what I'm saying is that there are so many that truly are underprivileged. The school district does try their best to make sure it's not open knowledge so they are not looked down upon by other students. It does not change those numbers, however.

Now...here's my biggest issue with the superintendent hiding behind the fact they are in a position to have school to be able to give out these items & make sure they are fed is this: they still had to work getting to school in the bitter cold first. They didn't receive the items before they had to head out! This does not make one look like some hero. Especially when the rest of the parents in the district already know our kids are viewed as dollar signs & not individuals.

Our superintendent has done a fairly nice job of appearing approachable (I know, I know...I already said that) by being on Twitter & being fairly regular and open on tweeting with those who have questions for him. Even the students! This was working out fairly well...until today...

Now then, the anger levels were running high today - both from students AND parents. From what I understand, tweets towards him today were less than complimentary. Some questioning his actual reasoning for staying open, but there were inappropriate tweets telling what certain individuals ACTUALLY felt.
Well...this led to a couple of things:

1. From what I understand, instead of handling himself professionally, he actually went on a large blocking spree, whether they tweeted him on this situation or not.

2. According to the news (surprise-surprise), he had good humor about all the tweets & how he couldn't keep up by tweeting this:

That's right. This was a gif of "Bruce Almighty" being retweeted about how quickly he was BLOCKING people!! That, my friends, is not in good humor, as the news graciously said about him. This is obnoxious.

OK, here's the deal...

Our district has already mismanaged cold weather days. There has been twice that should have been the late start option, and one day fully called off.

There was a windchill day that should have been a late start; it was a regular day.

There was a snow day that should have been a late start; school was called off all day.

There was today's windchill & falling all day & should have been called off; it was a regular school day.

As of this moment, I'm not sure what will end up with these words & points. Anyone who has been raising concerns has been put on some kind of roadblock, even by the school board, as being more closed off to listen to parents & students, and instead just having more & more rules put in place to where it has become speak-by-appointment-only, or be completely blocked (see above tweet) or ignored.

Looks like many other districts may be in this type of situation. And parents are mad. And students are mad.

This goes to the the governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon, on down. The education of these kids, and the overall wellbeing of these kids, are not being considered fully when the almighty dollar has a grip on you.

Our kids are not tax dollars. Our kids are not bargaining chips.

Today was ugly in the Kansas City area. I'm proud of the districts who were smart enough to close on a day that children could have been really dangerous for them. I thank you.

As for the other districts...

...well...

It's disgusting what you have done. It's disgusting when you hide behind charity to make your case.

And, from what I understand, many schools didn't have the attendance hoped for due to the parents using actual common sense. 

We are the tax payers. Our money should be going to the education AND welfare of our children...as individuals. Not some blanket form of implementation that is blind to nearly all of this.

Something needs to change! And you are not hiding anything. No more excuses. We can see through your veils of charity. We know what this is about. Take some responsibility & own up to it. Tell the Governor he won't bully you into mainstreaming our children into a mold they don't fit into. It's despicable.

Now then, in the morning, it will be frigid. It will warm up later in the day. Will we attempt a late start? Or continue on as a regular day? I won't complain as much about tomorrow being a regular day...but you owe it to the kids to let them know you might actually care about them. I would hope.

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica

**UPDATE:

Just got the call that our district will enforce the 2-hour late start option since, unlike today, the weather will be cold in the morning, but will warm up.

*ahem*

Think he learned from the major lashing he received?

AM~Erica's Open Letter to the Blacklight Run KC

So anyway...

As I recover from my 5k last night, I am pondering how I want to word what I want to say to the organizers of the Blacklight Run's stop in Kansas City. Why? Because there is SO much I really want to say!

Well, you're in luck! I'm going to let you all know what that might look like right here.

Get comfy, grab some popcorn, and here we go...

* * * * * * * * * * *

Dear Blacklight Run Organizers,

On Friday, March 28, 2014, I read an article about SELF Magazine doing a story on running fashion faux pas offenders. In the story (which was supposed to be satirical, but didn't come off that way), one of the "offenders" was a tutu-wearing runner. She had a tutu organization & had some health issues herself. That made the situation worse, but the fact that tutus are so trendy right now to get people (yes, even guys) motivated to get out there and go, I thought it was a shame. I like the tutu thought. But I was NOT a runner.

On Saturday, March 29, 2014, I was on Facebook & noticed a few of my friends running a couple of different races on the same morning: Run or Dye & the Diva Dash. They all looked like they had SO much fun! They were covered in colors, covered in mud, getting medals, wearing tutus...and they were not avid runners. Well, not that I knew of, anyway. So, my interest perked up. Maybe even I could do something like that! I could work to try to get some bling, get covered in colors, and of course, wear a tutu in the process. So, I kind of wanted to go running.

On Sunday afternoon, March 30, 2014, I went for my first motivated run EVER! I'm not counting the high school runs I would have to do for a grade. This time, I WANTED to do it! My hubby thought something was wrong with me, and my children offered to have an ambulance waiting for me when I got to the end of our short driveway. They thought I was crazy since I didn't run. But I went. It took me about 10 minutes to run about a third of a mile. But I went.

Then Monday, March 31, 2014 came. I had announced that I had run. I even did a BLOG POST about it to keep myself accountable. And then it happened...
My friend, Beqi, decided she wanted to try this thing called the"Blacklight Run." It was a 5k that would be at the end of August. She convinced me that I would be ready for it by then. With great hesitance, yet excitement, I decided I would do this night race, be covered in color, and run with my friend. I registered for my first race ever. I filled out the online form, put in my credit card info, and took some deep breaths before I hit the "submit" button. As I was either thanked or congratulated for registering for the race (it's been a few weeks), I just sat there & cried. Part of it was excitement; part of it was wondering what the heck I'd just done. It was pretty emotional.

I also helped come up with the team name so it would be amazing, fun & fitting for us & for the race.

In the meantime, I have gotten to run a few 5k races, wear tutus & get some bling. I've worked really hard to seriously have fun. The one thing I still needed to do was get covered in color & have the total Blacklight Run experience! The outfit I was planning to run in to support my team, the GLOWden Girls, the tutu, the neon nails...all of it! Colors all over, black lights to make it glow, and photos that would be awesome!

I was emotional when race day came close. Even though I've done of few of these runs now, this one was the first one I'd ever registered for. EVER! 

It was pretty exciting to know that I got my earlybird registration done in time to get the amazing registration price of $20! Especially knowing it could go up at any time. Then as each $20 deadline passed, it only made me laugh, after a while, to see that the $20 price wasn't going to change. Even as race day approached, the "Full Price: $60" was a lie. But I could look passed this ridiculousness because I was going to have fun!

When it came to packet pickup, I was not excited I would have to drive 45 minutes to pick up my bib. Especially since I would be driving another 45 minutes a different direction to run the race the following day! Geez! That's a lot of milage for my little car, Bessie. But I digress...

After all the gas I had to put into the travel just for this race, imagine how frustrating it is to have to PAY $10 to park for the event. I mean, really? Why didn't you have folks just pay $35 up front at registration? That would have helped. And I felt for anyone who had to pay the extra $5 to have to pick up their race packets on site. I mean, really? "How dare they make us wait!"

The pre party was looking amazing! The crowd of people jumping up & down with their hands in the air to amazing music was phenomenal to watch! People in their light up accessories, white shirts, neon accents & makeup with things that glow-in-the dark was an amazing sight to look at & witness!

My pre-race pic with Beqi...
...while there was still a blacklight working.

As the evening's clouds looked ominous, we were hoping things would clear out pretty quickly. Well, if you were there, you would know the skies opened up pretty good. So did the light show in the sky. 

Participants began to gather their things to start the race, but quickly realized no one really knew where the race was starting. As a teammate & I hung out under an awning, we were hoping to make a mad dash to the race start by where we were. However, we weren't by the start line. So we planned to make a mad dash to the other side of the stage to the start line when we realized the masses were going to the "start line" where we thought it was going to be. We walked for a VERY long time. Many of us runners were pointing out how weird it was we had to walk so far to get to a start line. But we went with the crowd anyway. 

With the rain still going, and lightening in the sky, I opted to hand my phone over to my daughter (who was there to try to take pics of the start line, finish line, and anything else pre & post race) so it wouldn't get ruined. I don't know when we started for sure, but I know eliminating the waves of the masses to get folks through the race in a hurry was probably not the best or safest idea. It's a little terrifying running the race trying to pass & penetrate the masses of walkers with many streaks of lightening across the sky as we go.

Yes, we got covered in colors. Cool. But when you have to unplug preset backlights throughout the race because of the storms in the area took away from the experience for sure. Figuring out there were no photographers throughout the race, probably due to storms, was disappointing.

The closest I'll get to a finishing pic.
No blacklight in sight to make this glow.

The folks out there with their light up wands showing participants where to head where AWESOME at their encouragement! But when you come up to an older guy holding a flashlight pointed at the ground, even before we can see where the finish line is, telling runners, "Get to your cars as quickly as you can," is not a good sign. I also heard a voice over his walkie-talkie stating that everyone should be clearing the area & how the after-race party was cancelled. That was a bummer. I couldn't even see the finish line, and it was semi-defeating at that point.

As I ran around some cones to what I thought might be the finish, the anti-climatic finish line was a bit devastating. I was rain-soaked, covered in colors...and no black light pictures to show for it. Just a couple of pre-race pics in the photo booth. 

So I paid a $20 "earlybird" registration for a race I was emotional to do & looking forward to (which was the amount the whole time), with a great outfit planned & with an awesome team name...just to be let down by the disorganization of a race with rain, a start line that began at the finish line & the finish at the start line, and a free glow pack I haven't even opened since it was to be a part of this amazing after party that I drove a total of 3 hours between getting the race packet AND paying $10 to park so I could run this race that fizzled.

The take aways:
T-shirt, unused glow pack, temporary tattoo,
and an overall yucky experience.

No after food or drink that I could see. The participants just ran/walked for 3 miles. We were already fairly disappointed. Instead, we were just sent to our vehicles.

I'm sure it might have been more exciting without the storms in the area for the actual race, but it's not worth the drive time & extra fees as it is...but to put everyone around in danger AND to have half of the experience taken away...well...

My face when I got back to my car.
This is how I felt about the Blacklight Run experience.

When I heard about the $10 parking fee, that's all that told me I would not run this race again...and then the rest happened.

My 18-year-old daughter was taking shelter in the brick bathroom for refuge in the storm...just to be told she couldn't be there because of the storm. The safest place to be, and there were people not caring much for anyone's safety...just the safety of a large portion of the ever-so-precious equipment.

You know...you're only dealing with thousands of people. What should that matter? I know the electricity thing plays a part in it. Don't get me wrong...but maybe you should have had a back up plan for lightening in the area taking away an experience I was longing for...along with thousands of others.

I'm sure you'll have many people continue to participate in the future. I will not be one of them. And even though I'm only 1 of thousands...I will make sure this word gets out to many other people so they can heed my warning, and they may share this warning with the people they know.

That word-of-mouth thing can work wonders.

The one race I was emotional about doing since I signed up my second day of running ever wasn't worth it. It's too bad. The experience was taken away for lack of safety precautions. Doesn't bode well at all.

At least the full rainbow, I couldn't get a picture of without my phone, was nicely painted scenery for the sky to begin the unnecessarily long walk to the start line. It was the highlight.

I hope this can be worked out for anyone in this position in the future. Not sure how you make this up to so many disappointed participants in this particular race. It may be something to consider how something like this might be handled better next time.


Either way, thanks for the t-shirt & glow pack I couldn't use anyway. I'm sure I'll wear the t-shirt while sharing my experience with others; I'm sure I'll treasure the unused glow pack for quite some time.

Sincerely,

Erica Williams

P.S. What charity did this go to, and was that $10/vehicle going to that charity?

* * * * * * * * * *

There you have it, folks. The experience of my first race I ever registered for. A let down.

I might have PR'd this race, too. Trying to figure that out since I didn't have my phone with me for the run. I just wanted to get it over with. Probably not the overall attitude you should have for a race like this...but I was done with it before I got thru the 1st mile.

I just wanted to leave.

It's OK...I have more & better-planned run experiences coming very soon. This is not a defeat...just a bad stepping stone along the way.

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UPDATE:

Just an update, as of a little after 12:30, I received a response from the Blacklight Run about my above experience.

Believe it or not, it's the first time in the race's history they have ever had to call off the after party. I was also offered a significant discount on an upcoming Blacklight Run or Glow Foam Race.

I wasn't fond of the idea of heading all the way out there (both to pick up my packet AND for the race) just to pay $10 for parking...but I might have to consider.

The races that don't offer bling are the ones that offer an amazing experience...and hopefully some pics to prove how much fun you were having. Last night was NOT it. But for the discount I've been offered...*sigh* I'm thinking. I'll keep you updated.

In the meantime, I do know the Blacklight Run has donated to the KCK Huggers & the Special Olympics of Kansas. So...there's that.

Time to start pondering & praying...

**********

As I am paying attention to other participants, I am finding the uproar is deafening.

I'm also finding that, even though I have gotten a response & discount to another race that I already said I didn't want to do because of extra costs...many others aren't getting these offers. The word of mouth is getting out about how midwest weather can bring out how unprepared [dis]organizers can become when they forget to check weather in the midwest. Ummm...lightening happens. That's unsafe to be out in. And to not have a real explanation for the extra fees & to not be able to make this fizzled race OK for thousands...whether they speak up or not...is really disheartening.

The care is not with the people. I'm not sure how much of the funds go to charity, but it's an overall ripoff. I'm thinking I may not accept their offer. The experience was ruined for thousands, not just a small handful.

Even if they rescheduled the race for all participants & to keep your parking pass on hand...because it would be ridiculous to have to repay for all of it again. But they want money no matter what. That says a lot.

So...keep in mind the same organizers do the Blacklight Run AND the Glow Foam Run. Maybe steer clear of these races. It appears great up front...but once you have to dig deep...it ain't so deep...

And if you want to see some of the backlash to give you an idea, click HERE. They've apparently disabled the posting option so no one else could bash it anymore. Says a whole lot.

I cannot, in good conscience, take up an offer like this knowing so many were in my same situation & are being denied even a discount. I'm glad my letter was read & heard...but how many others are trying to get thru that are being ignored &/or rejected? Not good business. I'd be wary of this company...or participate at your own risk.

Even though many got to run/walk...the experience was cancelled. That's what this is about. If you cannot fulfill that part of your event...you need to make it right.