Fold My Laundry Please

Summer is still here for another week at our house.  Ethan starts first grade next Wednesday and Gideon starts kindergarten the Wednesday after that.  I send my kids to a school that is not our local school which means I have to fill out transfer paper work and all manner of fun stuff.  Last year, we moved in sometime in the beginning of October, so the necessary paperwork got processed in a single day (since I drove it back and forth between schools myself).  This year, the school sent home transfer paperwork during the last week of school and I filled it out and carried it into the office myself.  I was told that they wouldn’t be reviewing transfer applications until the first week of August when the school’s office opened again.  I was okay with that.  There were three whole months before panic needed to set in so I didn’t worry about it.  Also, they wanted me to go to the local elementary and register Gideon for kindergarten there and then fill out all of the same transfer papers for both boys at their end.  I was okay with that, too.  All that was left was for us to enjoy our summer and wait for the promised letter to arrive sometime during the first or second week of August. 

August is very nearly over.  School starts September 3rd.  And I have yet to hear anything from either school.  When we lived in Wilsonville, we got several letters in the mail leading up to the first day telling us about kindergarten orientation days and a back to school ice cream social where we could meet Ethan’s teacher, see his classroom, and drop off his bulging backpack of supplies.  Ethan even recieved a letter from his new teacher telling him how excited she was to get to know him and all about all the fun they were going to have that year.  Here in Salem, I’ve received exactly SQUAT!  I don’t even know which school they’ll be attending this year, much less whether Gideon will be in morning or afternoon kindergarten or who their teachers will be.  I’ve called the school several times and each time I was told that the principal is going over transfer requests "this afternoon" and that they will be calling everyone to let them know as soon as she finishes.  At this rate, by the time we get around to purchasing school supplies, the stores will have taken down all of their back to school displays!

*sigh*

I don’t presume to tell the principal how to do her job, but isn’t this something that should have been taken care of much, MUCH earlier? I can only assume that other, more pressing matters arose and she was forced to put off this very important task.  Other matters like maybe alien invasion.  Anal probes can really get in the way of completing paperwork.  Or goblins.  Goblins can be very mischievious and should be taken care of immediately so as to prevent other, more detrimental, delays.  Either way, I’m going to hve to resort to the old parent standby.  Nagging.

I have been calling them daily, grasping tenuously to the hope that today, today I will get an answer.  A real answer.  An answer that doesn’t involve the principal getting around to it "this afternoon".  In fact, I’ve got to go.  I’ve got phone calls to make. 

UPDATE:  I just got off the phone with Elementary School.  It would seem that, "Mrs. [Principal] is going to go over the in district transfers today and will make her decisions today." 

Grrrrrrrrrrrr….