Parents, and even non-parents, go here now. I'm still laughing.

[Edit: Sorry, the trackback link was screwy or I did it wrong. Try now.]

["Isn't She Lovely," Stevie Wonder]

To: The Board of Directors, School District 65

Dear Members of the Board,

As of today, we are well into our third week of school, and the families of [Unnamed School] continue to struggle with transportation issues. My husband and I specifically chose to move to Evanston this summer in order to send our son, Jacob, to one of its exemplary schools. However, his adjustment into the educational system is impacted severely by the concern of how he will get to and from school each day.

We live near [Street] and [Street], where up to 16 elementary students from [School] expect to take Bus #2 to and from school each day. In discussions with my neighbors, I have heard that the first several days of school are always somewhat disorganized while the transportation routes are finalized. By now, I would have expected that I would only rarely receive frantic calls from our nanny, telling me that Jacob's bus never showed up this morning, or that it's 45 minutes after his expected drop-off time and nobody knows where their kids are.

I work in Northbrook and my husband works in Chicago. We own a single car. Our family's livelihood depends on our ability to be at work a certain number of hours a day, and while managers are relatively sympathetic to occasional disturbances in our schedules, we are absolutely unable to be at home to carry our son back and forth to school every day.

From the first day of the school year, the principal and staff at [School] have been terrific about assuring families, keeping an eye out for our children to ensure they make it to class and onto homebound transportation, and calmly taking tons of (I'm sure) upsetting phone calls from angry parents. I'd like to make sure that you understand I'm not placing blame on a single entity, and I have nothing but respect and gratitude for Principal [Name] and the very dedicated staff at [School].

However, there is very little Mr. [Principal] can do if his students are not shuttled to and from school in a safe manner. I cannot imagine that it's easy to establish a classroom routine when children are trickling in as much as a half hour late each day. Even [District Transportation Manager] appears to be at a loss -- how many times can he call Alltown and complain, if the bare fact remains that they seem unable to keep a driver on the route? While [DTM] was very kind to return my call yesterday and let me know he insisted the Alltown manager drive Bus #2, he also mentioned that some children "took it upon themselves" to walk home from school. Trust me when I say that if I hear my five-year-old son attempts to cross Ridge Road and walk a mile home from school because he saw the bigger kids doing it, I will be shocked, appalled, and terrified to entrust my child to the Evanston school system from that day forward.

I beg you, please make safe transportation for our children your highest priority right now, and let the parent community know what we can do to support this issue. I will do whatever is in my power to support the school but the safety of my child is absolutely my most important priority right now. Once our children's transportation is established, the school can continue its grand tradition of providing excellent education for our community's future leaders.

"Bush: 'It Has Been Brought To My Attention That There Was Recently A Bad Storm.'"

["Overture," Spamalot]

As the days wear on, Jacob seems to adjust more and more to school. Today, he eagerly described Art and Gym activities to me, and let me know he stayed "on green" all day. (The teacher has instituted a stoplight form of positive reinforcement -- every kid starts the day on green, and they move to yellow for slightly naughty behaviors, and red for serious stuff like biting or hitting.)

My favorite sign that things were improving for him occurred on Friday after I came home from work. Jake has developed a strong relationship with our fat cat SCSI (Scuzzy), seen here dwarfing GUI several years ago:

Anyway, Jake bent down to pet Scuzzy on Friday afternoon and spoke to him softly.

"Hi Scuzzy, can I pet you? You're so soft! Are you happy, Scuzzy? I had a good day at school today..."

*sniff sniff*