Last fall my husband and I were embroiled in a redistricting battle with our School Board, which I wrote about last September.  It was a long year of letters and speeches to the School Board, Mayor, and Board of Reps, talking to the press, and rallying neighbors.  It was a frustrating year, because at each successive meeting, it was clear that we as parents were much more familiar with the numbers behind the recommendations then the Board – and concerned that the long term impact, including the costs of the plan had not been taken into account before the recommendation was laid out on the table.

All along, we were very sensitive about not making this a school vs. school issue, and when we lost the first round, we banded together with parents throughout the city and tried a new approach.  At our last major appeal before the board, we laid out a compelling argument, backed my numbers.  The Superintendent stood up and refuted our claims, leading to the School Boards’ vote against what we were proposing.

My husband and I looked at each other aghast, because the Superintendent was clearly wrong, and the Board had made their final decision on faulty information.  We then were able to get a meeting with the President of the Board, the Superintendent and the Director of Research who had put the plan together – to walk them through the numbers again, to prove what we were proposing was correct – and would be a much more balanced solution.  Finally, they admitted we were right.  One second later the President of the Board said, “It’s too late now.  The Board doesn’t have the appetite to open this back up for review.”  My husband replied “But you made your decision on bad information.”  They all held their ground.  By this time it was April, and we had lost our battle.  My mind was racing with some pretty nasty editorials we could write on how this was handled, but whether we took the high road, or were just exhausted from dealing with this all year, we accepted our fate.

Come May, I heard that two of my neighbors had applied for “Out of District” placement, and had been accepted to remain at our current school.  I then applied, and heard in July that we were denied.  By this time I was angrier.  There was such a small number of families from my neighborhood that had been redistricted to the new school – now all of a sudden with two families being granted permission to stay, that redistricted group got much smaller.  We appealed the decision, and submitted another request to remain at our current school.

Meanwhile, I figured we had to accept the inevitable, and I started to work on getting the boys comfortable with their new school.  We made visits to the school’s playground (very cool playground), we went over and met the Principal and Vice Principal, both who walked us around and gave us a private tour.  We all really liked the school – very nice facility, lots of space, nice administration.  I heard great things about the teachers that both of the kids were assigned.

Then the moment of truth.  The Friday before school started, we were called to a meeting downtown with the man who handles all out of district placements.  He told us our application was in order – he just needed one more piece of documentation, and then we would be granted permission to stay.  At 5PM that day, we received the call confirming that we could stay at our current school, as an out of district family.  Talk about the 11th hour.

Wow.  It was a moment of mixed emotions.  If it happened two months ago – when Jack was repeating daily “I want to stay at Northeast” it would have been so much easier.  One of Jack’s closest friends was going to the new school with him, and they had been assigned the same teacher.  Sam was very excited about his new school.  First I called Jack’s friends mother to tell her the news.  It was heart wrenching to me that this friend might be the only child from our neighborhood going to the redistricted school. Secondly, when I told the boys the news, Jack just looked plain confused, and Sam broke down into tears.  “I want to go to Davenport,” he said.  Oh no, I thought.  I guess I did too good a job selling the new school this summer.  I certainly had that voice in my head saying “Am I doing the right thing?”

I knew Monday’s orientation would be tough for Sam.  I had been talking to the Assistant Principal at our current school over the weekend, so she knew that we had gotten in, but I wouldn’t know who Sam’s teacher was until that first morning.  I knew Sam would be walking into a classroom that wasn’t prepared for him – no name on the wall, no cubby, no seating assignment.  To make matters worse, on orientation day when I went to Sam’ class (he had already been called to go there with his teacher)  – Sam was missing – sent to the principals’ office since he wasn’t on the class list.   I turned around to see Sam walking down the hall, with quivering chin, trying to keep it together.  That first week, we had a few tough mornings, with Sam not wanting to get on the bus.

Now, everything is fine, even great.  Sam loves school.  Jack loves school.  They love being at the bus stop with our neighbors (if they had gone to the redistricted school, they would have been alone at the bus stop – as all other neighbors were grandfathered).  So here’s my positive spin on this very challenging year:

1. Never give up.
2. Never assume the other side knows more than you.
3. There’s always something good in what you don’t know – and you have to approach a new situation with an open mind.
4. While it was a time consuming, aggravating year, we met a lot of new friends – not only in our neighborhood, but also across the city.
   
   So to wrap it up, while I convinced myself I was looking forward to meeting a whole new group of people, and would have to step up my involvement at the new school, it’s nice to be back “home” at the elementary school I have known for ten years.  I also hope that I never have to go through another redistricting cycle again!