I love coming back to work after vacations, it is like starting the school year all over again. I must admit I felt sort of silly last night, because I couldn’t sleep. It doesn’t matter how long I am in the school “biz” I always feel like a kindergartener on the first day of school when we return from breaks. My clothes were laid out, everything including that stupid elliptical machine (yes, New Year’s Resolution) was set up and ready for the morning alarm. The only problem was I couldn’t sleep!!! I planned the day to a detail, but still couldn’t fall asleep! I laid there for an hour or so listening to the rain hit the window and the Shih Tzus snore, but still couldn’t turn that brain of mine “Off.” Finally I got up poured myself a half glass of Chardonnay, watched a rerun of the Simpsons and finally dozed off to Gem Fest on QVC.
Well, the alarm went off at 5:30 am… I hit the snooze again fifteen minutes later… Hit the alarm again at 6:00 am, I rolled over and thought, I’ll work out tonight when normal people are conscious…hit it once again at 6:15… did I mention I don’t like mornings? I finally drug my behind out of bed at 6:30 and immediately headed in the direction of the coffee maker. I drank a cup of joe, got kisses from the pups and finally got ready forwork. When I walked in our Lead Campus Supervisor began giggling… these folks know me too well, and somehow she knew what I had gone through to get there on time… or perhaps it was my sprint to the coffee machine.
The first day back after vacation is always fun… kinda like a family reunion without all the dysfunctional relatives.
All was well with the Royal Family until the sassiest of all the Campus Supervisors rushed into my office exasperated. “THEY WON’T LEAVE” ! Of course my mind started to fill in the blank with several different names, but finally I asked “ Who won’t leave”? She replied, Brenda and her mother. Now you may remember “Brenda” from a previous blog. Since that journal she has been incarcerated for probation violations. Now since schools are greedy and demand so much money from the state, we are notified to “Drop” a student when they are lodged in juvenile hall so that we don’t“double dip” and both get funding for that child. Seems to me that schools should be paid by the state for attempting to rehabilitate these juvenile delinquents, but the trained monkeys in Sacramento haven’t called to ask my opinion yet!
I knew this was a job for a “heavy weight” and since I missed the date with the elliptical this morning, I was just the gal for the job! I marched to the front desk where Brenda’s mother was DEMANDING that we enroll her daughter in school. I attempted to explain to her that since custody of Brenda was not longer with her sister who resided in our district, she would have to enroll her daughter in the city that she lived. Of course this was not what she wanted to hear. I suggested she appeal her case to the district and there in front of parents, students, staff and God above she pointed out the monitoring device on her daughter’s leg. My heart broke for Brenda… AGAIN! She demanded that she could not take Brenda to the district or “her beeper” would go off.
I had just sat down at my desk when I heard a voice more exasperated than the last, “THEY STILL WON’T LEAVE”!! Now irritated, I found Brenda and her mother in the Attendance Office pleading their case! I once again explained the residency rule to no avail, I finally pointed to the door and said, “You need to leave… I can not help you here.” She finally left when I said the magical words, “I do not have the authority to do what you are asking me to do without district approval.”
Before they left I made a call to her probation officer “over the hill” from Simi who sounded on the phone just as exasperated explained that he had already explained to them they must attend school in the district she resides.
They finally went to the district where they were told that she would need to enroll in the school district which she lived... didn't I just say that?
I became saddened as I thought of this child who had been bounced from foster home to foster home, from school to school. Now we were doing this too. As I discussed the situation with a co-worker later that afternoon, she made a heart wrenching remark, “I think we were making a difference with her.” Unfortunately, it was too little, too late. Our efforts had not kept her out of juvenile hall and in her sister’s custody.
This is the hardest part of this job… knowing when to just let go.
