So earlier this year, we were at a party for one of my son's daycare friends. We were talking with one of the other parents about registering for Fall Kindergarten. We realized we hadn't seen or heard anything, so we should check the Rochester City School District's web site. Needless to say, we missed the deadline, which was Friday...just two days before the party.
After some investigation, we found out they supposedly did do some advertising...on WDKX. No wonder why we did see or hear anything. Neither of us fall into any of their ratings group.
So we rushed in and got everything taken care of in some sort of hope that it might get him into our district-wide school of choice. No such luck of course, but I had also inquired about the After-School Care program and about changing buses if we need to, so we can have him picked up or dropped off at the Y. They said the school would contact us.
We got Connor's assignment and began our planning, including backup plans. If we didn't qualify for or for some other reason we couldn't use the After-School program, I stopped into the Y and got pricing.
August came around with no information on orientations, buses, or the After-School program. I began calling the school to inquire. I wasn't sure I needed to talk to and the phone tree wasn't very helpful. I left a message and, as I recall, tried again a few days later when I hadn't heard from anyone.
Eventually I talked to someone who promised to email me information on the orientation and bus schedule. They also informed me that the After-School program starts at age 6. The Rochester City School District has NO information at all on the programs. The ONLY hit on their website is just a reference to it's availability in the district zone booklets. No contact information. No pointer to somewhere else to get information. So now, we had to scramble. Thankfully we had our backup plan, although coming up with the cash to pay for it last minute was a huge inconvenience.
I also asked about bus schedules so we could start to make arrangements for before and after school. I was told I would get that information as well. Well, despite more unanswered calls to the school to find out about orientation and changing our bus drop off, I never got a call back.
Eventually we found out the orientation was the Thursday night before school started. We inquired that night about changing his bus drop off. Previous, we called the main district office, who referred us to transportation who referred us to school, who...well, never called us back.
So, we asked about changing his drop-off location at orientation and they entered the information, but it would take ten days to change. We went home and discussed it. How are we supposed to give them ten days when we can't get a hold of anyone at the school?
Friday morning, I called the school, who referred me to the principal (who was on vacation) and the transportation department. I left the principal a message (which was never returned) and called the transportation department. I explained the situation, stating clearly that I had been calling the school for some time with no response. I asked them to make an exception since I had been making the attempt for far more than ten days. The lady I was speaking with referred to a memo that she had in front of her which stated changes take ten days. I firmly, but politely told the lady there that if she can't change it for the first day of school, she needed to give me the contact information of the person who wrote that memo.
She referred me to the Director of Transportation and she said her Secretary would answer if she didn't. I got her voicemail and left a message. I called back that afternoon and got her voicemail again. Tuesday (remember Monday was Labor Day) mid-day I called back one more time and got her voicemail again. I called the main number and explained the situation and told them with school starting tomorrow, I needed to get this taken care of quickly. They called me back that day and said we were all set. There are other children who are on his afternoon bus that go to the Y, so he would be taking the same bus.
So, Wednesday morning comes around and the bus comes. I ask the driver (who was by far the most pleasant and understanding person I dealt with) if she was his afternoon driver and if she got his change in drop-off location. She looked it up and said no, but called back on the radio and inquired. She was told as long as it was on her route, we were all set.
I'm so thankful for that bus driver. I see her every morning and she still has that happy, friendly attitude every day and despite the total chaos we had to deal with elsewhere, we all had a great fist day of school experience.
I think sometimes, people forget to look at what is best for those they are serving. If the RCSD had done more advertising, or had the option online to signup for updates, we would have had a better chance to get into the city-wide school we had hoped for. Instead, they looked at just one demographic and catered to them. I know reverse-racism isn't really the term, but I wondered several times when I heard they advertised at WDKX, "Do they know they have children in their school whose parents listen to other stations, besides WDKX?"
And why do they advertise after-school care but have absolutely no information on their site?
And why can't the school have had a voice tree that explained who was actually working over the summer and for those who weren't working, how do we get things taken care of in their stead? Is it really fair to keep parents in the dark, not know if or when there would be an orientation? Shouldn't kindergarten orientation take precedence? I mean of all the people starting school that year, every single one of those students are new and shouldn't have to wait until the last minute to find out what is going on.
And what about the transportation department? With school starting soon, shouldn't a director be working? At the school I work at, we aren't allowed to take vacation the two weeks leading up to and the two weeks into the start of the semester for these types of reasons. Shouldn't there have been someone that could set my mind at ease?
As a first time parent in the Rochester City School District, I must say that I hope these are just remnants of a past administration. I hope the district takes really some time to look at itself from the outside, from the perspective of the students and parents whom it serves. While we are more at ease now that school has started and our son seems to have a pretty good teacher and a friendly bus driver, I don't know yet what the future holds for our relationship with the district, but bug change is needed, and its needed soon.
