Back to School

We finally have had our first day of school on Monday. Gwenn is starting 4th grade, Ella starting 1st grade, and Lucy had her first day of big girl Preschool. The first day went well for everyone, including Lucy who was a very brave girl and didn't cry, when so many other 3 year olds were sobbing!

School

Usually at this time of the year, I have spoken about the first day of school and posted some very cute pictures of the girls on the front steps, leaving for their new year of education. Doubtless, that day will come - but with the teachers strike in Bellevue, that day is delayed for now.

There were some big issues to be dealt with - pay and benefits as usual for teachers, but the big one was around something called "Web Based Curriculum" - also known as a mandated disaster. Basically, every lesson is planned out and online. The lesson plan would have had to be followed exactly as laid out, with no deviation. Which sounds great until you get into a classroom with ESL students. Or special ed students. Or gifted students. And you need to customize the curriculum so that everyone can learn, not just those in the middle who it was created for. Long story short, a teacher could have been fired for adjusting the curriculum to teach Gwenn.

Thankfully, it sounds like the school district has caved a bit on it, and will now allow teachers to use their best judgement. But, they are still dickering over salary and benefits. It sounds like the district offered close to what the teachers offered, but they are now saying that they will fire up to 34 positions to make up for the increases. Ugh.

IEP Meeting

Yesterday was the IEP meeting that I called. I'm very lucky, because Dr. Lewis was able to attend the meeting and did a far better job of explaining what is going on with Gwenn, the impact to her school work, and her diagnosis (diffuse, static encepalopothy).

We left with the agreement that we are kicking off her re-evaluation now (instead of waiting the full 3 years) and they will work on pulling together the recommendation of her new IEP, taking into account Dr. Lewis' evaluation, along with her SLP evaluation and her OT evaluation.

Overall, it went well I think. However, I won't really know until I can see how the school translates the recommendations into action.