School was two hours late today, which ended up causing major dilemmas at school. We knew last night already, which is normally a good thing. Today was supposed to be the Young Writers and Artists Conference in Mankato. Their weather plan was to do whatever Mankato Public Schools did. Last night, they were two hours late, so the conference would start at 11:00, with registration and lunch from 10:30-11:00. We sent out messages to parents to have their kids to school by 10 so we'd make it there in time to start.
This morning, snow was still coming down and continued to fall until noon. I kept waiting to hear that Mankato cancelled for the day, or Nicollet so we wouldn't have to go in, but no, we still had school. A parent called me asking if we were still going to the conference. She had been planning to chaperone, but with the slushy roads she wasn't comfortable driving other peoples' children, so she wanted to cancel. I called Mr. E and then a parent coming from far away. He thought if we weren't comfortable driving to call it off. The parent thought if they're sending the buses out, it can't be that bad and we should still go. We decided to wait until other parents got to school at 10 to see what they thought.
Basically, the parent drivers thought we should still go but the teachers didn't want to chance it. Mr. E decided that as a school we weren't going to go. Then a parent asked if she could still take her kid there since she was here, had the day off work, and lunches were packed. Well, we can't really stop a parent from taking their child out of school. So all the parents at school ended up taking their kids.
A few drivers called other parents to see if they had permission to take other students along. In the end, all the 7-8th graders found rides to the conference. There were still a few spaces left in cars, so a few 5-6th graders could squeeze in, but not everyone. The parents who were driving decided that they didn't want some kids to feel left out, so they only took their child to the conference. I had to break the news to seven very disappointed students. There were tears, there were things slammed and kicked around the room. Mr. E and I talked with them about why some people were going but not everyone. Eventually everyone settled down.
We decided to have a mini-conference in our room today. I had them list off some of the sessions they could remember signing up for to see if we could replicate them. Wood pallet painting was the most popular one. Thankfully, Mrs. E had canvases leftover from the 7-8th grade art projects. There was exactly enough for my stuck behind students. Well, we were one short, but we found a wood board that one student got excited about, so everyone had something to paint. Then they had the idea to do crayon art. Mrs. E had hot glue guns/glue sticks and crayons, so we were good to go! We looked up ideas on Pinterest and away we went!
We still ate our sack lunches in the room, went out for recess a little early (since we could eat whenever we wanted to), and did more art in the afternoon. We ended the day with some origami. All in all, we made the best out of a not-good situation and it seemed like most students were in an okay mood when they left for the day.
But then some parents found out, got mad that their child didn't get to go while others did, and sent me angry emails/texts. So that's what I've been dealing with the entire afternoon. What were we supposed to do, tell parents they can't take their child out of school? That they have to stay at school today? Sure, we could've made the decision to not go sooner so they could make alternate arrangements, but I honestly thought school would be cancelled today! I wish Mr. E would've just cancelled school for us too. Sigh. But we can't go back and change the past. We can only go forward.
The three students who went to the conference went because their parents brought them. One kid never made it to school because her mom went in the ditch (the one who was supposed to chaperone). Two kids called their parents to see if their parents could drive them to the conference. Both said no. (One of those parents was one of the ones mad at me about it). Five kids didn't call their parents. Of those five, one is mad at me, two are fine with it, three I haven't heard from. I emailed them about it just in case.
Grr... what a mess. I think one of the upset parents has calmed down now. The other one is still mad and didn't answer when Mr. E called her to talk about it. I hope things calm down overnight. I'm leery though... science fair projects are due on Thursday, always a stressful time (and parents usually get frustrated about those projects too) and the Fine Arts Fair is this weekend, another thing for them to potentially get upset about. But it's their choice to be upset; I can either let it bother me or let it go. Pray that I can let it go!
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