I started out to write a great post about trying to organize the Black Hole that is my household's landslide of paperwork. But it turned into a Whiny Wednesday.
It became a Whiny Wednesday on Monday. The paperwork is still threatening to engulf the kitchen table, and the snippets of my well-intentioned blog are swirling around in my head. Everything else is on hold too, while I deal with the matters of being a class mentor and issues involving a Winter Dance.
In September, mind you, this high school cottillion was booked by the class officers with the high school office. The date was familiar because it's the same night it was held LAST YEAR! They were given the thumbs up for the date, so a reasonable person would assume they're all set, right? Nope. Apparently they were then supposed to book it with another office in the junior high (yes, I know, this is a high school dance), which maintains the building calendar. How they were supposed to know that? The information isn't in the Student Handbook, no adult in the school ever notified them of the procedure, and it was never mentioned at following meetings or at the October mentors' meeting, when all the adults got together and checked calendars.
On Monday, a group of students approached one or two of our officers to complain they have a non-school event the weekend of the dance, so yesterday, the other class mentor decided to see if there were any alternative dates. Surprise! She was informed the dance wasn't on the schedule. Even worse, in October the junior high play was moved to... yep, the same weekend as the dance. They have now bumped us from the building.
She tried to find another date, but the one she selected created a conflict with one of our teams who have a school-sanctioned competition early the next morning. I then was called to intervene. I spent my day in meetings and on the phone, trying to find some solution that would affect little if any of the students. The options are to find another date that don't conflict with any sports or other activity, or to find another venue for the originally-scheduled night that is: a) available on the weekend before Valentine's Day; b) accommodates 150-200 attendees; c) won't cost as much as a semester at a community college; and d) is located in our or an abutting town - some people will complain if they have to travel three towns over for an event... even though these same people schlep their kids every weekend to the malls and movie theaters located in the same towns as the venues.
Most frustrating of all, the schools have an online calendar system that isn't used to its full capacity. In fact, it's a hit-or-miss system. Some things make it, some don't, but there's a district calendar, a sports calendar, a performing arts calendar, a building use calendar, an academic year calendar, various school club calendars - when trying to coordinate something, it's a constant battle to make sure you check with multiple parties despite the technology being available to eliminate much of the issue.
So that's the Saga of the Dance - Part I. More to follow. More importantly, how was your day?
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