Portland Public Schools & Me
Hmm. Want to know what I did tonight? First I took my daughter to tap dance. Her tap-dancing grandmother will be thrilled when I tell her. Then we came home and had a fast dinner, and drove over to Jefferson High School for a little meeting.
A meeting that numerous parents decided to boycott, so guess who was there? That’s right. Me. Hockey God. And three other parents. That makes — five parents. And three kids (who raced around our table like crazy hooligans, but mainly behaved. Thank you, kids. Here’s a cooky.)
Who was there, besides us and the kids? Oh, about fifteen, or possibly it was twenty-eight, Portland Public Schools administrators and staff. Again — hmm. Some of you would be a little, I don’t know, freaked out by this. Or perhaps you would boycott and say You should have given us more notice nyah nyah. (I heard about the meeting last week, as did some other parents.)
Anyhow, you are not me, and that’s what makes me Wacky Mommy and makes you… I dunno. Grouchy and blog-less? (Ha! Triple ha ha ha!) (Pours herself a triple espresso. Thinks about her manuscript that she will work on later tonight, dammit. Or possibly tomorrow.)
First, I listened to The Administrators and Staff. Then, they listened to me (and Hockey God, and the other parents.) Then we all had a cooky. (I brought a large bowl of chocolate crinkle cookies with me. Chocolate crinkles, how I adore you. That is the recipe I used, that I just linked to. It’s deluxe.)
Hmm. Where was I? Yes. Then I listened to them, they listened to me, they listened to the other parents, we listened to them again and we made a nice big list of:
What We Want For Jefferson High School
It turns out we all want the same things. Who knew? Then we had another cooky, then we all went home. If you’d like to talk about this, you can send me an e-mail, or leave a note in comments. Better yet, drop a note to the school and cc the district.
Regards,
WM
PS — There was some talk of building an ice hockey rink at the school, for my husband and son, but no promises.
, 
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Wacky Mommy–
Some community members have been attending meetings about Jefferson High School for YEARS. Maybe they wasted their time (and babysitting money) last week going to Vernon where NO admin showed up. This is not about a lack of responsiveness on the community’s part. It is about PPS trying to cover up a big mistake.
I can see the boycotters point. Some of us need to arrange childcare, get off of work, cook dinner early, arrange transportation to get to a meeting. The administrators need to show up again and this time give proper notice for the meeting. That is respectful.
Or better yet maybe the community needs to call a meeting and tell the PPS administration when to show up. That sounds even better to me. I might even come with a little red and yellow light timer to let them know when their time is up.
Anne
PS. I am still glad you went and brought your kids.
December 17th, 2007 | #
Thank you, Anne–my thoughts exactly (although I didn’t think about a timer, but it would definitely be appropriate)!
December 17th, 2007 | #
I say, keep speaking up. If you don’t, who will?
December 17th, 2007 | #
I was planning on going, but was told the meeting had been postponed until a later date. I wonder how many others got that message? Now I’m pissed.
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you at the PTSA meeting the other night. And the cookies were fabulous. The chocolate crinkles sound even better.
December 19th, 2007 | #