Disasters on Sept 11th

Thursday, September 10th came and went.  I ran into the Head of Max's school and he assured me they were "working on it".  Being a hopeful person, I could only assume that meant working on what the conditions would be if they didn't expell him.  Maybe I was right.  Maybe not.

Maybe there just weren't enough conditions possible.

Thursday turned into Friday.  It has a way of doing that.  They were still "working on it".

Early Friday afternoon we were summoned.  So, Addison, Max, and I went to the school.

Max was done.

They left open the possibility of re-enrolling next year (his senior year).  They also very kindly did not ban him from the school grounds.  As long as he is with one of us he can attend his brothers functions and go with me to drop off/pick up.

We live in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  The local school system sucks.  I don't know how else to describe it and sucks really isn't strong enough.  PA public schools in general are pretty crappy.  While it has been a few years since I graduated I have not seen any evidence of improvement since I was in school.  I attended three public high schools (Opelika, Alabama, Shaker Heights, Ohio, and Susquehanna Township here in Harrisburg).  If I had to rank them from best to worst it would look like this:

1.  Shaker Heights.  Period.  Nationally ranked and noted school.
2.  Opelika.  I had some really great teachers there and the educational environment was very progressive.


Susquehanna township was considered one of the better school districts when I attended.  Still it.  Sucked then and I can only imagine that it still sucks today.

When we moved here I went from an AP US History course where we were studying the formation of the Supreme Court to a US history class taught by the football coach whose idea of a quiz was to pair us up, take out his stopwatch, and see how long it took us to put together a wooden puzzle of the US.  A kindergarten-age-appropiate f*(&^ing puzzle!!!!

The really sad thing is that the school district I live in now (Harrisburg City) is a million times worse than Susquehanna Township.  We live a block from the line dividing the two.  So, we looked into the option of sending Max to Susquehanna Township as an out-of-district student.  The cost would have been in the neighborhood of $800 a month!

*** Yes, I am aware that we could move to a different school district.  Selling our house/buying a new house is just not financially feasible at the moment.  Besides, that would mean not just cleaning up my stash/stuff but hiding it from prospective buyers and that is probably impossible. ***

Our only other option is cyber school.  PA now has cyber school available to all students living in the Commonwealth of PA as a public school choice.  I was completely unaware of this.  Ok, a little aware but I had no idea that it was the same as public school and that anyone could go.  Wow!

It is now October 7th and we are still in the process of getting Max enrolled at PACyber (there are a number of cyber schools available and competing for students but we heard this was the best).  I talked to his guidance counselor for the first time this morning, he is scheduled for his classes, and his text books, computer, and other materials have all been ordered.  Looks like we are about to start another new chapter...