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I don't even know where to start.
Yesterday morning I took Ben out to his bus stop, right on time, and discovered that the bus had already left. The mother of the other little boy that rides that bus was still out there, and told me they had just gone. She also told me about all of the problems she had had with them during the week when Ben was out sick. See, a few weeks ago the bus routes were changed and Ben was put onto a new bus with a new driver. So anyway, the bus was gone which meant I had to drive Ben into school. I don't bother to take my shower in the early morning before I leave to get Ben off to school, I just kind of roll out of bed and stumble out the door. Once he is safely off to school I come back home, take my shower, get some breakfast and then dive into work. So yesterday morning I got to drag my grungy self into Ben's school, have a chat with the principal about transportation issues, take Ben up to his classroom, have another chat with his teacher, and then finally go home. That's about 80 miles of driving before I even really start my day. Yippee.
Talkng to the principal, he immediately acknowledged that there seemed to be some real problems with Transportation and the ESE (that's exceptional student education) students. Ben's teacher said the same thing. This only made me more annoyed with Transportation. When Ben was dropped off in the afternoon the driver swore to Sara that she waited until 7:37 that morning before leaving without Ben. Now, my watch is set to my computer and my computer is set to the atomic clock. I know with absolute authority that I had Ben at the bus stop at 7:30 sharp.
This morning I made sure to have Ben out there early. The driver told me that she definitely waited yesterday morning. When I asked her what time it was right that moment, she looked at her watch and told me 7:32. It was only 7:27. I told her as much, and she said her watch is set to transportation time, and if that time is wrong then I need to call dispatch and tell them to change their clocks. As soon as the bus pulled away I called transportation and asked them what time they said it was. Their answer of 7:34 matched my watch exactly.
So I left a voice mail with the supervisor, and not a very friendly one. Then when I got home I sent an email to the school principal and two other people, detailing what had happened the past two days. I took my time in writing the letter, to be sure that I was being clear and factual rather than just spouting off and making threats. In the end I stated that the problem persists I am going to demand a sit down meeting with the driver, the bus monitor, their supervisor, the school principal, and any other relevant school representatives. I sent the email at about 9 in the morning and then went about my day.
Going about my day involved getting a good two hours of work done before I hit a brick wall. I banged my head against that wall all afternoon until I got a phone call from the transportation supervisor. Apparently by that point my email had been forwarded far and wide throughout the entire transportation department, as well as up to the top levels of the school district administration. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. The bus driver broke down in tears in the supervisor's office, thinking she was going to be fired when she didn't believe she had done anything wrong. Initially my phone conversation with the supervisor was extremely adversarial; she was trying to defend her driver and her department, and I was trying to defend my son's rights to dependable transportation to and from school. After about twenty minutes we finally stopped talking past each other and started actually listening and working to come up with an agreeable solution. By the end of our conversation, which lasted over 45 minutes, we were actually on friendly terms and it seemed that the issues had been resolved. So that was nice.
Unfortunately as soon as I hung up the phone I saw the instant messages from V. telling me that she was taking my mother to Harborview. Her PT level had gone up to almost 10 (normal is 3.5, anything over 6 is generally scary for most people). Aside from the normal symptoms of going that high, she was showing signs of having a TIA (silent stroke). So off to urgent care they went, poor V. having to drag along her two children as well. At this point my mom has been admitted to the hospital and will be staying at least one night, and probably two. It doesn't sound to me that she is in a life-threatening situation (although with her condition that is always a very real possibility), and I had a good impression of the doctor when I spoke to her earlier this evening. So it's sucky that she is in the hospital, but it is good to know she is being well taken care of.
So remember that nice, happy ending with transportation? Problems solved, aside from some serious fence mending to be done with the bus driver? Well, at 5pm I got a call from Sara -- Ben's bus had not shown up yet to drop him off, and no messages had been left. She didn't have any of the numbers with her, so she asked me to call transportation to find out what was up. Calling the main transportation number netted me a recording saying that dispatch was closed, and that their operating hours are 7:30am to 6:30pm. Note, it was only 5pm when I got that message. Selecting the option to report an emergency only sent me to somebody's voice mail. My son was at that point twenty mintues late, and I could not get ahold of a human being to find out where he was. Calling his school also gave me a recording. Calling the supervisor I had spoken to earlier in the day? Voice mail. By this point it was twenty after five and still no Ben. I finally reached a human being at Ben's school, but she did not know anything. Ben definitely was put on the bus, she said, and he had not been brought back to the school. Finally at almost 5:30 the bus arrived. Apparently there was a major accident, which forced the bus to have to turn around and backtrack to take another route, which seriously delayed the bus. Also apparently, neither the bus driver nor the monitor carries a cell phone; they just have the two-way radio to dispatch. They said that dispatch was aware of the issue, and did not know why we had not been contacted. So Sara and I were both frantic for a full half hour not knowing where our son was. It's not that he was dropped of late that bothers me. Having a serious accident delay the bus is certainly understandable. No, what really pisses me the fuck off is not being able to reach any live person in transportation to find out where our child was. That is just patently unacceptible.
So that was my day. How was yours?
Yesterday morning I took Ben out to his bus stop, right on time, and discovered that the bus had already left. The mother of the other little boy that rides that bus was still out there, and told me they had just gone. She also told me about all of the problems she had had with them during the week when Ben was out sick. See, a few weeks ago the bus routes were changed and Ben was put onto a new bus with a new driver. So anyway, the bus was gone which meant I had to drive Ben into school. I don't bother to take my shower in the early morning before I leave to get Ben off to school, I just kind of roll out of bed and stumble out the door. Once he is safely off to school I come back home, take my shower, get some breakfast and then dive into work. So yesterday morning I got to drag my grungy self into Ben's school, have a chat with the principal about transportation issues, take Ben up to his classroom, have another chat with his teacher, and then finally go home. That's about 80 miles of driving before I even really start my day. Yippee.
Talkng to the principal, he immediately acknowledged that there seemed to be some real problems with Transportation and the ESE (that's exceptional student education) students. Ben's teacher said the same thing. This only made me more annoyed with Transportation. When Ben was dropped off in the afternoon the driver swore to Sara that she waited until 7:37 that morning before leaving without Ben. Now, my watch is set to my computer and my computer is set to the atomic clock. I know with absolute authority that I had Ben at the bus stop at 7:30 sharp.
This morning I made sure to have Ben out there early. The driver told me that she definitely waited yesterday morning. When I asked her what time it was right that moment, she looked at her watch and told me 7:32. It was only 7:27. I told her as much, and she said her watch is set to transportation time, and if that time is wrong then I need to call dispatch and tell them to change their clocks. As soon as the bus pulled away I called transportation and asked them what time they said it was. Their answer of 7:34 matched my watch exactly.
So I left a voice mail with the supervisor, and not a very friendly one. Then when I got home I sent an email to the school principal and two other people, detailing what had happened the past two days. I took my time in writing the letter, to be sure that I was being clear and factual rather than just spouting off and making threats. In the end I stated that the problem persists I am going to demand a sit down meeting with the driver, the bus monitor, their supervisor, the school principal, and any other relevant school representatives. I sent the email at about 9 in the morning and then went about my day.
Going about my day involved getting a good two hours of work done before I hit a brick wall. I banged my head against that wall all afternoon until I got a phone call from the transportation supervisor. Apparently by that point my email had been forwarded far and wide throughout the entire transportation department, as well as up to the top levels of the school district administration. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. The bus driver broke down in tears in the supervisor's office, thinking she was going to be fired when she didn't believe she had done anything wrong. Initially my phone conversation with the supervisor was extremely adversarial; she was trying to defend her driver and her department, and I was trying to defend my son's rights to dependable transportation to and from school. After about twenty minutes we finally stopped talking past each other and started actually listening and working to come up with an agreeable solution. By the end of our conversation, which lasted over 45 minutes, we were actually on friendly terms and it seemed that the issues had been resolved. So that was nice.
Unfortunately as soon as I hung up the phone I saw the instant messages from V. telling me that she was taking my mother to Harborview. Her PT level had gone up to almost 10 (normal is 3.5, anything over 6 is generally scary for most people). Aside from the normal symptoms of going that high, she was showing signs of having a TIA (silent stroke). So off to urgent care they went, poor V. having to drag along her two children as well. At this point my mom has been admitted to the hospital and will be staying at least one night, and probably two. It doesn't sound to me that she is in a life-threatening situation (although with her condition that is always a very real possibility), and I had a good impression of the doctor when I spoke to her earlier this evening. So it's sucky that she is in the hospital, but it is good to know she is being well taken care of.
So remember that nice, happy ending with transportation? Problems solved, aside from some serious fence mending to be done with the bus driver? Well, at 5pm I got a call from Sara -- Ben's bus had not shown up yet to drop him off, and no messages had been left. She didn't have any of the numbers with her, so she asked me to call transportation to find out what was up. Calling the main transportation number netted me a recording saying that dispatch was closed, and that their operating hours are 7:30am to 6:30pm. Note, it was only 5pm when I got that message. Selecting the option to report an emergency only sent me to somebody's voice mail. My son was at that point twenty mintues late, and I could not get ahold of a human being to find out where he was. Calling his school also gave me a recording. Calling the supervisor I had spoken to earlier in the day? Voice mail. By this point it was twenty after five and still no Ben. I finally reached a human being at Ben's school, but she did not know anything. Ben definitely was put on the bus, she said, and he had not been brought back to the school. Finally at almost 5:30 the bus arrived. Apparently there was a major accident, which forced the bus to have to turn around and backtrack to take another route, which seriously delayed the bus. Also apparently, neither the bus driver nor the monitor carries a cell phone; they just have the two-way radio to dispatch. They said that dispatch was aware of the issue, and did not know why we had not been contacted. So Sara and I were both frantic for a full half hour not knowing where our son was. It's not that he was dropped of late that bothers me. Having a serious accident delay the bus is certainly understandable. No, what really pisses me the fuck off is not being able to reach any live person in transportation to find out where our child was. That is just patently unacceptible.
So that was my day. How was yours?