last straw

i'm soooo NOT looking forward to this.

I think I mentioned that Alex's teacher's husband took a job transfer to Atlanta and he's been without a teacher for the past 5 or 6 weeks. they've been having week-long subs. The school still is looking for a 6th grade teacher they've needed since school started, so the prospects are rather slim for getting a third grade teacher in there any time soon.

A couple weeks ago, I picked Alex up from school and he sheepishly showed me he had cut a very LARGE hole into his pants! I asked him why. Naturally he said he was bored.

I had to wonder what the heck the teacher was doing that she didn't notice alex intently cutting away at the thigh of his pants and why I wasn't called to bring him a new pair of pants since holes in the pants are a dress code violation.

Then, Alex tells me that one of the subs is taking their shoes away as punishment for doing things at the "wrong" time...like she only allows the kids to sharpen pencils once a day, before the bell rings...but that was put to a stop when they had a fire drill and their class was still in the building get shoes on.

Since the subbing started, Alex is frequently missing the gifted bus on thursdays AND on the days he has missed, the teacher is giving him HOMEWORK to make up the classwork he missed ... which is against the rules.

Last week, my child who's flippin GIFTED and despite being a bad speller has a knack for memorizing obscure grammer rules and other useless info, tells me he got a 32% on a language test. Obviously, if my really smart child didn't get it, what the heck did the rest of the class get???

This week, I pick Alex up yesterday and immediately notice a chunk of hair missing.

Today, he freaking SHAVED part of his eyebrows off with a pair of scissors.

At first, Dh thought I was making a mountain out of a molehill, but NOW he finally believes me that there's a significant problem. First, Alex can't handle or thrive in such a chaotic classroom environment. He needs structure. He's not getting it. SEcond, the subs aren't consistent enough in teaching academics to reteach something after the test. If they test Friday and the Friday sub grades, the Monday sub may or may not even look to see if something needs reteaching, yk? Third, WHAT THE HELL is going on in that classroom where a child can vandalize his clothing and CUT himself with scissors. I can understand the pants under the desk, but c'mon...he shaved his eyebrow.

So...after bringing this to the school's attention, I'm going to request Alex be moved to a classroom with a permanent teacher.

My friend is going in tomorrow and talking to them about teaching there, but she wants the 6th grade job. She really doesn't want to teach Alex's class as she also teaches his Sunday School class...and we live across the street from each other and she's like Alex's second mother. We're not entirely convinced this would be the best academic match up, iykwim. Meanwhile, Jill is trying to convince DH to dump his current district and try to snag the 6th grade job if she takes the 3rd grade. DH has a lot more reason to leave his current district than she does.

I hate going in there and having to be a b****h about things. Please send me strength in how to do this without backing down and giving it some more time.