Weavers cloth

I don't think Karen thought the teachers should be caring for the students *past* the end of the school day. She was referring to when school is let out early. If the school stays in session then the kids are safe and so are the teachers. :) The kids and parents will already know where everyone is supposed to be at the end of the school day.

Our rural K-12 school has the same policy: once school's in session it stays in session (this doesn't mean the day is extended!). On storm days all the in-town elementary kids have to have an older sibling or neighbor child that makes sure the younger ones get home safely. All of the out-of-town kids must have a "storm home" in town they go to when there's inclement weather and the buses aren't running. Each family has to fill out a card every year stating the storm home's name, address & phone number. Parents *always* have the option of picking up their children if they choose. The school ensures safety for everyone. A very good policy, IMO!

Joan

You're right, Joan. That's precisely what I was attempting to say.

Karen E.

I agree with you 100%. Safety for all is more important than anything else. We have early dismissals and delayed openings at times. It is not my responsibility as an educator to go in early or stay late because some parent does not have convenient childcare. The reason we have delays or early dismissals is due to unsafe road conditions. It is the parent's problem to have a plan of action for any and all emergencies. At times it might be necessary for a parent to take off from work! They might want to think of that when their child is sick too. So many parents send their child to school sick-we then have to track them down at work and they have to come take the child home. Maybe we need to rememebr that children really do come first-not our job.

jill in nj

Jill Waselik wrote:

I don't know about where you live, but around here, a lot of working parents *couldn't* make it to pick up a child from school on short notice, even if they left from work the instant that the closing was announced. And even if you are lucky enough to have neighbors at home who might be able to pick up the child, those neighbors don't always conveniently hang around at home all the time just in case, so there's no 100 percent guarantee they'll be able to pick up either. In our school system, they do allow early closings, but the decision to close has to be made and announced before 10:30am and they only do a 2 hour early closing. Most of the elementary school kids have regular dismissal times around 3-3:30, so that gives parents a hard deadline for when they'll know whether they have to do an early pickup and at least four hours to make arrangements. There would be less time for high school kids (earliest dismissals), but one would presume it would be less problematic for a high school student to be left waiting than an elementary school student. To say that parents who don't have ironclad arrangements on hand to pick up their kids aren't properly concerned for the welfare of their kids is really mean-spirited, in my opinion. For plenty of families, those parents are working to put food on the table, which is pretty darned important to the children's welfare, and those with the most necessary and lowest paying jobs are often the ones who have the least flexibility to leave early to pick up their kids. It would be nice if we all lived in neighborhoods full of trustworthy neighbors who are home during the day and can run our errands for us when necessary, but not everyone is blessed with that either. I'm sure there are plenty of parents who are too cavalier about sending kids to school sick or having emergency backup plans, but there are plenty who are doing the best they can with limited resources too. The existence of the former does not invalidate the concerns of the latter.

Best wishes, Ericka

I'm not sure if there is a policy about it in my town, but they've never closed school early since my kids were old enough to go. And they haven't cancelled after school extended day that goes until 6:00 either. Several times, I think they cancelled school completely based on the forecast of weather that was supposed to get worse during the day when maybe they could have actually had school after all. In any case, whatever they do, if they close school early they need to make sure that they don't drop any kids off to a locked house in a storm because parents didn't get the message, or are stuck in traffic trying to get home etc. Better to keep them at school until someone can pick them up if it is not sure someone's home for them at an unexpected time. I imagine it must be a pain trying to contact all the parents.

On a kind of related thing, on my son's first day of first grade there was a mix up and his teacher put him on a bus to go home instead of sending him to the cafeteria for the extended day program I had paid for. Good thing the bus driver noticed my son looked worried and that I wasn't there waiting at the bus stop to pick him up. He drove him back to school and they finally figured out that he was supposed to be at extended day. (I think it would have been OK even if he had gotten off the bus because the other mothers in my neighborhood would have stepped in to help out...) I was a little upset at my son because I had told him he was supposed to go to extended day afterward. But he was young and he listened to his teacher. I don't blame the teacher. She had a list of kids going to extended day and for some reason Philip's name wasn't on it. The town's extended day program admitted they had trouble getting the list together and the same thing actually happened to a few other kids. In the end no harm was done. I should have been more careful and told the teacher myself that he was going to extended day after school, or at least sent him in with a note. I hate to think he nearly got dropped off to a locked empty house!

Also once I got back from a long meeting to find a message on my voicemail from the school nurse that my kid threw up and I needed to pick him up. I signed out of work and drove to the school as soon as I could but he had been waiting for quite awhile before I got there and I felt a bad about not getting there faster.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that most parents (myself included!) are trying to do their best and it is good to give them the benefit of the doubt in these situations. And, of course, above all make sure the kids are safe. In my two experences I'm glad the bus driver and school nurse were understanding with me and kind to my son. -Evelyn

The class I took in punch needle used muslin. Naturally, I can't rememer the exact blend, but I believe it also had some polyester in it.

You want something firm enough to stand up to being held very VERY securely in a hoop, with no surface texture, and able to support the mass of thread after the stitching is done. Be sure also to use a hoop with a lip on it, that helps to hold the fabric securely.

Really enjoyable - quick - technique. But it eats up the thread, so don't use expensive ones on the project.

Phyllis Maurer

Thanks Phyllis! Sound like all I really need is a trip to find the hoop! (gee, what a shame - giggle)

Cheryl