Letter to The Principal

An email I wrote to Captain Gray's principal after a salty run-in with their receptionist.

Principal <______>,

I regret to inform you that I did not have a pleasant experience yesterday afternoon at the Captain Gray Early Learning Center. Let me preface by saying that I am a single mother of three children under five years old, I work full-time, and in addition I am a full-time advocate for my three year old son, Benjamin, who has been diagnosed with severe autism. These issues are no fault of your own or the Pasco school district, however, I have not had an overall positive experience with some of the administrative personnel.

I understand that workloads are heavy and budgets are light. I work for the government, in the financial sector, even. I, myself, am very much impacted by sequestration and will be required to cut and go unpaid for 120 hours between April 1^st and July 1^st. However, I do think the bulk of my complaints and concerns could have been altogether avoided with effective communication.

I have been trying to get my sons, Ross and Benjamin Baron (namely Benjamin), into a special education program that they could actually access for over 18 months. I lived in Burbank, and despite Ross and Benjamin spending over 50 hours/week in a state accredited Pasco daycare facility the school district refused to serve them. I understand that there are rules and over-crowding – again, this is no fault of your own. So I did what I had to do; I picked up my three children, all of our belongings, and moved to Pasco on March 1^st.

Since then I would describe the timely responses from the individuals in the special services program to be mediocre. After finally hearing back from <school psychologist> on Wednesday, March 20^th, she told me what the next steps were that I should take to get Ross and Benjamin enrolled in the special education program at Captain Gray. She simply told me to come to the office, pick up the paperwork, fill it out, and drop off other necessary documents. She failed to tell me; 1) That all the forms were located on the school’s website. I actually looked there before I decided to drive all the way from Richland (where I work) to east Pasco. And 2) That this particular paperwork is only accepted between the hours of 10am and 3pm. Online it clearly states office hours are between 8:30am and 4:30pm, with no caveats.

I left work an hour early to make it to Captain Gray at approximately 4:20pm yesterday, March 27^th, 2013. I don’t have paid time off, so that’s an hour’s pay I will never see – approximately a week and a half’s worth of diapers for two of my children. The receptionist (I did not happen to catch her name) was not friendly and her “apology” was ironically unapologetic. In fact, she told me that she could not accept my paperwork and that the office was “closed anyway.” I said I thought it closed at 4:30 and she replied with, “well, yeah, I guess… in 10 minutes” with a shrug. She then turned her head away from me and continued her phone conversation as if I were never there. That just adds insult to injury, plus the fact that I now have to take ANOTHER hour off work (at the very least) to deliver this paperwork.

This is an isolated incident, yes, but all these isolated incidences add up to a lot of time and even more frustration. I am not educated in the specifics of school administration – I don’t know how it works and I don’t know all the answers. I do know that the spirit of teaching our children and having “no child left behind” seems vain and trite – just something we say to make ourselves feel better. I very much feel like my child is “left behind” in the bureaucracy. I’ve spent over half of his life trying to get him help and jumping through hoops. Why do we say our babies cannot wait if that’s exactly what they are required to do? This is not to say the Captain Gray Early Learning Center and other schools in the district have not made a difference in the lives of the children they serve, but this is my perspective and my perception – and that is my reality and the reality for my children. I know I am not the only parent who feels this way.

I would urge you and other administrative leaders, if you cannot cut some of the bureaucratic red tape, can you please try to ensure that correct and complete information is given to tired and frustrated parents (all parents, really)? My patience is waning. That being said, I am excited for my children to start preschool. All the teachers I have met have been a pleasure. I know they really care about the children they teach.

I do hope this finds you well and that you enjoy the upcoming spring break.

Thank you,

Kendall Baron