And now we rest...

Last week we had our final session of Credit by Exam. CBE is a test that one can take to advance to the next grade level. In elementary, they have to pass all of the required subjects with a 90% or better. In middle school, they have to pass both semesters of a subject to advance. For example, if they are taking 6th grade Math, they need to pass Math 6A and Math 6B, and both parts have to average 90% or better. In high school, they just need to pass that subject with a 90% or better. This is what we call Credit by Exam without prior instruction. Not only do they have to pass with a 90%, but they are not supposed to have had prior instruction in that subject.

This is the first time that I have had to handle Credit by Exam. It's a strange animal. You prepare, prepare, prepare. Then it's time to administer the tests. After the tests are administered, you wait for results. Results are sent to the counselor and parents, and if the parents don't find the results favorable, they can appeal the grades. Then an appeal process is started. It seems never ending because we are doing this twice in the summer. All of this is for one session, so while I was in the appeal process of the June session, we were administering the July session. It overlaps each other. So, basically, it takes the whole summer to complete both sessions.

Because of the above, and because I am a 12-month employee, we don't get the summers off like others who work for a school district. I get tickled when someone asks, "So, when do you take your summer vacation?" It's almost August and the office is just now getting quiet. Once school starts, the fun starts all over again, and we don't get a break until next July.

The one thing I will bring away from CBE are the kids. Last year, I was mildly involved in CBE. This year, I had to be the one to go to the school, so I got to meet some of the kids. It was like when I was working at the church. I saw people names, and when I actually met the person, I was so thrilled to put a face to the name. This was the case. When I met one of the kids, I was happy to put a name to one of the hundreds of names that I kept seeing on my lists.

Some of the kids were there for only one subject (middle school and high school), so they came and went. Then there were the kids that were there for the entire week. Those were the kids I started to get to meet. Some would open up to me and tell me a little bit of their life. Some would just be content on sitting on the bench, waiting for their ride.

On Tuesday, it was Math day, and it was our biggest day. Most of the kids came on that day. And it was during this chaos we lost one of the kids. I was in the front, making sure none of the kids leave out of the front door unless their ride was there. We had a line for the phone by the front desk, and Isabel was monitoring the line. After they made their call, or if they had a cell phone, we would ask them to go to the cafeteria to wait for their ride. During all of this, one of the grandparents came up to us and asked us about his granddaughter. We asked him if he looked in the cafeteria. He said yes. He said that his granddaughter called him on her cell, but now the cell is turned off. We started to look in bathrooms, rooms, etc. After about 15 minutes, we did a call out to the classrooms, which prompted any of the administrators who weren't administering a test to look. We locked down the school, and began a thorough search. After another 15 minutes, we told the granddad that we were going to call the district police. In the meantime, parents were notified, and the mother left work to see if she can find the child walking home. The police got there, and just when they were about to do a search, the mother called to say she found her, walking home. (Home was a very long way away). The best thing about the whole thing was that the mom brought the child back to the school to apologize, in which we knew she was honestly apologetic.

The rest of the week went fine. I think we were about ready to have a drink of something. I was just happy to have Coke.

I took two days off, Monday and Tuesday. Monday, I took my Girl Scout troop to Schlitterbahn Galveston. I'll talk about my adventures to Schlitterbahn in another post. It's time for me to go to bed, so I have to go now. But I just wanted to say that I needed to take two days off after going through a heart attack with the missing child. And now we rest...