01/11/10 30:1

Cool, today's date is a palindrome: 011110.

I attended a school board meeting tonight, of all things. The school district is so strapped that they're proposing to eliminate a "Class Size Reduction" program. Instead of 20 kids in Julian's 1st-grade class, there will be 30. THIRTY. Not 24, not 28, THIRTY. A 50% increase. Gabriel's 3rd-grade class too, since this affects grades 1-3, but it would be felt far more in the younger grades.

There's been a fair amount of parent uproar about this, so I thought I'd lend my face to that uproar. Not that anyone saw me; the room where the meeting was held was packed and parents were spilled out into the hall. And not that it mattered. The decision was already made.

Apparently this isn't the final word, but preliminary layoff notices will go out to 100 teachers, to become final unless something happens by May 15. To we laypeople, it's baffling why five furlough days, which teachers prefer too, isn't the obvious answer. Or opening schools later -- we don't need to start in the 3rd week of August. But this isn't about "obvious."

I'm too mired in the world of logic and determinism to have any idea what's going on, but I'm sick about the idea of Julian's poor future teacher having to deal with 30 of them. So much for being in one of the top school districts in the state, whatever little that means anymore.

Gabriel home sick today with temps of 100 on and off -- on again tonight, so, he's home tomorrow too. This puts a crimp in my ability to run around the Bay Area and catch up on stuff, but in truth, being home alone with him all day is a rare delightful treat.

1/11/10