Tense PTA meeting

The meeting was really stressful. You could feel the tension in the air. However, no one came to blows. The police officer stayed in the area just in case but spent much of the meeting picking at the kids who came.

Our PTA has never been like this before. In the past, most meetings were attended by most of the teachers, all of the PTA board members, and (maybe) a couple other parents. That was it. And, truthfully, the teachers were only there because the principal said we had to be.

Fast forward to last year - we had a really active PTA board and they planned lots of activities. Most of them didn't want to serve again this year so we have a lot of new folks on the board. They continued with the enthusiasm of last year and things were going well. Then, a group of negative parents got together and seem to take delight in causing problems. One parent (the spokesman for the group) literally questioned every statement in last night's meeting...EVERY statement. You could almost hear the eye rolls from the others in attendance.

Seriously, if the best thing you have to do with your life is cause big trouble by fighting against the PTA and administration of your local primary school.....GET A LIFE! It was so frustrating to watch them aggravate and belittle the caring parents who are doing a great job of supporting our school. I plan to be at every meeting I can this year. They are not convenient for me and I have to do a lot of extra running to be there but I feel it's the least I can do. I try to live my life avoiding confrontation whenever I can. It's shocking to watch this group go out of their way to annoy others. It's almost foreign to me. And I'm glad. I don't want to be one of those people. I can only assume that their lives are boring and unhappy to make them get such joy out of this mess they have created.

I'm soooo glad today is Friday. It's been a long week. The kids came back from fall break and are wild. I got a new student Wednesday (giving me 23 students) and he's something else. That gives me two students with significant behavior issues. I had to call the office and have our school cop come remove one of them from my room today as he was throwing chairs and cursing. It's hard to teach with that commotion going on. I'm not one to send problem kids to the office. They miss educational time while they are there. However, this child is one of the toughest I've ever had. The principal told me to start sending him up there so they can document what's going on. I'm still hesitant to do it but he was way over the line today. If he was one of 18 students, I'd have him settled down by now. As one of 23 students, he'll move on to first grade next year with the same or maybe even worse behavior problems. Sad. It's not my fault. It's not his fault. It's just the way the numbers lined up this year. And, while I'll have a difficult year (and maybe use a bunch of sick days) the child is the one who will suffer...and, of course, his first grade teacher!