I hadn't been this bored since the sixth grade. Last night, I spent four and a half hours at the Jordan School District board meeting. Wow. I wish I'd brought a book along--the guy in front of me had obviously been to a meeting of this kind before.
I was there because the district was making some announcement about ALPS, the program that Bianca's in. I'd heard rumors days before that they're completely overhauling it. That the system, which was initially there to provide special classroom structure for "gifted" children, is now more geared toward "accelerated learners" so the whole system is failed.
At first I was angry. Not only had school vouchers not passed and Bianca is number 72 on the waiting list to get into the new charter school in Herriman, but dissolving the ALPS program as we know it would mean I'd have no options. None. I can't stand being backed into a corner.
So I went. I'd read all the information on the web site earlier in the day and waited. I waded through all the restructuring boundaries in West Jordan, other boring stuff I don't remember, another obscenely long boundary shuffle (I can't remember where, but I remember thinking snidely that this was the board's attempt to bore all the angry ALPS parents into leaving).
Finally, at 8:45, they got down to business about what was happening with ALPS, and it was as I'd heard. Most of the kids in the ALPS program are "accelerated learners," not gifted. The true gifted children most likely have behavioral problems, can't learn in a normal school setting, yada, yada, yada. I deduced that my child is NOT gifted. She must be an accelerated learner. After they went through all the details, 38 people had signed up to speak. I'm not a public speaker. I wrote my letter and emailed it already this morning. Anyhoo, 38 people can speak from 3-6 minutes each and I was bored stiff until after 11 o'clock. With a couple good suggestions, a couple I didn't care for, but really getting nowhere.
I don't know how I got myself into this situation. Why I feel like I need to attend these things. I found myself driving home, sleepily I might add, at 11:30 and had no benefits of staying out late. No fun book club conversation to think about. No yummy food or drinks in my stomach (and I was so thirsty through that meeting--I should have jotted over to Chic-filet [sp?] for a lemonade when I realized how wordy everything was going to be).
I slunk into bed around midnight and Eric asked me if I'd been on a date. I wish. I stayed up for another hour tossing in bed, trying to get comfortable and planning what I'd say in my letter in the morning. Twelve hours later, and I'm still bored at the thought of last night.
If you ever end up going to one of these meetings, be sure to bring along a LARGE drink and a good book.
