Andy starts high school !

I registered Andy for high school yesterday, and he's beginning high school as I write this!  Two years ago, our school district wanted to pass a property tax hike to better pay for school expenses. It was defeated. So, the school came up with ingenious ways to charge parents extra money that they need. First of all, registration (which is charged at nearly every school) is a not-so-bad $125. Yet, it doubles because they charge a "workbook fee". Students are given workboods and since they write the answer right into the book, you can use the workbooks only once. So, now the cost is $250.

Then, the high school passed a rule that any student living within a mile and a half of the high school are NOT entitled to riding on the school bus unless they pay $150. When they asked me if I was paying for busing, I had to make an instant decision. We know with Andy reaching 200 lbs. (he's 5'9") this summer, that walking 1 1/4 miles to school (each way, to and from school) would be good for him. The idea of him walking over 11 miles a week sounds pretty good, actually. The only problem is when we get rain or storms, we'll have to drive him to school, and hopefully if it's storming after school either his mom or Matt, our nephew will bring him home.

The thing also is that Maribeth & I agree that we don't want to have Andy trudging to school in the snow and the weather being 0 degrees. Plus, we know that weather is unpredictable in the fall. So, we will save $50 if we wait until October 1 to have Andy use the bus.

I was also not happy that they did not schedule Andy for a gym class. I am going to ask about this, but I already know the answer. They'll say, "since your son is in special ed class and takes academic subjects the rest of the time, there is no opportunity for him to be in gym." That's not right, but I don't know much I can do to stop this.