Day 3...Getting up early is for the birds!

Alright...one negative for FWCHS...my son (with me driving) now has to leave the house at 6:55am instead of 7:30am (if he were going to FA), BUT....that leaves plenty of time for me to get him to high school in Somerville (for those who don't know there is only one high school - public - in Fayette County and it is located on north Hwy 59 about 5 minutes north of the Somerville town square) and still get my girls to school on time.  We take a back route in and guess what...very little traffic to contend with!  I pull up to the front curb and drop him about 7:20am (classes start at 7:25am).  My girls don't start at their schools until 8:25am, so the morning works out nicely (despite lack of sleep!).  He COULD take the bus, but that would require an even earlier morning - on the bus at 6:15am.  No way! 

FA phased out buses a couple of years ago and most parents bring their children or carpool (if the kids aren't driving themselves).  That is fine for most folks, but it would be a problem had my son gone there this year.  I would have had to find a ride for him coming home from school.  He rides the bus home now from FWCHS and is home by about 3pm-ish.  Glad that worry is off my shoulders.

What about after-school activities, you may ask?  Well...I found out today...wait for it...that...wait for it...FWCHS has a LATE BUS for after-school activity kids!  What a great concept, right?  This allows kids who want to participate but might not have a parent to pick them up at 4pm-ish to go ahead and participate and still catch a bus home.  What a wonderful service for kids who don't yet drive and who have parents that work and can't give them a ride.  I heard this from my new FWCHS parent friend today and BOY was I excited!  My son will be participating in Cross Country and/or marching band this fall and I was perplexed on how to get him home.  Now my mind is half at ease...it will be fully at ease once I call and get the specifics on the late bus and make sure he's qualified to ride it home.

So far I have spoken with: Mr. Hicks, office workers, Coach Redditt (Cross Country), Mr. Holmes (band) and Mr. Kebschull (FWCHS website admin.).  I can't tell you how nice everyone has been and how receptive/helpful they have been to me thus far.  My son reports the same of his teachers.  We were on the website this weekend (www.fayettewarehighschool.com ) and he was pointing out everyone to me (teacher photo).  He is happy about going to school in the morning and seems positive when returning home.

I have semi-figured out the last hour question (advisory).  It seems that it isn't a true hour, but only the end of their day.  He basically has 4 classes: Reading, Science, English and Instrumental Music this semester.  He'll have 4 new classes next semester.  The homeroom serves only as a brief starting point for the day (announcements, notes home, etc.) and then you have lunch thrown in.  Each class, if you remember from blog #1, is 90 minutes.  He will have 4 credits at the end of this semester.  All of that is important (as I found out with my oldest) when it comes time to figure out if you can graduate or not!  I hear Mr. Hicks is not a fan of study halls, so I'm not worried that my son will be thrown into some deep pit of boredom.  It all seems to be working out. 

I will be going to the office tomorrow morning to finish up registration (proof of residency - thank you Dr. Gray for enforcing this system wide!) and also to finish the task of getting his elective course work switched to something different.  I think it's pretty neat that FWCHS offers course work towards a certain skill set.  The older I've gotten the more important it seems to find direction and interest BEFORE you are off to college and take a bunch of filler classes because you don't know what you like/dislike.  I'm hoping that the FWCHS course work will either gear my son towards engineering or show him that he can't stand it so he doesn't waste time in college. 

One thing I've noticed so far is that communication to parents might be a little less frequent at FWCHS than at FA...I haven't gotten any notes on marching band or cross country (which both start tomorrow) - had to call and ask for info.  But...that could be my son just not getting the info to me.  FA was always pretty good about sending notes or emails about different issues.  I also haven't heard about any homework/grade checking service via the internet like FA had with "Renweb".  That was a nice service and something that I will miss, but it was an "extra" and I'm okay with not having it if need be.  The other mis-communication came with summer reading.  Turns out that it was supposed to be mandatory, but since the kids weren't sent home a letter about summer reading (it was only on the website and I happened to see it and made my son do it) then Mr. Kebschull is going to speak to administration to get it turned into extra credit rather than mandatory reading and cleared up for next year's freshmen.  He apologized for any confusion (on behalf of the school) and promised to look into it. 

I finished up the first edition of the FWCHS newsletter today.  I hope people get involved with the PTO at the school - I am glad I have!  The officers are first rate and so wonderful!  In putting together the newsletter I discovered that they ran a mural contest for the students last year and had the winning design painted on the outside of the school and the other designs painted on the inside.  They also added landscaping to the grounds this summer and several other things.  The biggest thing is that the PTO is trying to change the graduation ceremony from the gym to Bellevue Baptist Church.  This is important to me because the one negative I constantly hear about FWCHS is that the graduation is horrible due to the fact that people are stuffed into a hot gym.  I definitely want a better experience for my son in 4 year's time! 

That's it for Day 3.  So far, so good....that makes a mom pretty darn happy...:)