Rise of the Superfox...

[sandycay]

Water is perfect here.

[smith18]

Sandycay - My coast guard mates threw me off our ship in the puget sound once. Your water up there is far from perfect. In fact, it was flat out frigid.

Do women know about shrinkage?

[mindfull]

Hahahahaha LoL

I remember that!

"I'm really sorry!"

[BobbiJo]

Ugh...

Calling lawyer today, last I texted with Dan last night I told him that it had been 5 months since I filed (September) and he needed to sign and return the petition. No reply.

Well, in unrelated news, our school district had a levy vote last night. The vote ended in a tie last year, so we lost. 95% of schools in our state use this tax levy to fund educational materials, and we don't have it. Dan was irate last year b/c his parents did not vote...

Meanwhile there have been two separate 10% state budget cuts this year--I know, hard times for everyone...So our district is already talking about staff cuts and I am only on my second year here, so no seniority

Well, found out this morning that the vote failed again. Twice as many voters as last year and we lost by like 300 votes. So no magic funding fairy to help us out...

Dan is apparently super livid about it. He has been texting all morning that he wants to pull the kids out of our district and send them to a private school in Council Bluffs (25 minutes away) since our town is too "white trash" to fund education--his words.

Then he has since texted me how much it costs per year to go there for each child, where they need to go to catch the bus and what time, I guess he is really pissed! I don't like it either but I don't really want my kids on a bus for an hour every day to go to school.

Furthermore I don't have the $7,000 per year I would need to pay for both kids! So good luck with that, Dan...he thinks he is in financial purgatory now...

[mishka422]

What kind of educational materials would the tax have covered?

[smith18]

Have you considered a charter school? Both my kids were lucky to get into a charter school that has a very long waiting list. I only pay $360 a year for each kid. Besides having a more agriculture oriented curriculum, I like it because there are no union politics and bloated administration stealing money away from the classroom. And since there is only one class per grade, the kids have the same classmates each year.

Oh, and one more thing...our school is housed in a church right now and we are a public school. In communist Oregon of all places!

[BobbiJo]

It would have covered textbook upgrades/replacement, computer hardware/software, etc. (Nothing building-wise like construction or expansion.) It would also have been used to keep staff cuts to a minimum and the administrators were hopeful it might even allow them to fill a few positions left empty when teachers retired last May.

For example, Nathan's favorite subject and a strength for him, is Art. Two of the 4 district art teachers retired. Neither was replaced. So each of the remaining 2 serve two buildings instead of one. Which means Nathan gets art half as often as he used to...his art teacher is retiring this year and they may just eliminate the art program entirely K-6. The district is looking at sharing a superintendent with another district next year to save money, too.

[mishka422]

OUCH! Ok, those are serious.

I assumed the levy was a property tax? What was the opposition? What kind of perecentage are we talking? Is it something that could be moved out of a local level into a state level?

[goldeylox]

You know, there is more than one way to educate a child.
If art is an area of interest, and Dan really wants to grow that in his child, then he is free to explore art camps, art museums, and perhaps (here's an idea) spend time with his kid, appreciating art.
Or, he could just get pissed and send you a bunch of texts.
IGNORE.

[BobbiJo]

Yep Goldey, just got a "sorry I am just frustrated with the school system" text...

Did not reply. No way on earth I am sending my kids to Catholic school when I have $1200 total in checking and savings right now...

Need to move forward on the D just to make sure I get more money...the D decree gives me another $850/month compared to what I get from Dan right now...