See you in September??

I'm pretty sure the month of August just disappeared...completely. However, looking back --- it was quite a month:

• Our corps members came back to Milwaukee to begin their teaching here, here, or here
• I enjoyed at least two outings here (God Bless Wisconsin and it's frozen custard)
• Drove to Lawrence to celebrate the Weekend of Amy
• Saw this family's new house
• Made a visit to my favorite restaurant with Mom and Dad!
  
• Attended a party here
• Enjoyed a nice brunch here
  
• Found out a little bit more about motorcycles here
  
• And I'm still jealous of these people

However, the other night...right before the calendar flipped over to September, I met up with a friend of mine and former corps members here in Milwaukee. He taught for two years and now he is living in Madison working to get a ed policy advocacy group off the ground for Wisconsin (believe me, we need it!).

Anyhow, the reason he was back in Milwaukee was because he called the mom of one of his former students, Dion, to see what school Dion would be attending this coming school year. Dion had been attending a low-performing school and in all honesty, was on the track to drop out of school before graduating from high school even though he was only going to be a 6th grader this year. If that's hard to believe, but I can send you the stats on Milwaukee's high school drop out rates...if you want.

Dion is a good kid, works hard, and has a mom who wants what is best for him. However, for whatever reason all the work that my friend had done last spring to make sure Dion and his mom had the information to get him enrolled in one of the great schools here in Milwaukee just landed Dion on a wait list and he was not technically enrolled in the 6th grade at any school.

My friend got in his car and headed east towards Milwaukee. He called one our 2010 corps members who works at this school. She didn't have any openings for 6th grade, but the new campus opening up this year might. My friend made the call - they had 2 openings for 6th grade and 1 opening in 3rd grade (perfect for Dion's little sister). He called Dion's mom and told her he was on the way to pick her up and take, Dion and his sister to the school and enroll them for the school year.

They made it in time and officially filled out the forms to make sure Dion and his sister had a great school to go to for the next few years. My friend picked up the school supply list asked Dion's mom if she had bought any school supplies yet...she hadn't. He drove them to Target and bought the supplies that Dion and his sister would need. I know my friend doesn't have a job right now and so I asked how he paid for it - he just said, "It's been an expensive evening, but Dion needs to be in that school. I'll be fine."

Now, there's a lot you can take from this...and there are a lot of people who can question my friend and/or Dion's mom's decisions or even why Dion hadn't been placed in the open spots of the other campus when he was on the wait list at the original school...but honestly, does it really matter?

What it makes me think is that it really shouldn't be the luck of someone calling to see where a former student is going to school and then be able to make the trip to make sure that student is enrolled in a great school. Shouldn't we just have great schools for our students to attend no matter who their parents are or where they live?

Anyhow, school has officially started and Dion is already loving his new school and teacher who happens to be a 2011 corps member - I can't wait to visit that 6th grade classroom and meet him.