Hello,

We haven't yet met, so please allow me to introduce myself. I am David Bauman, Jonathan Bauman's father. I was at the school yesterday morning with Jon's mother for his IEP meeting and I spoke briefly with the principal afterward.

I have a few concerns I'd like to talk with you about and would be grateful if you could find time, perhaps next week, to talk to us about Jon's struggles this year. I was on a business trip last week when Gin called me to relay the message you left for her about Jon's failing grades, and I must admit there seems to be some confusion about the whole thing.

Jon appears sincerely unsure about just what is expected of him in these detentions this week. He was studying for the test that is coming up, and working on some of the homework, but seems certain that there is no use in doing it all because he has already received a failing grade for the marking period. Could you clear this up for us, please? Has he in fact failed or is there yet opportunity for him to complete his assignments and bring the grade up? Is there the possibility of an incomplete or is there at least the chance of working next term to bring the grade back up?

His mother and I have spoken to him about his falling behind in some things this year and how he will need to make up his work. We are requiring him now to have his agenda initialed each day by his teachers as to whether he has any homework, and your participation in this would be helpful. This will help us keep him on track at home. He needs to be more on top of this and not procrastinate, so we are working on how to make him accountable for his own good.

Having said all that, I want you to know that I am extremely disappointed that the only notice we had about his failing grades came after the fact. Had we received some sort of progress report earlier on, or even a phone call, we could have taken action to get him moving on those assignments and perhaps prevent his failing the term.

While I respect the fact that he is getting ready for the responsibilities of high school work, he is still very much a kid, a kid with an IEP and learning support. I don't feel he got support in this and that honestly has me a bit upset for his sake. I understand that you have many students to worry about, but please do not think that we expect you to do it all. We are more than willing to do our part to hold Jon accountable for his responsibilities, as we have always done, but a little more communication would have helped us a great deal in that effort.

Please let us know if there is a time his mother and could talk a little about how we can work together for Jon. Thursday of next week would work particularly well, but I could arrange a meeting any morning before that. If it works better in the afternoon for you, Virginia would be glad to meet with you then.

Thank you for your help,
David J. B.

I will not elaborate at this time...but I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE GOING THRU !!!!!! It's been an incredible year with one of my youngest son's teachers !!!

My only suggestion.....keep the line of communication open. In my case....I had to get the principal involved due to a lack of respect from the teacher during our email correspondence.

Good Luck

Jeff

Thanks for the understanding and the shoulder to lean on. Much appreciated, Jeff.

Sometimes teachers can have so much on their plate, and assume what they may say to students is being passed on verbally to parents.... and they should know better. It is such a shame that you all have to play catch up now when this could/should have been sorted a while back, hopefully the teacher will realize this.

Luckily with my guy, some issues I had last year with a couple of grades were resolved, in that I discussed it with my son, he then asked to speak with the relevant teachers to put his case. Guess what...turned out he had graded him, commented on percieved omissions from course work, but actually hadn't even read the pieces concerned!!!! ....so the end result now is that my son has got the top grades across the 2 year course, i.e. distinctions and will recieve the Top Student Award at the end of the course...RESULT!!!

So don't let this go David, make them accountable for their actions or failure to communicate effectively with Jon's parents and see how this can be turned around.

Cheerio for now...Vincent..xx

Thanks, guys. The results were various, including some inaccuracies on Jonathan's part about what was what. This teacher is new and Jon was doing much better in the previous teacher's math class. According to the principal quite a few kids had grades drop dramatically since she started.

That's not all bad. She may be just a tougher teacher, but I think some of it is inexperience and savy with the communication. I think she'll do better. I know Jon is rebounding.

Thanks!