Our kindergarten student was just assigned to Jefferson school (across town) when we live half a block from Garfield. Literally just a couple houses. What can be done to get it changed?

Garfield only has one Kindergarten class. It's probably full.

Hey Carli, try to talk to the Principal at Garfield School as soon as you can , she is very nice she might be able to help you. She helped me before with my problem related to other school . She is very accomodating. Hope she could help you too. Good luck!!

My son was that way too. There is only one kindergarden class at Garfield, and there are three and at Jefferson. That is why. You will not get into Garfield till you have more then one kid going there. If you are starting Kindergarden and you have no older sibs there, you wont get it. I had to wait to get my kids there, even though we were closer to Garfield then the other. Till there were two to go to school there. All of the schools are full, there aren't enough great teachers... So at least your kid is in the public school system at all! Feel how it would be like in Williston, and think thank God you are here!

If memory serves me, you can protest to the superintendent. I had to when my first child started kindergarten and they wanted him to go to Jefferson School instead of Garfield.....he's 36 years old now!

The state also has restrictions on the number of students per teacher so ramming just one more kid in is not always an option.

I also have that same problem, my son should be going to Garfield, but now i have to spend time and my gas to drive him to Jefferson, plus y the hell doesn't miles city have a busing system, absolutely ridiculous!!! I went to kindergarten thru 6th grade at Garfield and want the same for my children, but now i have to wait because how city is over populated by this damn oil field crap. heres an idea build another school??? oh wait that would mean the city would have to put money into our city, they have a hard enough time cleaning up our streets and fixing our roads.

plus y the hell doesn't miles city have a busing system, absolutely ridiculous!!!

I'm going to add in the school nurse thread to this response. MONEY!

Everyone bitches and moans that we don't have this and we don't have that. It takes a ton of money to support these programs. Miles City doesn't have the tax base to support any of this. And yet people keep voting Republican, who are gutting public education just as fast as they can, trying to turn it into a for-profit entity, and to give tax breaks to the ultra-rich. It isn't rocket science.

I wish it was that easy to build a new school. I wish that Montana had more funds dedicated to education. School funding is a very difficult process. Jefferson is a superb school with great kindergarten teachers and a smaller population for the littler ones to get used to being around.

I am sad about the comment made about the oilfield workers and their families. All of the families I have met are a wonderful addition to our community. We have locally grown people working with oil-related companies like SanJel and are also thrilled with the families who have relocated here with SanJel and similar companies.

Really? Time and money to drive the child to Jefferson? We in Miles City like to complain about the most ridiculous things. It is simple math, as someone pointed out above. Jefferson has three Kindergarten classes, Garfield has one. With this situation, of course children who do not live in the Jefferson School district will have to attend Kindergarten there.

There is absolutely no place in Miles City's city limits that is a "waste" of gas and time. That extra two minutes each way is really small potatoes in the course of a day of 1,440 minutes. If you are having trouble budgeting those two minutes in your day, a time management course may be in order. I'm sure finding those two minutes for things you WANT to do is not a problem. Only the people who truly micromanage their gas usage may complain about the waste of gas for that big, long trip to Jefferson. That would be those people who walk the majority of their day to limit consumption. Anyone who manages to drive out to Haynes for their fast food, or to the store for cigs or beer, or to the casino, has no business complaining about the cents it costs to drive their kids to Jefferson.

It also has nothing to do with "oil field crap". If you would please remember, there used to be two classes of Kindergarten students educated at Garfield, when it was possible to have both a morning and afternoon Kindergarten class. Now that Kindergarten is considered a full day, this is no longer an option. Why does Jefferson have three classes, you ask? It had the most available classroom space when additional space was required. End of story.

According to Google maps, Jefferson is 1.2 miles from Garfield. Too bad that your kid didn't get into the kindergarten that you wanted him in, but I don't think this is an insurmountable problem.

I think the best solution would be the one pioneered by Miles City in the 70's: close all the schools except one, and time-share the hell out of it.

Someone pointed out the Miles City-oriented expectations and things we were/are accustomed to. It got me thinking.

As mentioned - 1.2 additional miles between schools. When I was in High School we ran 2.5 miles daily (thanks Mr. Veis!).

My wife's commute here in Des Moines to downtown can be up to 20 minutes from our house - still in city limits.

I walk my kids to their elementary school anytime the weather is good. It's .49 mile one way. Basically, a mile. We allow ten minutes for them to walk that half mile. I enjoy the walk back enough to turn it into my morning walk around the neighborhood. We get full-blown 4 seasons here, too. So, I try to cherish any weather that allows us to walk those ten minutes because before long it's either broiling in humidity or sub zero with snow drifts.

Driving them to school takes equally as long to park the car where we do and then walk them to the front door. We park at the end of the block to avoid the traffic "in the loop." So, 3 minute drive, 3 minute walk.

I often think back to when I lived in MC and you could bike across town in about ten minutes. It helps me keep perspective on where we live now and the things we do.

I still tease my friend Mike who lived two blocks from Bill's Minit Market and would spend fifteen minutes warming his truck up in order to drive there and get some Mountain Dew. ha ha.

I would call the school and talk to the principle...the secretary at the time told me my son had to go to Jefferson as well when we first moved here because both classes were full and then I talked to the principle and I was told that if you live in that district they have to make a way to fit all the kids in...I don't know if this is true anymore but that is what I was told a few years ago...I hope this helps!

One thing Miles City's public school system taught me is that the principal is my pal.

Wow, when I was at CCHS in the 1960s, we walked about 12 blocks home at lunch and then back cuz school lunches were so expensive. That has to be over a mile. I think my brother who was in 6th grade also walked to school, unless Dad was able to take him -- as was the case some mornings. And, darn, it was darn cold some mornings!

I think today's parents have become pretty spoiled. However I understand their concern for safety -- crossing busy streets, etc.

When I was in first grade in Birmingham, Ala., I rode the public bus system across town with my brother to school. And guess what, I grew up okay.

1. No bus system.
2. Different world than in the '60's.

Yeah, it was nothing like the mean streets of Miles City back then.

Growing up here, I also walked or biked to school, and all over town for that matter, but M.C. is different now and I drive my son. I cringe when I see some of these young kids out by themselves, especially after dark.

Yep, Miles City sure ain't the nice little Leave it to Beaver town that it was, when I grew up in the 1970s. Its full of murderers, thieves, drug addicts, molesters, and rapists these days. Not to mention the mentally ill. Where did they all come from? Glendive?

A parent would be insane to let their child even walk across the street to school without an armed adult escort. These are troubling times. We have to take America back.

Safety is safety, no matter what the era. It only takes one sicko to cause harm. Perhaps MC should focus on having neighborhood watch groups, especially on the routes kids use to get to school.

Gunnar

Dear God -

Please don't let this thread degenerate into the ramblings of the Greatest Generation, The Boomers, and the faux-Boomers about how things used to be awesome and parents today just need to suck it up and quit coddling their precious little snowflakes because THEIR parents beat them because they loved them and THEY turned out alright, amirite?

kthx bai,

Bridgier

You can't hardly get through an issue of the Star without reading about the current rash of child abductions in Miles City. It's no wonder everyone is driving their kids to school.

I live 20 miles out of town and I will have to drive my son to Jefferson every day. I work in MC so no big deal. You want to bitch about gas money and time spent driving when you live IN TOWN?? What a bunch of crap. The info that I got in the mail says I cannot drop my son off earlier than 7:45 am. Some days I have to work AT that time. I hate the thought of making my daycare provider bring my son to and from school- that is a parent's job; but alas, some days I just can't and lucky for me, she is willing to cooperate. I am just happy that my son gets to go to school and that he's excited beyond belief about it. Everything else I will find a way to deal with.

Gunnar, I agree completely!

There have been "bad" people who are wanting to harm kids in Miles City for a long long time. The difference is that now it's made public.

Kircher School has some openings at this time. The Kindergarden class will be be all day on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. A bus stops at the Old Dairy Queen parking lot to pick up and returns each afternoon to drop off. If you have questions, please feel free to contact either the County Superintendent's office (874-3421) or Kircher School (234-2761) for exact details.

Kircher School provides grades K-6 and we do have openings in the 3rd, 4th 5th & 6th grades also. I am not sure about how much more, if any space is available in 1st and 2nd grade, you would need to call the school.

Hope this helps

Some of the relpies on this post are pretty rude and sarcastic. The OP was only asking a simple and reasonable question, and looking for a bit of advice.

Any person who lives only a few houses away from a school would obviously prefer their child to go to that school. And I just have to add, that MonicaLN, you CHOSE to live 20 miles out of town, so why are YOU bitching about driving your kid to school??? Think before you post.

There have been "bad" people who are wanting to harm kids in Miles City for a long long time. The difference is that now it's made public.

In the 70's they used to call it "runaways."

Now, well, perhaps we realize a lot of those runaways were actually "taken away froms."

Every decade or so since the beginning of time, people decide that everything is so much worse NOW than it was THEN. As someone who reads old newspapers all the time, they aren't. Sure, there wasn't TV to cover the gruesome stuff but trust me, the newspapers did a glorious job in the old days.

The Kinsey Bus Association runs 3 buses - the High School bus, which takes kids from Kinsey to and from the Miles City schools; the Kinsey Town bus, which takes 'town' kids to and from the Kinsey Elementary School, grades K-8; and the Kinsey bus which takes kids from Kinsey to and from the Kinsey Elementary School.

I guess we don't have kids like New York's Izzy Skenazy here.

http://today.msnbc.msn.co...DfzUaBWrms

Don't watch this if you don't want to see a LOT of swearing, but this is pretty good.

Penn and Teller - Stranger Danger (Full Episode)

The idea of perverts grabbing up strange kids off the street is largely non-existent. 90+ percent of child abduction and/or molestation is done by family members or at least people that know the victims.

[This message has been edited by Levi Forman (8/25/2012)]

90+ percent of child abduction and/or molestation is done by family members or at least people that know the victims.

Depends on the source. NCIS reports 2001 "stranger abductions" as high as 27%.

DOJ reports same as 1999 34% but that included the demographic of "stranger" but had some previous contact with family (ie. landscaper, plumber hired to come into home, etc.).

The real numbers get even muddier when you do as you have - mix abductions with molestation as not all abductions result in molestation but obviously those numbers are still frighteningly high and most still end with upper 40%'s end in death.

I haven't seen anything from law enforcement that puts it as high as 90% although in the majority category of "family" or known-to-family most (80%-90%) are, indeed, discovered within hours... not that they end well but it's determined, in the cast majority of cases, that someone known/family took the child.

/shrugs/tosses 2 pennies/

The 90% number is for molestation, not abduction, as friends and family don't need to abduct the kid to molest him. The point is that your kid is much more likely to be molested by his grandparents or his pastor than a stranger, and those are pretty rare as well. There's about 1000 ways that your kid could die that are more likely than being abducted by a stranger including riding in a car with you. If you're not losing sleep over that then you probably shouldn't let fear of strangers overly influence your life. The vast majority of people have no interest in stealing strange children even if they do work in an oil field.

Ya but Levi, it is that other 10% that is also a worry.

[This message has been edited by LAURIE STARK (8/26/2012)]

So which are you more worried about? Your relatives? Or strangers? People aren't good at guessing the odds of bad things happening. For example, a lot of people won't let their kids visit a house if there's guns in it, but it's statistically far more dangerous to send them to a house with a swimming pool. They are more likely to be killed in a car accident on the way to school than they are to be abducted.

1 in 1.5 million kids gets abducted. It can happen, but if you spent time worrying about everything that has a 1 in 1.5 million chance of happening you would never get anything else done. There are 5 times as many people struck by lightning every year than child abductions. You don't send your kid out to climb a tree in a thunder storm and you don't send them out on the streets of Tijuana alone at night, but any energy put into worrying about them being taken by a stranger while walking to school in broad daylight in Miles City, Montana is almost certainly wasted.

Or jogging at 6:00 on a Saturday morning in Sidney.

In my opinion, if you are not concerned about the other 10% as well, then you are a total idiot. Per the post above, it happens. I don't plan on taking any risks. Get it??

What do you mean by "not taking any risks"? Are you posting this from an underground bunker or something?

LOL.

What do you mean by "not taking any risks"? Are you posting this from an underground bunker or something?

No, she's posting from her college-aged kid's dorm room . . . where she lives.

So what's that supposed to mean? I'm juvenile for caring about my kids? Blah Blah Blah Yeah I hear you.

Whoomph, whoomph, whoomph. The sound of hovering helicopters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...ter_parent

Funny how a little anonymity, distance, and not having to show your face can give you all the courage in the world to be rude and treat people so badly. Shame on you. I would bet neither of you two would have the nerve to say that to my face! Oh, and please ,God forbid, I should make an error in spelling or punctuation. But then again...to be so perfect in such a tough world must take all your effort. That's it for me.

AND besides that...I checked. Miles City does not offer helicopter pilot lessons.

My original post has deteriorated as I probably could have anticipated. You are right Laurie, anonymity makes people as strong as the hulk; as wise as Confucius; smarter than Sherlock, and more competent than Dr. Phil. This is a common problem on Mile City.com. Come on people. Where is your decency? Caring for your five year old Kindergartner is a lot different that "hovering" around your college kid. Surely, you can recognize that. Regardless this post had nothing to do with that but attempted to generate ideas of how we can get some class or school concerns worked out. Please be more kind and less disrespectful.

This is a good read about anonymity on the internet.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2007-03-20-online-nastiness_N.htm

"Levi Forman" is an alias? I suppose you're going to tell me that Buck's not really his name either.

"Levi" (or whomever) is right though - people are very bad at evaluating actual vs. perceived risk.

I lucked out...Bridgier...you forgot the "Silent Generation":-) I think all in all this does show that people really do care about their kids no matter how you dissect their methodologies. Lucky kids. Not all children are so blessed.

Wendy Wilson is my real name.

I feel bad for all of you who need TWO names for unique identification.

I'm sure that's why you're all so mean to "LAURIE STARK" (whomever that may be)

I retain my "two names" because that's who I am. And I'm glad because there is an occasional post by "G.L." (or "GL") who I am not.
Also, Wendy Wilson also has a right to be herself!

Don't be mad at me for this reply....I don't want to see another post named "WHO DO YOU THINK [/i]YOU ARE?" (Hee Hee)

You guys found me out. My real name is Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.

Apu! It's you!