Friday, August 27, 2010

It's A Campout!

Just walking up to this building at our church you might think people were just hanging around the building talking....until you see the tents in the background.Also the list of considerations on the door is a bit confusing. And then you see it. The list of hopeful parents with their children's names and grade they'll be entering next year. Yep, it's open transfer day!! Well, actually open transfer day is Wednesday, September 1st.

Since our school district is less than a square mile we should be a small school. We were when I was a student. Now because it's 'the' school to be in, we are almost 70% transfer. We are a big school, but you still get a small town feel. Teachers don't come to start off at a small school and go bigger, they come and stay. McKinley has one that's been there 24 years. I had three that taught over 30 years there.

The only way to get in as a transfer student is to come to open transfer day, fill out the paperwork, and hope the grade your child will be in next year has an opening. So it makes sense to try and be the first person to get your name on the list for that grade. The doors open on the 1st at 7:30 a.m. About 7 years ago parents would get in line at 6 in the morning. But each year they get earlier and earlier. This year, 6 days early. The tents were new about 3 years ago. The school has no guidelines about it, and no control over what happens until they open the doors that morning, so the list of considerations, some camper wrote and posted.

The lady in this picture looked a little older to me...when someone asked her how old her children were she said her older 3 were grown and gone, but the two boys they'd just adopted from Haiti were in elementary. How precious is that? Although the school has no guidelines, they are nice enough to provide port-a-potties. I hope this lady is on the right side of those! I wonder if our local stores are out of tents....I do like the colors:DI am so thankful for my address at this point! We are a few of the coveted in district owners. Who needs a tent?? This dad just pulled out his sleeping bag at night and climbed into the back of his truck on his cot. Hope there's no rain in the forecast.As I walked away I was so proud of our school. This is what people are doing to get in. I'll be back every day to take more pictures. I'm loving this!

1 comment:

The Shupe's said...

I so cherish my time at Bethany! I loved it...I had no idea this is what it takes to get a spot. If we lived anywhere near Bethany, I would gladly camp out for my daughter to experience it! Do they have to do this every year?