A fiasco was not a failure

I had worried about the bus situation for today.  My expectations were low, but not low enough!  When I called the coordinator this morning to cancel one student, I was told that we could not possibly have a bus today.  I just couldn't say that was OK.  We had five young ladies with little children waiting for the buses.  I had already had one call asking for the number of the bus so she wouldn't miss it.  So I objected as firmly and nicely as I could.  And we got buses.

However, one of the buses brought two young ladies and their three children to the wrong school almost at the Michigan border and just dropped them off there.  That took even more phone calls and requests to get them back into the downtown area where we are located.

The students were stressed at arrival, but not angry.  And we had a great morning--even if it started 90 minutes late for some. Introductions were made, forms signed, and testing began.  Notes written for me at the end of the morning recognized the stress, but were positive. 

But this is the frustration of the job.  I knew there could be a problem and tried to prepare for it by emails, faxes and direct phone contact.  But the confusion still happened.

I like working with the students and the staff.  It is frustrations like this one and the ones we have with maintenance that make me think I would like to retire.  But these frustrations are nothing new; they have always been there and I have gotten over it.