Registration

The school year started, more or less, today.

Every year the folks running registration for the schools here in Our Little Town get better at it. When the girls were little, back in our first few years of Not Bad President Elementary, getting all the paperwork done for the beginning of the school year was an hours-long event featuring parents strewn all over the all-purpose room trying to find flat surfaces upon which to write. 

Now?  Most of it’s online.

There is still a pile of stuff that you have to do – this form, that form, that other form (yes, that one, even if you didn’t think it was something you had to fill out again) – but you can enter most of the basic information into the snazzy new computer interface from the privacy of your own home these days.  You can even pay most of the fees online too, and let me tell you what a great thing that is.

Especially when you realize, an hour before heading off to the actual schools to complete the registration process, that you have used up your last check.

Nobody uses cash in the midwest.  Be serious.  I once saw someone pay for a candy bar and a soda with a check out here. 

So, kudos to the school district for making my life easier over time.  Not many organizations can say that.

We started the day by heading over to Mighty Clever Guy Middle School, where Lauren will be going for the next few years.  We’ve pretty much got this routine down now, after Tabitha’s three years of it.  She and I showed up early, breezed through the first couple of stations (“Yes, we did all that online – see ya!”), bought a gym outfit emblazoned with the MCGMS logo, and arrived in the cafeteria, where we collected her schedule for next year and signed up for the Opening Day Conference – a 20-minute “Welcome to MCGMS” meeting with Lauren’s homeroom teacher, after which you get to find your locker and stuff it with all your books and such.

From there it was over to the auditorium for school photos, and back to the car.  In and out in about half an hour.

Then it was Tabitha’s turn.

We arrived at Local Businessman High School to find ourselves amid a throng of similarly lost-looking people shuffling toward the first Checkpoint.  Fortunately Kim figured out that we could cut to the front of the line and just have them sign off on our form because all that was already taken care of online, and then it was on to the next Checkpoint.

Tabitha collected her lunch account PIN, and then we stood in line for a while for school photos.  After that it was over to the desk where she could collect her schedule, and then down the hall for textbooks.  My camera is currently in the repair shop and Kim couldn't come for Lauren's registration, so this is our photo of the day.  It's a nice photo.

I don’t remember those textbooks being quite that thick back in the day, but maybe they’ve just piled on that much more knowledge since I was in high school.  I suppose I was lucky to graduate when I did.

We left in a torrential downpour, registered and looking up at a brand new school year in brand new schools for both girls.