Another happy dance post!: Tori received her acceptance letter tonight from the Riverpoint Academy, WSU Riverpoint Campus. It's a new school that combines HS and University, and promises to be an outstanding academic opportunity. They only accept 75 students, so entry was very competitive. Tori's adviser, who also happens to be her Principal, told her several weeks ago that she would not be able to apply, as she is a transfer (from another district) student. This didn't set well with me, so I talked it over the next day with several friends who are teachers, and they all encouraged us to have Tori apply anyway. When I got home, I discovered she already had. Within a week, she and her dad were meeting with the new director, and less than an hour after her interview (which she felt went very well) the Mead district had called to say our home district (Spokane District 81) had denied the transfer. One pissed off mama bear.......so I called the district Superintendent the very next day, made it very clear that we could have sued them silly nine years ago when they refused to comply with her IEP, and that this time they were in for a fight. A few hours later, and I get a call that "we would never deny Tori this opportunity.....she is a Mead student, and we would not refuse the transfer....just a misunderstanding..." I phoned the Mead district back, told them what 81 had said, and then we got to wait to see if right triumphed over politics. (81 is very large, but Mead is the best district in the state for academic excellence, so lots of politics there- not the least that the Riverpoint Campus is smack dab in the center of 81- lol). I knew she qualified grades- wise, especially in Science, but I was very worried that forces outside our control would mess this up. When she got the acceptance letter, I was so, so proud- not just because she has overcome so much and that all of her hard work was finally paying off, but that she didn't take no for an answer- she did this, all on her own, and words cannot express how much that means to me. One truly ironic thing in all of this? The WSU campus is also home to the HOPE school, an auditory/verbal school for the Deaf/HOH, and is run by all of her former preschool teachers. Tori can be a role model to the little ones- that they can do anything, if they work hard and set their minds to it. So proud of our girl- and I say 'our', because she is a LoT girl, and you all have have contributed so much to her education, in more ways than you know, and that I probably don't want to know.....lol!
http://riverpointacademy.org/riverpoint/