Let my voice be heard! haha

So I had a really cool experience last week! I have been volunteering in Ellie's kindergarten class this year twice a week. It is a really tough group of kids this year! First, there are 26 kids in the class which is ridiculous to start, then 19 of the 26 are Latin. Most of those 19 Latin kids don't speak a lick of English! 12 of the 19 are shipped to a ESL (English as second language) school in the afternoon, and the rest stay at the school for all day kindergarten to help them catch up. Bush Elementary has always had a lot of Latin kids which I have always liked the diversity, but this is far and away the most I have ever seen in one class. It was very frustrating to watch the teacher try and teach a group of 26 5 and 6 year old's who were all over the map knowledge wise. Mrs. Frances is my all time favorite teacher!! I always insist that my kids have her for kindergarten. It has its down side though, because she is so good, they usually place the toughest kids in her class to teach. In years past when working with the Latin kids, I would tell them their numbers or colors in Spanish, then they would understand. As they picked up the language, you would discover that these kids are actually very smart. This year when working with many of the kids, I would tell them the numbers or colors in Spanish, and they still give me the blank stare. These kids don't know anything in either language!! While doing testing with the kids this week, I had kids who could not identify the letter A. Some could not count past 5, and we are a month into school. I became very frustrated with our education system, and felt like many kids, including mine, were being failed. They put 26 kids in a class and expect them to all learn the same way and in the same time frame. and now days they expect the results with half the budget and help. Finally I had had enough. I was venting to Grant about it so he decided to call our school district and file a complaint. Of course, they placed the blame right back on our school and took no accountability themselves. I made an appointment with our principal, Dr. Sanders and spoke with her about my feelings. At first her only solution was to move Ellie to another class. I refused that choice, one because I will only have Mrs. Frances, and two because that does'nt solve the problem for the other 25 kids in the class. She promised to look into things more and we left it at that. Well.... (here come the good part!) this week she called me into her office. She thanked me for voicing my concerns and told me that after talking to me she went in and observed the class more. She also had a meeting with the teacher and realized she had the same concerns as me. So she called the school district office and requested a bilingual aid for her class, and it was approved!! She said that it was because of Grant and my involvement as parents that their eyes were opened to the reality of the situation. I am so excited!! Now, these kids will all be able to thrive! half the class will not be sitting and waiting while the teacher tries to help the troubled kids. There is someone who speaks fluent Spanish to really help to teach the Latin kids. For the first time ever, I felt like I actually had a voice and positive change came because of it!