School Tickets

Generally, I am very satisfied with my children’s schools. I am particularly fond of the School my girls attend for its professional administration. No school is perfect and every school has problems, but my general impression is that the school runs a tight administrative ship.

That being said, I do have one gripe with the administration. Every year, when you have completed your tuition arrangement with the school, the parent receives an admission ticket. This ticket is to be presented by each child on the first day of school, to prove that tuition was paid or arranged. We of course received our welcome packet with our two tickets as soon as we finalized tuition several weeks ago. One ticket for Shenzi and one for Violet.

On Tuesday night, Violet came home from school and explained that she was advised that she must bring in her admission ticket the next day. Apparently, Violet forgot her ticket the first day.

Now, honestly, isn’t there a better way to confirm that parent’s paid or arranged tuition? Why should it involve the children at all? Doesn’t the school have an account receivable system that tracks who has and who has not paid or arranged tuition? What would the school have done if Violet forgot her ticket again? Sent her home? Sold her as a slave? Shouldn’t the school have called Rikki or me? Couldn’t they just check whether tuition was paid, and not involved Violet or us at all?

Am I missing something?