Welcome to my regular Friday feature, Worst of the Week. As a white, suburbanite husband and dad of two kids, there’s a lot that can go wrong and this entry is all about how to fix it. I hope you enjoy it!

Just when things could get any worse for a family living in Detroit, we get a bombshell: our elementary school is closing at the end of the school year.

School consolidation due to a declining population has been brewing in our area long before we moved here three years ago. There have been numerous proposals, including closing down our two high schools and building a new massive Super-High. Suffice to say, tempers from all over our district are so running hot, one can light a cigarette with no flame at the our open PTO meetings.

I could go into all the politics of what is exactly is going on or what is to come, but this Blog is not the place for that kind of writing, it’s about our kids, so I’ll keep it simple.

Keep in mind that although our school is closing, which BTW is in our neighborhood and the kids can ride their bikes to it, it may not be a bad thing – long term. The students will all be moved together and not split up. Patrick and Erin will be with their friends and by consolidating money will be saved for new programs. They will also meet new friends or be reacquainted with ones they know from baseball, tennis and ballet lessons.

We are trying to keep an open mind about it and do what is right by teaching our kids that change can be a good thing, while we see other parents outraged and wanting to bring race into the equation as one of the factors. Yeah, like I said, it’s heated.

I’m sure I’ll blog on this more as the weeks and months progress and we know that nothing is in stone, but it looks to be inevitable.

If you are going through a similar situation, here is the site for our District and the Strategic Plan.