The question is, do we say so in the meeting (that we could complain and/or leave)? Or do we avoid potential escalation during the meeting itself, and instead just firmly express our dissatisfaction at the time, and then later, maybe after thinking it over, then go ahead and make our complaints/appeals, and/or make plans to leave the school?
I have not been in this specific situation 22B, but I have been to more than a few school meetings where something was said or a direction was taken that caught me by suprise and I wasn't prepared for. My choice has always been to do my best to not react, leave any potential emotion out of it, and simply say "This is new information" (or "unexpected information"). I will take some time to think it over (you can say a week or ten days or two days or whatever if you want to, or just say "some time") and then I'll be in touch."
I wouldn't give any answers at the actual meeting or put anything else out there for the school - it may just be my personality, but I find it helpful to give myself the time to really think it over - and more importantly, think over how I will respond and what words/approach I'l use. 99% of the time I already know *what* I want to *do*, but my first impulses re *how* I want to say it to the school isn't the same approach I'd choose after I'd had time to think it through - so it's my way of giving myself the opportunity to put thought into my response and hopefully avoid ruffling feathers etc when I might not want to or need to.
Taking this extra time before replying has also occasionally led the school to back down a bit or give in a bit when they were making a decision that was way different than what we were hoping for - because just the act of putting off any more input/decisions for a small amount of time alerted them to worry that we were upset (even though I did my best to always keep the response "we will think about it and get back to you" very calm and devoid of emotion).
polarbear
