Are you kidding me?

Last night I believe I expressed a few concerns about the public school system down here and it's affect on my son....Hahaha I have to share this.  My son spent the majority of last school year butting heads with one of his teachers.  It was Geography and that is a subject that he has never gotten less than an A in.  So when he started bringing home reports that he was on the verge of failing the class I asked him about it.  His reply was the teacher didn't like him and was giving him a hard time.  In the past I would have been making an appointment for a conference and sorting this out but last year we decided to something new and let my son work out his differences with the adults around him as well as his peers.  I know my son is no angel and knew he was probably equally to blame for whatever the problem was between him and the teacher.  Let me say our experiment failed and he failed the first semester of Geography.  I wasn't too worried it's only middle school...no high school credits involved...and all of his other classes he excelled in.  How surprised was I this June when along with a final report card for the year which was A's B's and one C I also received  a notice my son was being held back in 7th grade for the year. SERIOUSLY!?  So we spent the summer doing online classes to get the credit for Geography.  It took about 2 weeks from date of letter to actually get him in an online class.  So he got started late.  As much as I would love to say he breezed through this class he made me want to rip out every hair on my head.  Did I mention my son also has the attention span of a gnat and likes to think of himself as a class clown only he was the only one in this particular class room of our dining room.  I had the deadline of getting his paperwork into his school by August 17th so he could be placed in an 8th grade class.  When I received his class assignment a week ago (before he finished his summer school) I panicked a little.  Time was running out and he had to finish this.  Monday the 13th was the day he had to study all day and call his teacher to take his final exam.  When I walked in the door Monday he was on YOU TUBE and had studied but forgot to call teacher.  After my head exploded and I pieced it all back together again he got his teacher on the phone and proceeded to pace through the house for 20 minutes as he did his final oral exam.  COMPLETE...passed he was through. I could breath.  I called the school yesterday to speak with a counselor about his being placed in an 8th grade class was told to call back today.  Yesterday evening my fatther brings in the mail and in it is a letter from the school.  Oh boy.  Here is where the ARE YOU KIDDING ME? moment comes in.  I open it up and it states how my son was being retained to 7th grade for failing the semester of Geography then is a second paragraph stating that after a review of his case he was going to be promoted to 8th grade anyway. HUH? This letter which I just received August15th was dated August 7th.  I guess I should be happy it now stands that he did pass World Geography first semester 7th grade and with a B no less.... I'm still having a hard time grasping this that this decision could not have been reached earlier.  I feel cheated out of a summer.  I know this was a valuable life lesson and all for him and myself but with the new school year only 5 days away I am a little bummed now.  Have I mentioned how much I dislike the public school systems down here.