Public School Event Held at Private Swim Club - Is this allowed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I didn't want to say whether or not I'm a member, but I will say that I won't be attending this event. I won't be contacting the principal because I've heard that he's not very responsive. And, we're somewhat new to the school. I don't want my kid being targeted over something like this.

That's a self-fulfilling position, though, OP. If you contact the principal, he might respond, or he might not. If you don't contact the principal, it's certain that he won't respond.

And if the principal would target your child because you sent the principal an e-mail along the lines of, "Dear Principal, I was concerned to see that Private Swim Club is holding a back-to-school event that seems to be school-sponsored. Could you please clarify? The school generally seems to make great efforts to be inclusive, which is great, so I am worried that this event sends a message of exclusion. Sincerely, Larla DCUM" - then there are bigger problems at Barnsley than a back-to-school event at a private swim club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a member of that pool and I have a child at that school. It is extremely exclusive and unfair to host that pool party. The pta at that school has a lot of parents who are also active on the board at our pool. I’m still not sure if we can/will attend the event for various reasons.

However, I doubt all the teachers will be there, so even if a kid goes they might not get to meet their teacher. They’ll just get a popsicle.

And there’s an open house the Friday before school at the school where all kids can meet their teachers, and that’s also unfair because my kid can’t attend at that time due to the fact that I have a meeting at that time and my dh will be out of town.

I don’t think either event will make or break a child’s relationship with their teacher or affect their school year.
Life isn’t fair and that’s something we all have to teach our children.

OP again

Thanks for your comments. I agree that sometimes things are just unfair, and agree that it won't make or break a kid's year.

I do find it pretty strange though that this event would be supported by faculty/staff, when the Principal makes a huge deal of trying to be inclusive. There is always much discussion on how Barnsley has so many different types of students (HOH/GTLD/CES/ESOL), and how it's so important to consider that. Barnsley doesn't celebrate Halloween during school hours due to not wanting to exclude students. The field trips are deliberately keep pretty basic so that students don't get excluded.

Yet, the school is holding an event at a private Swim Club that maybe 50% of the families belong to? I don't even know if it's 50%, but I'd be fairly certain that a good portion of the student body can't afford the dues.

I didn't want to say whether or not I'm a member, but I will say that I won't be attending this event. I won't be contacting the principal because I've heard that he's not very responsive. And, we're somewhat new to the school. I don't want my kid being targeted over something like this.

I'll just pray for rain, so the whole event fizzles out on its own.

Also appreciate the comments from others. Good to hear various perspective.

Hi op, I’m the pp you responded to here. I agree that that the principal is not super responsive. But I wouldn’t worry about him targeting your kid, because I get the sense that he doesn’t really know many of the kids personally. If I do end up taking my child, I would do so because we can’t attend the open house, but I’m still unsure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our private pool does a similar event at the end of the school year for the elementary 5th grader as a send off party. Teachers and staff are invited. The pool does not charge a fee for non-members. It is a free event for everyone from the school to enter the pool but the PTA covers the food and DJ expenses. The pool considers the event as community good will and writes it off as a marketing expense.

Are you actually in Montgomery County? A pool like Manor Woods probably has kids going to at least 4 - 5 different elementary schools. Should each school get to have a massive school-wide party with hundreds of people, for free, subsidized by the larger pool membership? Your post makes no sense in the context of the local area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a member of that pool and I have a child at that school. It is extremely exclusive and unfair to host that pool party. The pta at that school has a lot of parents who are also active on the board at our pool. I’m still not sure if we can/will attend the event for various reasons.

However, I doubt all the teachers will be there, so even if a kid goes they might not get to meet their teacher. They’ll just get a popsicle.

And there’s an open house the Friday before school at the school where all kids can meet their teachers, and that’s also unfair because my kid can’t attend at that time due to the fact that I have a meeting at that time and my dh will be out of town.

I don’t think either event will make or break a child’s relationship with their teacher or affect their school year.
Life isn’t fair and that’s something we all have to teach our children.

OP again

Thanks for your comments. I agree that sometimes things are just unfair, and agree that it won't make or break a kid's year.

I do find it pretty strange though that this event would be supported by faculty/staff, when the Principal makes a huge deal of trying to be inclusive. There is always much discussion on how Barnsley has so many different types of students (HOH/GTLD/CES/ESOL), and how it's so important to consider that. Barnsley doesn't celebrate Halloween during school hours due to not wanting to exclude students. The field trips are deliberately keep pretty basic so that students don't get excluded.

Yet, the school is holding an event at a private Swim Club that maybe 50% of the families belong to? I don't even know if it's 50%, but I'd be fairly certain that a good portion of the student body can't afford the dues.

I didn't want to say whether or not I'm a member, but I will say that I won't be attending this event. I won't be contacting the principal because I've heard that he's not very responsive. And, we're somewhat new to the school. I don't want my kid being targeted over something like this.

I'll just pray for rain, so the whole event fizzles out on its own.

Also appreciate the comments from others. Good to hear various perspective.

Hi op, I’m the pp you responded to here. I agree that that the principal is not super responsive. But I wouldn’t worry about him targeting your kid, because I get the sense that he doesn’t really know many of the kids personally. If I do end up taking my child, I would do so because we can’t attend the open house, but I’m still unsure.

Agree that LVB Principal does not know most children well. I also would not construe this as a school.sponsored event. He can't tell teachers what to do on their personal time. Our school had a play date for rising K kids at a private pool on the weekend. All were welcome free of charge. I think the PTA (President was pool member) footed the bill for anyone who wanted to attend.

[Anonymous]

This would absolutely never fly at our Focus school (Oakland Terrace) and the local private pool (Kenmont). It is literally the opposite of the kind of inclusiveness schools are trying to build. The host of this party never should have been given permission to use the school’s mascot and invite the teachers. If I were you, I would write a letter to the administration and get as many other parents to sign it as you can.

[Anonymous]

Good grief people, get over it. It's a private pool, hosting an event for its members who happen to go to that elementary school. If teachers are invited, so what. They either go or they don't go, it's their free time.

Cannot believe there are so many pages complaining about this. Barnsley has much bigger problems (including the lousy Principal) than this event.

In the famous words of Elsa, Let It Go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This would absolutely never fly at our Focus school (Oakland Terrace) and the local private pool (Kenmont). It is literally the opposite of the kind of inclusiveness schools are trying to build. The host of this party never should have been given permission to use the school’s mascot and invite the teachers. If I were you, I would write a letter to the administration and get as many other parents to sign it as you can.

Yes, it would fly there. The inclusiveness is propaganda. OP should just offer to host all the families. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good grief people, get over it. It's a private pool, hosting an event for its members who happen to go to that elementary school. If teachers are invited, so what. They either go or they don't go, it's their free time.

Cannot believe there are so many pages complaining about this. Barnsley has much bigger problems (including the lousy Principal) than this event.

In the famous words of Elsa, Let It Go.

What other bigger problems? Agree that the Principal is one and last year was not great at all.

Thought, I'm somewhat relieved to see this! We're not thrilled with Barnsley, but haven't heard too many complaints from our neighbors. DC actually has several friends who are zoned for different ESs, yet they choose to attend Barnsley (not in the CES) and we can't imagine why they'd make that decision. Are other schools around the county even worse?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good grief people, get over it. It's a private pool, hosting an event for its members who happen to go to that elementary school. If teachers are invited, so what. They either go or they don't go, it's their free time.

Cannot believe there are so many pages complaining about this. Barnsley has much bigger problems (including the lousy Principal) than this event.

In the famous words of Elsa, Let It Go.

What other bigger problems? Agree that the Principal is one and last year was not great at all.

Thought, I'm somewhat relieved to see this! We're not thrilled with Barnsley, but haven't heard too many complaints from our neighbors. DC actually has several friends who are zoned for different ESs, yet they choose to attend Barnsley (not in the CES) and we can't imagine why they'd make that decision. Are other schools around the county even worse?

I think parents want their kids at Barnsley because they think their kid will have an advantage to getting into the CES. And if they do get in, they’ll have a seamless transition.

[Anonymous]

This sounds like a PTA event and not one the private pool sponsored on its own. Regardless, it's unfortunate. If you care at all about building a strong school community, you don't host a school related event that only a portion of the school community can attend. Do what the rest of us do and host your events on the school playground.

Signed a PTA President of a Focus elementary school who also sits on the neighborhood private pool board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like a PTA event and not one the private pool sponsored on its own. Regardless, it's unfortunate. If you care at all about building a strong school community, you don't host a school related event that only a portion of the school community can attend. Do what the rest of us do and host your events on the school playground.

Signed a PTA President of a Focus elementary school who also sits on the neighborhood private pool board.

what makes you believe that it's a PTA event, PP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like a PTA event and not one the private pool sponsored on its own. Regardless, it's unfortunate. If you care at all about building a strong school community, you don't host a school related event that only a portion of the school community can attend. Do what the rest of us do and host your events on the school playground.

Signed a PTA President of a Focus elementary school who also sits on the neighborhood private pool board.

what makes you believe that it's a PTA event, PP?

It's a very popular low cost event to start recruiting PTA memberships. National PTA even has a template for flyers, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like a PTA event and not one the private pool sponsored on its own. Regardless, it's unfortunate. If you care at all about building a strong school community, you don't host a school related event that only a portion of the school community can attend. Do what the rest of us do and host your events on the school playground.

Signed a PTA President of a Focus elementary school who also sits on the neighborhood private pool board.

what makes you believe that it's a PTA event, PP?

It's a very popular low cost event to start recruiting PTA memberships. National PTA even has a template for flyers, etc.

Yes, but it's also part of the PTA's mission to be inclusive of all families in the school. I've never heard of a PTA event where only SOME people are invited. Maybe PTA members only but even that's a stretch. I would say if IT IS a PTA event, then for sure, OP should complain. I just have a hard time believing that if it were, how did it get agreement from the other board members; or most especially, the PRincipal.

Signed- Also a PTA President at a Focus school

[Anonymous]

Let me guess: anyone who isn't a member of the club would be given the side eye if they showed up at this "open-access" pool party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This seems like it is a Teacher Appreciation event, not a "Meet and Greet."

Which...I think it is really nice of parents to leverage their privilege (and a pool membership is a privilege) in order to support teachers and staff.

Nice try.
If your work colleague belonged to a country club, as did some other colleagues, but you didn’t, and they invited your newly-hired company head to an event at the club to “meet the new boss,” how would you feel? Left out?

I think this is a useful analogy.

Yes. Agree that this is a good analogy.

yah but management doesn't often invite the ground crews to the stock holder meetings. Do the grounds crew feel left out? Who really cares?

There is consequences to being poor, instead of crying about it one would be smart to use it as motivation to find a way to afford the swim club. If it is a bridge too far because of a multitude of reasons then that persons life would still suck even if they were invited to one party and going to that party would just act as a reminder how low they really are.