Can a principal ban volunteers for no reason?

[Anonymous]

School has limited resources. volunteers have passed background checks and done everything the school system requires. Teachers are happy to have the few volunteers they get in under resourced area. Principal stonewalls volunteers and tells teachers they can’t have the volunteers with a clear track record of positive support.

[Anonymous]

Yes, ours did years ago. She was nasty as can be and clearly had something to hide.

[Anonymous]

Same as pp. ours did years ago too.

[Anonymous]

Had a thread on this recently. Principals are embarrassed about letting people see the classrooms.

[Anonymous]

I’m OP- and that was my guess. The few volunteers there were have heard from very disappointed teachers. I understand teachers feeling scrutinized with people in and out of their classrooms, but in this case, the teachers were welcoming. What a loss for the students.

[Anonymous]

Email the Principal's Instructional Director and as for them to talk to the Principal.

Parents could volunteer to help outside of instructional time: reshelving books in the library, helping with lunch duty etc and see what they say.

[Anonymous]

Thank you.
Ironically, those are some of the things the volunteers were doing. I think they are leery of getting attending friends, families and welcoming teachers in trouble with principal.
I help at a different school with none of these problems.

[Anonymous]

Yes, principals can do whatever they want to do. Parents, you are not in charge

[Anonymous]

I would like no volunteers

[Anonymous]

Let the professionals do their job

[Anonymous]

This is OP again. As an experienced classroom teacher, I understand those saying: no parents. You need somebody on your page, and independent enough to be helpful. Volunteers could be a burden, or worse, a gossipy interloper. However, the parents who understood how to support activities, were gold. I remember you folks for years.

I also remember years when school librarians were cut and school libraries descended into chaos or were carried by volunteer parents.

The Post had an article a few months ago about the sorry state of a PG school with an under-resourced library. It is not the school I posted about, but it’s another example of how a lack of resources-including personnel- hurts kids.

If you refuse qualified offers for help, and the teachers recognize the volunteers are qualified, but the principal bars the door, the principal is hiding something. Most likely their own incompetence.