How is Ritchie Park these days?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to Ritchie park for two years and I have to agree about the lunch and recess aides, they are really mean. They scream at the kids, when they bother to interact at all. And they are not nice to the parents either.

I volunteer there during lunch sometimes. There is only 1 aide that is "mean". The rest are super nice. But the lady that is mean has to sometimes be mean to control the kids. It's like a zoo in there. At first, I was put off by her "meanness", but after I encountered some of the kids there, I get why she needs to be so strict sometimes. Most of the kids will listen to the volunteers, but there are a small few that don't listen to the volunteers, hence the need for such a strict aide. However, she has never been "mean" to me. She's been rather pleasant when I asked her questions about rules and such. My one DC did get a pink note from her one day. But to be fair, DC was talking when DC wasn't supposed to. However, other kids were probably talking, too. Sometimes the singling out does seem arbitrary.

Can't speak to the recess aides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to Ritchie park for two years and I have to agree about the lunch and recess aides, they are really mean. They scream at the kids, when they bother to interact at all. And they are not nice to the parents either.

I volunteer there during lunch sometimes. There is only 1 aide that is "mean". The rest are super nice. But the lady that is mean has to sometimes be mean to control the kids. It's like a zoo in there. At first, I was put off by her "meanness", but after I encountered some of the kids there, I get why she needs to be so strict sometimes. Most of the kids will listen to the volunteers, but there are a small few that don't listen to the volunteers, hence the need for such a strict aide. However, she has never been "mean" to me. She's been rather pleasant when I asked her questions about rules and such. My one DC did get a pink note from her one day. But to be fair, DC was talking when DC wasn't supposed to. However, other kids were probably talking, too. Sometimes the singling out does seem arbitrary.

Can't speak to the recess aides.

PP here. Sorry, when I said it was like a zoo, I didn't mean like the kids were animals and running around the place. They have rules in terms of when you can get up from the bench, raising your hands to ask the aide for hlep, etc. It's just loud with all those kids chattering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to Ritchie park for two years and I have to agree about the lunch and recess aides, they are really mean. They scream at the kids, when they bother to interact at all. And they are not nice to the parents either.

I volunteer there during lunch sometimes. There is only 1 aide that is "mean". The rest are super nice. But the lady that is mean has to sometimes be mean to control the kids. It's like a zoo in there. At first, I was put off by her "meanness", but after I encountered some of the kids there, I get why she needs to be so strict sometimes. Most of the kids will listen to the volunteers, but there are a small few that don't listen to the volunteers, hence the need for such a strict aide. However, she has never been "mean" to me. She's been rather pleasant when I asked her questions about rules and such. My one DC did get a pink note from her one day. But to be fair, DC was talking when DC wasn't supposed to. However, other kids were probably talking, too. Sometimes the singling out does seem arbitrary.

Can't speak to the recess aides.

Yes, the singling out. I think when people say RP is punitive that is what they mean. Some kids are picked on, while some kids get away with murder. The staff has favorites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to Ritchie park for two years and I have to agree about the lunch and recess aides, they are really mean. They scream at the kids, when they bother to interact at all. And they are not nice to the parents either.

I volunteer there during lunch sometimes. There is only 1 aide that is "mean". The rest are super nice. But the lady that is mean has to sometimes be mean to control the kids. It's like a zoo in there. At first, I was put off by her "meanness", but after I encountered some of the kids there, I get why she needs to be so strict sometimes. Most of the kids will listen to the volunteers, but there are a small few that don't listen to the volunteers, hence the need for such a strict aide. However, she has never been "mean" to me. She's been rather pleasant when I asked her questions about rules and such. My one DC did get a pink note from her one day. But to be fair, DC was talking when DC wasn't supposed to. However, other kids were probably talking, too. Sometimes the singling out does seem arbitrary.

Can't speak to the recess aides.

Yes, the singling out. I think when people say RP is punitive that is what they mean. Some kids are picked on, while some kids get away with murder. The staff has favorites.

But don't you think all schools have staff that has favorites and not favorites?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to Ritchie park for two years and I have to agree about the lunch and recess aides, they are really mean. They scream at the kids, when they bother to interact at all. And they are not nice to the parents either.

I volunteer there during lunch sometimes. There is only 1 aide that is "mean". The rest are super nice. But the lady that is mean has to sometimes be mean to control the kids. It's like a zoo in there. At first, I was put off by her "meanness", but after I encountered some of the kids there, I get why she needs to be so strict sometimes. Most of the kids will listen to the volunteers, but there are a small few that don't listen to the volunteers, hence the need for such a strict aide. However, she has never been "mean" to me. She's been rather pleasant when I asked her questions about rules and such. My one DC did get a pink note from her one day. But to be fair, DC was talking when DC wasn't supposed to. However, other kids were probably talking, too. Sometimes the singling out does seem arbitrary.

Can't speak to the recess aides.

Yes, the singling out. I think when people say RP is punitive that is what they mean. Some kids are picked on, while some kids get away with murder. The staff has favorites.

But don't you think all schools have staff that has favorites and not favorites?

I don't know, but it is very obvious at rp. And children should feel like they are being picked on by staff. They are children.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, SHOULD NOT FEEL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to Ritchie park for two years and I have to agree about the lunch and recess aides, they are really mean. They scream at the kids, when they bother to interact at all. And they are not nice to the parents either.

I volunteer there during lunch sometimes. There is only 1 aide that is "mean". The rest are super nice. But the lady that is mean has to sometimes be mean to control the kids. It's like a zoo in there. At first, I was put off by her "meanness", but after I encountered some of the kids there, I get why she needs to be so strict sometimes. Most of the kids will listen to the volunteers, but there are a small few that don't listen to the volunteers, hence the need for such a strict aide. However, she has never been "mean" to me. She's been rather pleasant when I asked her questions about rules and such. My one DC did get a pink note from her one day. But to be fair, DC was talking when DC wasn't supposed to. However, other kids were probably talking, too. Sometimes the singling out does seem arbitrary.

Can't speak to the recess aides.

Yes, the singling out. I think when people say RP is punitive that is what they mean. Some kids are picked on, while some kids get away with murder. The staff has favorites.

But don't you think all schools have staff that has favorites and not favorites?

I don't know, but it is very obvious at rp. And children should feel like they are being picked on by staff. They are children.

Maybe it's the "known troublemakers" that get picked on the most. If a kid has a reputation for being difficult, I could see the kid being singled out. I don't know if that is PPs case or not. My DC (that got the pink note) is pretty well behaved at school; DCs only downfall is the talking, just talks way too much and doesn't know how to stop. So I could see DC being singled out for always being the talker.

On the other hand, I spoke to a parent whose child goes to a W cluster ES. Parent said there was bullying there. I asked DC about bullying at RP, and DC said hasn't seen any. You see the normal disagreements, but not bad bullying, except maybe the girls. I know there is social bullying there (as in a lot of schools).

[Anonymous]

My child went there for 6yrs and I volunteered for 5yrs and those lunch aides are for the most part - horrible. They need a complete overhaul and get some fresh blood in there who are fun and can control.

I also don't like that at recess, they all stand under a tree and talk to each other. They NEVER look around at the kids, spun the jump rope or started any fun games. They just talked to each other and waited for crying kids to come over and dealt with them like a mom annoyed that they interrupted their conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child went there for 6yrs and I volunteered for 5yrs and those lunch aides are for the most part - horrible. They need a complete overhaul and get some fresh blood in there who are fun and can control.

I also don't like that at recess, they all stand under a tree and talk to each other. They NEVER look around at the kids, spun the jump rope or started any fun games. They just talked to each other and waited for crying kids to come over and dealt with them like a mom annoyed that they interrupted their conversation.

this times 100. And they punish the kids they don't like, not necessarily the kid who did anything wrong. This is why people call the school punitive.

[Anonymous]

Ok, let's denigrate an entire school because of a few grumpy lunch and recess monitors. Sheesh. PP, you really need to figure out why you are such a bitter hate-monger.

[Anonymous]

11:46, any chance you are mad because your child has been a troublemaker, and its easier to blame the monitors than take responsibility?

[Anonymous]

I have heard from my kids at RP that sometimes the recess monitors don't pay attention, but I've also heard the same about other schools, too. Do you know any schools where they recess monitors are great? Are they paid monitors or volunteers at RP and other schools?

Also, I am not sure I would rate a school by the recess monitors. Recess is only 30 min (which is too short IMO, but that's a diff. thread). But, if the overall playground atmosphere was really toxic, then I probably would be way more concerned. But I don't think this is the case at RP, at least not that my kids have told me, and I haven't heard anything really horrendous about it. It's not the most ideal, I agree, but not horrendous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, let's denigrate an entire school because of a few grumpy lunch and recess monitors. Sheesh. PP, you really need to figure out why you are such a bitter hate-monger.

and you need to figure out why can't admit ritchie park isn't all sunshine and roses? BFF with the principal? One of her cronies? One of the people that always get special favors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, let's denigrate an entire school because of a few grumpy lunch and recess monitors. Sheesh. PP, you really need to figure out why you are such a bitter hate-monger.

and you need to figure out why can't admit ritchie park isn't all sunshine and roses? BFF with the principal? One of her cronies? One of the people that always get special favors?

Oh, and just to be the clear, I'm the PP you were addressing, I just found your inability to admit there could be ANYTHING wrong at this school when there have been many threads on this topic totally unbelievable. You probably work there.

[Anonymous]

There you go again, PP. I'm an RP parent. Never said the school was perfect. I was just countering your point that the school is terrible because the meanie lunch ladies aren't very nice and thus the school is so "punitive." Your relentless negativity on the punitive nature of the school is tiresome. Ok, we get it - the lunch or recess lady was mean to your kid for perhaps no reason, and he or she got in trouble, and now you take every opportunity to exact revenge on the school through this forum.