Is your school start going smoothly or chaotic af?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And then if you do the newsletter but it has a typo or two, people will complain and freak out. It's really a no-win.

This x1000.

[Anonymous]

FYI: Friends located in different states (CO and AZ) were just complaining to me about the same thing. It seems like a universal complaint so I am beginning to wonder if parents have unrealistic expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Coming from a pretty organized private preschool school, I have sort of been shocked by some of the disorganization at our school (child started in PK3). But my child seems to be happy each day and likes his teachers and school. I just wish there was better communication about things. I think a weekly class newsletter should be a priority and a weekly or biweekly school bulletin. I don't think that's too much to ask to help keep parents connected.

At our DCPS, most of that is run by parent volunteers. Ask yourself what you think the school budget should be spent on: more admin to send you nicer newsletters or something focused on the classroom?

[Anonymous]

I see your point BUT I am a teacher, and I am required to send a quick update each week. I try to send out some photos, reminders for the parents, and general updates. It's quick, nothing fancy, and my admin does not need to see it. You make a good point about bilingual. I don't have that at my school. It means so much to parents and makes for stronger home-school connections.

Producing a weekly classroom newsletter takes at least 30-45 minutes. That's the total amount some teachers per week for planning.

If the school is bilingual, double that amount of time, because it needs to be translated. Then the principal or asst principal has to review the newsletter, and suggest edits and make sure no images of children without signed photo releases are included -- so add another 15 minute of his/her time and another 10-15 to the teacher to produce it.

If you assign this task to some office assistant or administrator, multiply the time commitment time however many classrooms there are.

Then you need to figure out how to distribute it -- given that some parents want email, some want text msg and still others need info on paper.

And if your teacher is young or inexperienced, they are even less able to squeeze this sort of thing in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my kids' school I've noticed the dynamic that a small number parents don't pay attention to the school calendar and other announcements and then blow up the listserv about poor communication.

LOL! That was exactly my first thought. The school posts all sort of info, and the parents who don't bother to read it or check out the resources they give us end up posting in the group forums about how they have no idea what's going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI: Friends located in different states (CO and AZ) were just complaining to me about the same thing. It seems like a universal complaint so I am beginning to wonder if parents have unrealistic expectations.

I'll give the PK3 parents a bit of a break. It hasn't been that long for me and I remember it was an adjustment from receiving a daily sheet from our daycare that literally told me how often my child went to the bathroom, to relying on a 3yo for any information on most days. That's just the way it goes and I'd much rather the teachers and admin spend their time on just about anything other than hand-holding parents.

And it is a drag when parents complain on the listserv Nobody Told Me There Was No School this Friday when it has been on the school calendar since August.

[Anonymous]

I've experienced both sides being in a DCPS and a charter. Obviously this is very school-dependent, but IME, the DCPS school was much worse about communicating information on logistics, school procedures, etc. than the charter school is. As a new PK3 parent in DCPS, I was surprised and frustrated that it was so difficult getting information about basic things. There was not much info on the school website, there was no parent listserv, and often, the communications the school sent contradicted information the school admin or teacher told us directly when we asked or that was provided in other communications from the school. We are now at a charter school and have been provided with much more information about school procedures and the like. It's not perfect, but it's much, MUCH better. The first couple of weeks were still a bit chaotic but I think that's probably the case at most schools as parents, teachers and students adjust. But again, it all depends on the school.

I will say that once the school year got going, our DCPS PK3 teacher did a pretty good job of sending out weekly (or nearly weekly) newsletters to the parents about what the kids were doing in the classroom, upcoming field trips, and suggestions on ways to expand learning at home. She also did a good job of taking pictures of the kids and posting them to the class website. Since we had some idea of what the kids were doing in class, we could ask our child specific questions about the school day rather than the generic "how was school today?" The room parents in our class also did a good job of sending updates and information specific to the class, mostly regarding class parties, gifts for the teachers, etc. However, we did not get much information from the teacher specific to our child, which would've been nice, but that's probably just the way it is in PK.

[Anonymous]

I have a child that moved from one of the higher performing feeders to DCI.

The child is struggling to deal with the coarse language and low academic performance of DCI classmates. Clearly not all feeder schools are created equal. I expected that, but it's depressing to see a 6th grader react and respond to it.

[Anonymous]

I think OP is experiencing the typical learning curve from the daycare/private preschool world to the public school world.

That's all.

OP, you will soon learn that unless you volunteer to do something and own it, "nice to haves" like a weekly newsletter won't get done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a child that moved from one of the higher performing feeders to DCI.

The child is struggling to deal with the coarse language and low academic performance of DCI classmates. Clearly not all feeder schools are created equal. I expected that, but it's depressing to see a 6th grader react and respond to it.

Ugh. Don't love this.

[Anonymous]

Our DCPS does a weekly newsletter, from both the class teacher and the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see your point BUT I am a teacher, and I am required to send a quick update each week. I try to send out some photos, reminders for the parents, and general updates. It's quick, nothing fancy, and my admin does not need to see it. You make a good point about bilingual. I don't have that at my school. It means so much to parents and makes for stronger home-school connections.

See, it does happen. Nothing fancy but some regular communications. We have an app type thing but it does not seem to be in use.

But actually, at our new charter it has been more the issue that we get conflicting info from the admin, teacher, etc. on schedule type things, like someone said happened at their DCPS. And then a lot of uproar over various changes since last year that no one knew about, and why weren't parents told about this or that decision, etc...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think OP is experiencing the typical learning curve from the daycare/private preschool world to the public school world.

That's all.

OP, you will soon learn that unless you volunteer to do something and own it, "nice to haves" like a weekly newsletter won't get done.

Actually, I came from a daycare/preschool where we never knew anything about my child's day unless some problem arose. I guess I actually hoped that now that we are in an HRCS there would be more communication - or, better and more coordinated messages at the least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think OP is experiencing the typical learning curve from the daycare/private preschool world to the public school world.

That's all.

OP, you will soon learn that unless you volunteer to do something and own it, "nice to haves" like a weekly newsletter won't get done.

Actually, I came from a daycare/preschool where we never knew anything about my child's day unless some problem arose. I guess I actually hoped that now that we are in an HRCS there would be more communication - or, better and more coordinated messages at the least.

There is no such thing as a "HRCs" -- it was a joke moniker coined on DCUM that people sort of think is real.

It's got as much validity as the City Paper's 'best in the city' awards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think OP is experiencing the typical learning curve from the daycare/private preschool world to the public school world.

That's all.

OP, you will soon learn that unless you volunteer to do something and own it, "nice to haves" like a weekly newsletter won't get done.

Actually, I came from a daycare/preschool where we never knew anything about my child's day unless some problem arose. I guess I actually hoped that now that we are in an HRCS there would be more communication - or, better and more coordinated messages at the least.

There is no such thing as a "HRCs" -- it was a joke moniker coined on DCUM that people sort of think is real.

It's got as much validity as the City Paper's 'best in the city' awards.

Except there are actually a default set of charters that people on here think are the best ones. And by certain measures, are the best ones (PARCC, Tier 1, etc), but also they're just the hardest to get into for whatever reason.