Did your school seek parent feedback on possible distance learning schedules?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, what’s the main thing you would change about your schedule?

Would have been a tough choice between voting for grades being on a similar schedule or avoiding huge gaps in the day (like gaps of 2 hours or more). One or the other would have been nice.

A vote would have been nice - even if outvoted.

The stupid schedule we ended up with feels so illegitimate.

[Anonymous]

Can I ask how schools would have gathered input in 5 days? My school had the teachers make the schedule and it took a week, the district gave schools a week to turn in a plan...

Also how did you plan on getting all kids instruction done by 12? Some kids would always have to be later.

What I would have liked is if DCPS allowed each classroom to make their own schedule. But they needed a mass schedule so if a parent complains because the teacher tweaked the schedule to help them they will be at fault and not dcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm growing increasingly irritated that our school didn't seek any type of feedback from parents.

Did this happen elsewhere? What form did it take?

Sure would have been nice to send three feasible schedules to parents and have allowed them to vote for the one that would have best served their child and family during this challenging time.

Yes, but then they completely ignored what people said.

What / how did they ask? What did families say that was ignored?

[Anonymous]

Nope, I'm a parent who isn't happy with our schedule because THE KIDS ARE NOT IN SCHOOL.

The schools are there to serve the students. Their job isn't to make sure the parents get a schedule that works best for their precious little pod. Seriously, this parent needs to get her head out of her butt. When were the schools supposed to do this survey? And whose preference takes priority? The teachers or the parents? And what about the parents who tend not to engage? The end result is that you get a schedule that only serve UMC families. Again, it should be about the children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can I ask how schools would have gathered input in 5 days? My school had the teachers make the schedule and it took a week, the district gave schools a week to turn in a plan...

Also how did you plan on getting all kids instruction done by 12? Some kids would always have to be later.

What I would have liked is if DCPS allowed each classroom to make their own schedule. But they needed a mass schedule so if a parent complains because the teacher tweaked the schedule to help them they will be at fault and not dcps.

Where do you get 5 days? Anyone who reads a newspaper knows that virtual instruction was coming - if not in Sept, then in winter months. The schools literally had MONTHS to think this through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope, I'm a parent who isn't happy with our schedule because THE KIDS ARE NOT IN SCHOOL.

The schools are there to serve the students. Their job isn't to make sure the parents get a schedule that works best for their precious little pod. Seriously, this parent needs to get her head out of her butt. When were the schools supposed to do this survey? And whose preference takes priority? The teachers or the parents? And what about the parents who tend not to engage? The end result is that you get a schedule that only serve UMC families. Again, it should be about the children.

Seriously, this parent needs to get her head out of her butt. --> You sound charming.

When were the schools supposed to do this survey? --> June, July, or Aug would have worked.

And whose preference takes priority? --> Only makes sense to accommodate the majority where feasible, with special consideration to at-risk populations.

The teachers or the parents? --> You're assuming their preferences are at odds which is just as likely to be untrue as it is to be true.

And what about the parents who tend not to engage? -- > Early bird gets the worm

The end result is that you get a schedule that only serve UMC families. --> You lack evidence for this claim. Middle class families stand the most to lose / gain by having a reasonable schedule.

Again should be about the children -- > This is about the children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm growing increasingly irritated that our school didn't seek any type of feedback from parents.

Did this happen elsewhere? What form did it take?

Sure would have been nice to send three feasible schedules to parents and have allowed them to vote for the one that would have best served their child and family during this challenging time.

Yes, but then they completely ignored what people said.

What / how did they ask? What did families say that was ignored?

I'm sorry -- I answered this not realizing it was in the DC group. I'm in a suburban district. Over the summer, they did repeated parent surveys. Most parents said they wanted full time in-school or hybrid. Within hybrid, they kept asking for more feedback. One week on/one week off? Every other day? Two days on, two days off?

In the end, we are 100% virtual.

[Anonymous]

Our principal held multiple meetings (at least 3 that I recall) to talk about fall schedules and parent concerns. We're pretty happy with the results at Murch.

[Anonymous]

Nope. No input. And the schedules suck. And I'm never lifting a finger for the school again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can I ask how schools would have gathered input in 5 days? My school had the teachers make the schedule and it took a week, the district gave schools a week to turn in a plan...

Also how did you plan on getting all kids instruction done by 12? Some kids would always have to be later.

What I would have liked is if DCPS allowed each classroom to make their own schedule. But they needed a mass schedule so if a parent complains because the teacher tweaked the schedule to help them they will be at fault and not dcps.

Where do you get 5 days? Anyone who reads a newspaper knows that virtual instruction was coming - if not in Sept, then in winter months. The schools literally had MONTHS to think this through.

No sweetie, you obviously don’t work at a school. DCPS told admin that they were going to create a blanket schedule for schools but then realized that was a bad idea.

Also they could not plan, DCPS had guidelines ALL SCHOOLS had to follow. We had to turn in the schedules and get them approved and you know how slow DCPS is. Or maybe you don’t since you foolishly thought schools were given months to plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope. No input. And the schedules suck. And I'm never lifting a finger for the school again.

Thank goodness. Are you one of those parents that feels the “school owes you” because you contribute so much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Were you the type of parent that complained to everyone with a pulse all summer about the schedule and then just shoved your kids off on a babysitter anyway?

There's no way there would have been consensus among parents. Some work out of the house, some don't. Some have siblings in different grades, some don't.

If you don't like the schedule, just do the asynchronous work or whatever it is you need to do to provide attendance.

You seem to not understand how surveys work.

I much rather the schools do what is best for the students and not be bullied by parents about what works for them. Teachers and school administrators have actually studied the theory behind education and childhood development. So while parents may know their child, educators know children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope. No input. And the schedules suck. And I'm never lifting a finger for the school again.

OP and this poster need to name the schools. A few other threads had complaints about unresponsive principals but it turns out they DID solicit feedback, the posters just didn’t do it. Name the school and parents can chime in with what opportunities were or weren’t there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm growing increasingly irritated that our school didn't seek any type of feedback from parents.

Did this happen elsewhere? What form did it take?

Sure would have been nice to send three feasible schedules to parents and have allowed them to vote for the one that would have best served their child and family during this challenging time.

Yes, but then they completely ignored what people said.

What / how did they ask? What did families say that was ignored?

People? Or you? Or maybe you and your friends? How do you know what everyone said and then what was ignored.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our principal held multiple meetings (at least 3 that I recall) to talk about fall schedules and parent concerns. We're pretty happy with the results at Murch.

+1

I have some issues with school communication on other issues, especially those related to items that have to be picked up at school, but in terms of the schedule, I think the school did a good job.