Oakland Terrace
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
In my experience, a lot of us were thinking the same thing but didn't want to be the complainer at birthday parties, etc. Once people started hinting at stuff, the floodgates opened and there are a lot of people with similar complaints. It's not a bad experience, per se. Just an overall underwhelming experience when it comes to community involvement. I mean, did anyone notice that they did not advertise the Columbus Day open house at all? It wasn't on the school calendar, no flyer came home, and they didn't put it into the weekly email until the night before. The longer you stay at OTES the longer you realize that they don't want parents involved. To many parents that's absolutely fine or even preferable, but I hoped for a little more. |
Anonymous
DP, not new to OTES, and this year is the first they haven't publicized the Open House more widely. I thought it was a little unusual, but otherwise NBD. I don't have the feeling they don't want parents involved. They may be sensitive to which groups of parents (usually the higher educated, often white but not always families) have the bandwidth to be involved and not want them to take over. That dynamic happens in other schools and is a tough one. Also, I am fine with parent involvement but I have *zero* interest in pushy parents running the show. I've seen that at friends' schools and it's appalling. I'd prefer the administration keep all parents slightly at arms' length than bend over backwards to meet the demands of the loud ones. It's a much harder balance to strike than many people realize. |
Anonymous
Pushy parents run the PTA which is why there is so little involvement the past few years. They don't want parents involved. No volunteering except for a rare occasion, no contributing to the school in any way. This year seems to be the worst in terms of communication. Its slowly declined. I think the past VP used to do a lot more and now the principal is doing it and its too much for her to do. We did get notice in the past, not just the night before. They have had issues with bad volunteers in the past but why punish everyone else. They need help at pick up, lunch, recess and classroom support. |
Anonymous
It's a big deal to families who missed it because it's their first year in MCPS and they work on Columbus Day (which is most people except those who work for the Government.) The point is well taken that it's a hard balance to strike when it comes to overly pushy/controlling parents with too much time on their hands. I also know that teachers/administration have enough to do on a daily basis without figuring this stuff out. But I do feel disappointed that the infrastructure isn't there to get good volunteers in. I went to the first PTA meeting and there was literally nothing to do or sign up for, except a vague offer to help with International Night in the spring (but no explanation of what International Night is for first year parents.) The entire meeting was an hour long presentation by the principal on the new Special Ed. program that was thrust upon the school. I know it's a hard balance in general, and I know that no matter where you go there will be pushy complainers. But I also think that it's valid to respectfully want more involvement in your child's school (something that most teachers complain parents don't do enough of!). I already know of one family who left after a year because of the lack of communication from the school. |
Anonymous
|
I find it funny when parents went to colleges with mostly high functioning people, sought out jobs was mostly high functioning people then move to neighborhoods filled with like people but try and convince themselves that their school system with drives of low prospect kids is beneficial to their kids. It is ok being on a basketball team with all short kids just don’t act surprised when you never win.
OT reminds me of that |
Anonymous
I get that. As for the rest, I sincerely hope you're conveying your (reasonable) constructive feedback to the PTA. It does no good to complain on these kinds of forums and nothing IRL. I mean, if the principal didn't present on the new Special Education program, which is a big deal, parents would complain about not getting any information about it. Run for PTA positions in the future, and do it differently. We've already had a few events this year: the picnic, and the K-2 social. We went to the former but not the latter and had a great time. What I've found is that you need to build your community at the school; as we've reached out to other families, we've gotten to know them better and we feel more connected. I'm sure some schools do more of that proactive connecting and for better and worse, OTES isn't one of them. To me, the benefits outweigh that potential drawback, but I also get that other parents feel differently. Anyone who would leave OTES after one year because of lack of communication probably needs more hand-holding than any public school can provide. There may be pushy complainers everywhere, but many schools in this area have WAY more than OTES. |
Anonymous
I think you're absolutely right. This is all reasonable, if not slightly disappointing. It actually takes a little bit for me to feel comfortable diving in, etc. so having to proactively do all the connecting is hard. For instance, it would be so much easier for me to sign up on a list and then show up to something than track down the PTA president to air my grievances. But that is my own issue to contend with and that just isn't the reality at OTES so I'll have to course correct and figure it out. Thanks for your helpful feedback. |
Anonymous
Its not about hand holding but knowing what is going on with your child. The lack of communication is horrible. Those events are done yearly. A lot of kids do outside activities because the school does not have what they need (yes, I've made suggestions and tried coordinate and got ignored) so its near impossible to go. Glad you are having a good year. We have gotten no special education support for our child and have had to do it all private. If their is a new program, I haven't heard about it. |
Anonymous
The kids at the school are great. You are completely missing the concerns. Your post is pretty offensive. |
Anonymous
What is sad is the principal has spoken nothing of the program and many of our kids who are already at the school are not getting the special education help they need. Its a constant battle. Your experience is why we stopped going to PTA meetings. They could have talked about open house 2-3 weeks before in the vague email they send weekly. |
Anonymous
The kids for the most part are fine and all thriving and happy, which is important. There are some really great teachers and staff and others not so great, like at all schools. However, it's the simple things like communication that would make a huge difference. Most people cannot take off work with notice the night before. Not everyone had Columbus day off. We did not and couldn't go. Our child was upset. |
Anonymous
| The principal puts on a good show but is not good at addressing actual issues. When we raised concerns she had our child come to her office and read to her. And then she said that he was just an okay student. This same child went on to GT magnets for 4th-5th, MS and HS. |
Anonymous
|
think you're absolutely right. This is all reasonable, if not slightly disappointing. It actually takes a little bit for me to feel comfortable diving in, etc. so having to proactively do all the connecting is hard. For instance, it would be so much easier for me to sign up on a list and then show up to something than track down the PTA president to air my grievances. But that is my own issue to contend with and that just isn't the reality at OTES so I'll have to course correct and figure it out. Thanks for your helpful feedback.
Replying to the above: you’re absolutely right. I didn’t reach out our first few years at the school, mostly because we have two younger kids (who weren’t there yet) and I didn’t have the bandwidth. But now our middle is there and so I’ve gotten more comfortable doing so. I know it’s much easier said than done for many people. I also feel like we lucked out and met some terrific folks for our rising K this summer, and they’ve made it easy to connect. There’s a link to the calendar of events on the PTA webpage—that might be a good starting point. The book fair is coming up soon, and a movie night. The calendar has later events you could volunteer to help with, if you wanted to. It might be worth an email to the PTA to see when they’ll ask for volunteers for those things. Just some ideas—I know it’s not always easy to reach out. 
|
Anonymous
| I am not at OT but our school PTA also does almost no organizing/work at the actual PTA meeting and it can be a little confusing how to get involved. My suggestion is to volunteer to be the MCCPTA delegate in the PRA Board. It is a Board position so you will learn all about what’s going on with the PTA and how it works, but you will not be primarily responsible for fundraising or any individual event. You go to MCCPTA delegate meetings once every 2 mos or so and you get a really good view into how your PTA works and get to know the people highly involved organically. Anyway, that would be my suggestion. |
Anonymous
| I find it interesting that this thread started out all happy happy happy. Now it seems the glow has gone off the rails.... |