Being ghosted by a MoCo school

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the DC area, OP!
There's less of a nuclear risk here than in Europe, these days

Yes, staff can get very hard to chase down during the summer, and it's gotten worse with Covid. I've doing some chasing of my own at my kid's high school. My other kid's middle school, on the other hand, has responded immediately: they're not overcrowded and overworked, apparently!

You should be receiving school emails about back-to-school information and dates, so if you're not, please call the office or go in-person. The important one before school starts is the orientation day where kids go to school just to check out their classroom and meet their teacher. The PTA emails can also be useful, but at our elementary, sign-up was only during Back-to-school night in September. If you can find the name of a PTA officer who can let you into the listserve already, then great.

If your kids will take a bus to school, you can see the bus routes on the school website and pick the one with the stop closest to your house. Don't be alarmed, but bus routes sometimes change in the first few weeks of school, buses show up early and leave the stop before you arrive, or show up late and you need to wait - and then the kinks sort themselves out after a while.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're not being ghosted. Everything happens in the few days before school. It's absurd, but that's how they do it here.

Why is this absurd? Teachers haven't even returned to school yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not being ghosted. Everything happens in the few days before school. It's absurd, but that's how they do it here.

Why is this absurd? Teachers haven't even returned to school yet.

Teachers haven't returned, but office staff have been there all summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not being ghosted. Everything happens in the few days before school. It's absurd, but that's how they do it here.

Why is this absurd? Teachers haven't even returned to school yet.

Teachers haven't returned, but office staff have been there all summer.

exactly my point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to the DC area, OP!
There's less of a nuclear risk here than in Europe, these days

Yes, staff can get very hard to chase down during the summer, and it's gotten worse with Covid. I've doing some chasing of my own at my kid's high school. My other kid's middle school, on the other hand, has responded immediately: they're not overcrowded and overworked, apparently!

You should be receiving school emails about back-to-school information and dates, so if you're not, please call the office or go in-person. The important one before school starts is the orientation day where kids go to school just to check out their classroom and meet their teacher. The PTA emails can also be useful, but at our elementary, sign-up was only during Back-to-school night in September. If you can find the name of a PTA officer who can let you into the listserve already, then great.

If your kids will take a bus to school, you can see the bus routes on the school website and pick the one with the stop closest to your house. Don't be alarmed, but bus routes sometimes change in the first few weeks of school, buses show up early and leave the stop before you arrive, or show up late and you need to wait - and then the kinks sort themselves out after a while.

Good luck!

Thanks for helpful information! I did end up receiving a note about the upcoming Open House.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP bear in mind it will be busy over the summer with a reduced staff. If they are ignoring you it's probably because you sent too many emails. You will want to be super polite and back off. It's different here to Europe.

+1 Yeah, don't antagonize everyone by writing the principal like a previous poster said. Just go in person one day. (And also, I don't think you know what ghosting really means.)

yes, what does ghosting mean?

Ghosting means you’re dating a guy and he just disappears

The school is not responding to you. They’re not ghosting you

[Anonymous]

Welcome to MCPS. 2021: “Most children left behind.”
2022: “Lord of the Flies, part 2: Teachers revenge.”

“Aren’t there any grownups at all?”
“I don’t think so.”
The fair boy said this solemnly, but then delight of realized ambition came over him….
“No grownups!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not being ghosted. Everything happens in the few days before school. It's absurd, but that's how they do it here.

Why is this absurd? Teachers haven't even returned to school yet.

It's not absurd. They need to chillax and trust that things will get taken care of. They're just one of many families who their school is serving.

[Anonymous]

Maybe half a dozen staff in my school during the summer.

For hundreds of phone calls and thousands of emails.

"Ghosting." Yeah, right. Beg for your taxes to be raised so we can hire more people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not being ghosted. Everything happens in the few days before school. It's absurd, but that's how they do it here.

Why is this absurd? Teachers haven't even returned to school yet.

Teachers haven't returned, but office staff have been there all summer.

exactly my point.

What do you think they are busy doing all summer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe half a dozen staff in my school during the summer.

For hundreds of phone calls and thousands of emails.

"Ghosting." Yeah, right. Beg for your taxes to be raised so we can hire more people.

One thing that would help this is to just respond the first time, so that families do not have to contact the school multiple times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe half a dozen staff in my school during the summer.

For hundreds of phone calls and thousands of emails.

"Ghosting." Yeah, right. Beg for your taxes to be raised so we can hire more people.

One thing that would help this is to just respond the first time, so that families do not have to contact the school multiple times.

Or trust that it's being taken care of like the other 12345 families and don't expect so much hand holding.

[Anonymous]

hi OP,
Don't worry, you will be fine. Public schools are understaffed. If you got confirmation, you should be fine. Are you still in Europe? If yes, try calling the school. This is what I did last year, when we were moving from EU back to the US. I was looking at two schools, and one was easier to communicate with than the other. They are probably just super busy. If you are already in the DC area, why don't you visit the school and see if you can talk to someone? Good luck and don't worry, if you live in the zoned area, the schools have to take you anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe half a dozen staff in my school during the summer.

For hundreds of phone calls and thousands of emails.

"Ghosting." Yeah, right. Beg for your taxes to be raised so we can hire more people.

One thing that would help this is to just respond the first time, so that families do not have to contact the school multiple times.

Or trust that it's being taken care of like the other 12345 families and don't expect so much hand holding.

No, not getting any answer to an inquiry is not acceptable. It has nothing to do with expecting hand holding.

[Anonymous]

They do get a call back. After staff has answered the other 43 calls, plus the backed-up 53 calls of the coworkers who are out on vacation.

Do you think there is some kind of call center with a bank of operators?

Ask me how I know.