GBW PTA - No Math Club and Science Olympiad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I just don't get parents who decline to volunteer and help out but then seem to resent and/or want to micromanage the parents that do volunteer and are doing things to benefit all the kids in a group. Not everyone wants to or can volunteer, but parents should at least be appreciative of the parents who are willing to put in the extra time to make activities available for kids.

same thing with rec sports teams

Yes, exactly! The same parents volunteering to coach every year, the same ten PTA volunteers begging for help.

[Anonymous]

I guess OP is too busy getting organized to run the math club to come back. Lol.

[Anonymous]

Science Olympiad has rules. One of them is that the program is overseen by a paid employee, and therefore a neutral party, from the school system. Yes, parent volunteers can help, but there has to be a school person, too.

[Anonymous]

FROM VASO:

VASO requires that a teacher or school staff member employed at the school be a VASO point of contact for the school's Science Olympiad program. If the team coach is a school employee, then the requirement for a school liaison is met. Flexibility is required for teams of home schooled students, however a single primary point of contact is still required.

School liaisons vary in their participation with teams - some choose to be very hands-on with the team, for example, but that isn't required. The school liaison must receive the VASO emails, keep in touch with the coach about what is happening on the team, be a link between the school administration and the coach, and step in if there are any problems with the team. School liaisons are also great for collecting forms, handling money, ordering or supplying materials, providing a meeting place, and being an unbiased voice for difficult decisions like team selection. School liaisons are not required to go to tournaments or be part of mentoring events.

There may still be instances in which parents or outside volunteers do much of the coaching of the team or teams. Additional team coaches may ask to be included in the email distributions from VASO to the school-based sponsor or coach, however a team coached by someone other than a school employee may not register without a school liaison.

[Anonymous]

Considering these clubs are notorious for having insane parents bickering amongst themselves, it's no surprise no one wants the be associated with them.

[Anonymous]

I have a kid at an AAP center and another at a non-center school.

At the non-center school, pretty much all of the parents that volunteer to coach Science Olympiad, Odyssey of the Mind, Math Club are Indian parents, plenty of the non Asian parents volunteer for the non science/math related things though.

More of a mix at the AAP school. Interesting.

[Anonymous]

GBW's center environment has created a huge problem for the PTA and the administration.

[Anonymous]

Yep, step up to volunteer!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GBW's center environment has created a huge problem for the PTA and the administration.

What kinds of problems? I kept my dc in our LLIV but am considering GBW for next year. Can you elaborate?

[Anonymous]

I believe the problem at GBW was the type of parental involvement and not the lack of volunteers. After a math contest, for instance, parents would volunteer to correct tests and would actually pass comments on other kids' results or be waiting to see their kids' results. Given the high number of perfect scores on tests like Noetic, I often wondered if there were some ethical issues at hand as well. I know they have had issues with SCO as far as how kids were selected etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GBW's center environment has created a huge problem for the PTA and the administration.

What kinds of problems? I kept my dc in our LLIV but am considering GBW for next year. Can you elaborate?

The clubs like these demanded by the center parents tend to create arguments and upset that then take up inordinate amounts of the PTA board's as well as the principal's time.

[Anonymous]

Not to mention the demographics of the school are not conducive to a fun community feel. Almost 1000 kids and it is like pulling teeth to get people to attend fun events, like the science night that the children's science center did last year. Turnout was pathetic. But you can bet Kumon was full that night...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe the problem at GBW was the type of parental involvement and not the lack of volunteers. After a math contest, for instance, parents would volunteer to correct tests and would actually pass comments on other kids' results or be waiting to see their kids' results. Given the high number of perfect scores on tests like Noetic, I often wondered if there were some ethical issues at hand as well. I know they have had issues with SCO as far as how kids were selected etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to mention the demographics of the school are not conducive to a fun community feel. Almost 1000 kids and it is like pulling teeth to get people to attend fun events, like the science night that the children's science center did last year. Turnout was pathetic. But you can bet Kumon was full that night...

Yes, Asians are no fun. We want the white school back.

[Anonymous]

I want a school with parents who don't value cut throat academics above any other endeavor. Where that falls on racial/ethnic lines, that's neither here nor there.

My point was that families can't be bothered to show up for even events with an academic focus, like the science night listed above.

It really is at a point where no one even wants to bother anymore since the apathy or whatever it is is so damn strong. It isn't worth planning events that no one comes to. Frankly, it's embarrassing that turnout is so dismal for just about anything that isn't chess, science or math team meetings.