Is it normal to have no acknowledgement of emails in Public Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure the principal is just glad you are leaving. Wow. You are not cut out for this at all.

Thank you. We are very glad we left. Clearly an environment where there are no basic courtesies and acknowledgements or respect for individuals, is not the one we want our children to be in. When our children left the private to join this public school, their teachers friends wished them the best, wrote notes. The school principal wished them the best in an email (hey the school was losing money right - well, he still did). And those are qualities we want to see later on in life in our kids - not just rating of 8-9 in schools where only SOL scores matter.

At the end of the school year, the students have nothing to do, so making some little art project "good bye" is a fine use of time. The first day of a school year is THE BUSIEST time of all -- and it's only 24 hrs since the first day -- and you are already incensed that you have been acknowledged for notifying the school that you don't want your kids to attend after the administration and your children's teachers spent time getting your children processed INTO the system. Now that you changed your mind, you want immediate responses?

Other than removing your kids from the rolls so that other kids can take their place and be assigned to those teachers, the principals and teachers need to put their attention on the kids that ARE ATTENDING the school and have more pressing needs (like getting medical information in place, or finding an extra teacher to hire because 25 kids registered on the first day, or making sure the doors to the school are secure and the fire alarms are working).

Think about the bigger picture here. What you want is a courtesy, but non-necessity. What you want does not need to happen in the first 24 hrs. What all the other kids in the school need DOES need to happen in the first few days of school.

OP here. Thank you for this - you have explained it very well and makes sense.

I appreciate that you have an open mind and you are just used to a different standard of responsiveness. Remember that private school need to court you to keep the $$ flowing. Public schools exist whether you attend or not. They have to triage the problems that need attention -- especially in the first week. It is sheer madness. I do think you will eventually get a response (probably by the weekend or early next week). But, it really doesn't matter b/c as far as they are concerned, you are doing what works for you and they don't need to know anymore than that.

[Anonymous]

Your fruit basket’s in the mail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure the principal is just glad you are leaving. Wow. You are not cut out for this at all.

Thank you. We are very glad we left. Clearly an environment where there are no basic courtesies and acknowledgements or respect for individuals, is not the one we want our children to be in. When our children left the private to join this public school, their teachers friends wished them the best, wrote notes. The school principal wished them the best in an email (hey the school was losing money right - well, he still did). And those are qualities we want to see later on in life in our kids - not just rating of 8-9 in schools where only SOL scores matter.

But those kids and Principal who wrote notes to your kids *actually knew them* Why in the world would people who don't know your kids wish them the best and write them notes?
Sure, the Principal could have, and maybe should have, responded to your withdrawal email with a "thanks for letting us know" email back, but even that would have been going above and beyond. She's trying to get a new school year off and running and focused on the kids who are actually attending. She really doesn't care about the hurt feelings and social expectations of the mom of some kids she doesn't even know.

I hope you enjoy your private school. And should you ever chose to go to a public school again, maybe actually attend the school before judging it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of funny that OP has two kids who previously attended private school (at least $40K for the two per year), and is sending her kids back to private school (another bill for $40K this year)... and yet, she expects to get $80 of school supplies back.

Stop jumping on her - she wrote above did not want them back.

She says that now, but a few minutes earlier, she admitted that she sent two emails and one was specifically addressed to the teacher(s) in order to GET THE SUPPLIES BACK.

I quote:

Op here. Here are the 2 emails sent with no response
1. Email sent to Principal/Registrar about withdrawing one child from Public school to move him to private - no reply/response - nothing. Not a word !!! They have deleted the student accounts etc. though so we know they have received our email.
2. Email sent to class teacher about collecting the school supplies from the class - not a word back from the teacher again

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of funny that OP has two kids who previously attended private school (at least $40K for the two per year), and is sending her kids back to private school (another bill for $40K this year)... and yet, she expects to get $80 of school supplies back.

Stop jumping on her - she wrote above did not want them back.

She says that now, but a few minutes earlier, she admitted that she sent two emails and one was specifically addressed to the teacher(s) in order to GET THE SUPPLIES BACK.

I quote:

Op here. Here are the 2 emails sent with no response
1. Email sent to Principal/Registrar about withdrawing one child from Public school to move him to private - no reply/response - nothing. Not a word !!! They have deleted the student accounts etc. though so we know they have received our email.
2. Email sent to class teacher about collecting the school supplies from the class - not a word back from the teacher again

Today is still Day # 2, in FCPS, btw. I don't expect email responses from teachers during the school day (although I'm pleasantly surprised when I sometimes get them).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure the principal is just glad you are leaving. Wow. You are not cut out for this at all.

Thank you. We are very glad we left. Clearly an environment where there are no basic courtesies and acknowledgements or respect for individuals, is not the one we want our children to be in. When our children left the private to join this public school, their teachers friends wished them the best, wrote notes. The school principal wished them the best in an email (hey the school was losing money right - well, he still did). And those are qualities we want to see later on in life in our kids - not just rating of 8-9 in schools where only SOL scores matter.

At the end of the school year, the students have nothing to do, so making some little art project "good bye" is a fine use of time. The first day of a school year is THE BUSIEST time of all -- and it's only 24 hrs since the first day -- and you are already incensed that you have been acknowledged for notifying the school that you don't want your kids to attend after the administration and your children's teachers spent time getting your children processed INTO the system. Now that you changed your mind, you want immediate responses?

Other than removing your kids from the rolls so that other kids can take their place and be assigned to those teachers, the principals and teachers need to put their attention on the kids that ARE ATTENDING the school and have more pressing needs (like getting medical information in place, or finding an extra teacher to hire because 25 kids registered on the first day, or making sure the doors to the school are secure and the fire alarms are working).

Think about the bigger picture here. What you want is a courtesy, but non-necessity. What you want does not need to happen in the first 24 hrs. What all the other kids in the school need DOES need to happen in the first few days of school.

OP here. Thank you for this - you have explained it very well and makes sense.

I appreciate that you have an open mind and you are just used to a different standard of responsiveness. Remember that private school need to court you to keep the $$ flowing. Public schools exist whether you attend or not. They have to triage the problems that need attention -- especially in the first week. It is sheer madness. I do think you will eventually get a response (probably by the weekend or early next week). But, it really doesn't matter b/c as far as they are concerned, you are doing what works for you and they don't need to know anymore than that.

OP here - Thank you once again. Its strange but most of the questions posted here have people jumping in with snark rude comments. Yes it was something very different from what we had seen in the earlier school which was a private, but what you have written explains it rather well. Having seen the private school administration and how they function in the last few years we felt it would be the same here as well. But as you have said there are other challenges here and probably other critical things to take care of, and bandwidth is low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of funny that OP has two kids who previously attended private school (at least $40K for the two per year), and is sending her kids back to private school (another bill for $40K this year)... and yet, she expects to get $80 of school supplies back.

Stop jumping on her - she wrote above did not want them back.

She says that now, but a few minutes earlier, she admitted that she sent two emails and one was specifically addressed to the teacher(s) in order to GET THE SUPPLIES BACK.

I quote:

Op here. Here are the 2 emails sent with no response
1. Email sent to Principal/Registrar about withdrawing one child from Public school to move him to private - no reply/response - nothing. Not a word !!! They have deleted the student accounts etc. though so we know they have received our email.
2. Email sent to class teacher about collecting the school supplies from the class - not a word back from the teacher again

Her question though was " Is it normal to have no acknowledgement of emails in Public Schools". Am sure she is not crying over $80 of supplies when her kids are in private. Its the lack of response that she is questioning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's kind of funny that OP has two kids who previously attended private school (at least $40K for the two per year), and is sending her kids back to private school (another bill for $40K this year)... and yet, she expects to get $80 of school supplies back.

Stop jumping on her - she wrote above did not want them back.

She says that now, but a few minutes earlier, she admitted that she sent two emails and one was specifically addressed to the teacher(s) in order to GET THE SUPPLIES BACK.

I quote:

Op here. Here are the 2 emails sent with no response
1. Email sent to Principal/Registrar about withdrawing one child from Public school to move him to private - no reply/response - nothing. Not a word !!! They have deleted the student accounts etc. though so we know they have received our email.
2. Email sent to class teacher about collecting the school supplies from the class - not a word back from the teacher again

Her question though was " Is it normal to have no acknowledgement of emails in Public Schools". Am sure she is not crying over $80 of supplies when her kids are in private. Its the lack of response that she is questioning

DP. I don't expect email responses from teachers during the school day. I do expect to receive a response within a day or two, and usually I do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure the principal is just glad you are leaving. Wow. You are not cut out for this at all.

Thank you. We are very glad we left. Clearly an environment where there are no basic courtesies and acknowledgements or respect for individuals, is not the one we want our children to be in. When our children left the private to join this public school, their teachers friends wished them the best, wrote notes. The school principal wished them the best in an email (hey the school was losing money right - well, he still did). And those are qualities we want to see later on in life in our kids - not just rating of 8-9 in schools where only SOL scores matter.

At the end of the school year, the students have nothing to do, so making some little art project "good bye" is a fine use of time. The first day of a school year is THE BUSIEST time of all -- and it's only 24 hrs since the first day -- and you are already incensed that you have been acknowledged for notifying the school that you don't want your kids to attend after the administration and your children's teachers spent time getting your children processed INTO the system. Now that you changed your mind, you want immediate responses?

Other than removing your kids from the rolls so that other kids can take their place and be assigned to those teachers, the principals and teachers need to put their attention on the kids that ARE ATTENDING the school and have more pressing needs (like getting medical information in place, or finding an extra teacher to hire because 25 kids registered on the first day, or making sure the doors to the school are secure and the fire alarms are working).

Think about the bigger picture here. What you want is a courtesy, but non-necessity. What you want does not need to happen in the first 24 hrs. What all the other kids in the school need DOES need to happen in the first few days of school.

OP here. Thank you for this - you have explained it very well and makes sense.

I appreciate that you have an open mind and you are just used to a different standard of responsiveness. Remember that private school need to court you to keep the $$ flowing. Public schools exist whether you attend or not. They have to triage the problems that need attention -- especially in the first week. It is sheer madness. I do think you will eventually get a response (probably by the weekend or early next week). But, it really doesn't matter b/c as far as they are concerned, you are doing what works for you and they don't need to know anymore than that.

OP here - Thank you once again. Its strange but most of the questions posted here have people jumping in with snark rude comments. Yes it was something very different from what we had seen in the earlier school which was a private, but what you have written explains it rather well. Having seen the private school administration and how they function in the last few years we felt it would be the same here as well. But as you have said there are other challenges here and probably other critical things to take care of, and bandwidth is low.

How often does your private school have enough new students show up a week before school that the school n3eds to hire a new teacher or two? That happened to 2 grades in my kid's elementary and happens every year or two.

Drawing personalized good luck cards to someone who never really attended the school and who is not going to attend the school is REALLY low on the priority list right now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure the principal is just glad you are leaving. Wow. You are not cut out for this at all.

Thank you. We are very glad we left. Clearly an environment where there are no basic courtesies and acknowledgements or respect for individuals, is not the one we want our children to be in. When our children left the private to join this public school, their teachers friends wished them the best, wrote notes. The school principal wished them the best in an email (hey the school was losing money right - well, he still did). And those are qualities we want to see later on in life in our kids - not just rating of 8-9 in schools where only SOL scores matter.

At the end of the school year, the students have nothing to do, so making some little art project "good bye" is a fine use of time. The first day of a school year is THE BUSIEST time of all -- and it's only 24 hrs since the first day -- and you are already incensed that you have been acknowledged for notifying the school that you don't want your kids to attend after the administration and your children's teachers spent time getting your children processed INTO the system. Now that you changed your mind, you want immediate responses?

Other than removing your kids from the rolls so that other kids can take their place and be assigned to those teachers, the principals and teachers need to put their attention on the kids that ARE ATTENDING the school and have more pressing needs (like getting medical information in place, or finding an extra teacher to hire because 25 kids registered on the first day, or making sure the doors to the school are secure and the fire alarms are working).

Think about the bigger picture here. What you want is a courtesy, but non-necessity. What you want does not need to happen in the first 24 hrs. What all the other kids in the school need DOES need to happen in the first few days of school.

OP here. Thank you for this - you have explained it very well and makes sense.

How do you not know this?!

[Anonymous]

Here's what you've learned about yourself, OP: you value feeling seen, heard, acknowledged, and remembered as much as you value the quality of your child's education. You will be better-served by paying for a smaller school system and student body.

However, it might also be worth taking to heart that it didn't even occur to you that there could be an occasion when acknowledging you, when you're doing just fine, might be a disservice to others who need resources more than you. This will come up again sometime when you are involved with a large organization of some kind. Work on thinking the best of people, and projecting outward, instead or wondering why they don't seem to care enough to make you feel good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure the principal is just glad you are leaving. Wow. You are not cut out for this at all.

Thank you. We are very glad we left. Clearly an environment where there are no basic courtesies and acknowledgements or respect for individuals, is not the one we want our children to be in. When our children left the private to join this public school, their teachers friends wished them the best, wrote notes. The school principal wished them the best in an email (hey the school was losing money right - well, he still did). And those are qualities we want to see later on in life in our kids - not just rating of 8-9 in schools where only SOL scores matter.

At the end of the school year, the students have nothing to do, so making some little art project "good bye" is a fine use of time. The first day of a school year is THE BUSIEST time of all -- and it's only 24 hrs since the first day -- and you are already incensed that you have been acknowledged for notifying the school that you don't want your kids to attend after the administration and your children's teachers spent time getting your children processed INTO the system. Now that you changed your mind, you want immediate responses?

Other than removing your kids from the rolls so that other kids can take their place and be assigned to those teachers, the principals and teachers need to put their attention on the kids that ARE ATTENDING the school and have more pressing needs (like getting medical information in place, or finding an extra teacher to hire because 25 kids registered on the first day, or making sure the doors to the school are secure and the fire alarms are working).

Think about the bigger picture here. What you want is a courtesy, but non-necessity. What you want does not need to happen in the first 24 hrs. What all the other kids in the school need DOES need to happen in the first few days of school.

OP here. Thank you for this - you have explained it very well and makes sense.

I appreciate that you have an open mind and you are just used to a different standard of responsiveness. Remember that private school need to court you to keep the $$ flowing. Public schools exist whether you attend or not. They have to triage the problems that need attention -- especially in the first week. It is sheer madness. I do think you will eventually get a response (probably by the weekend or early next week). But, it really doesn't matter b/c as far as they are concerned, you are doing what works for you and they don't need to know anymore than that.

OP here - Thank you once again. Its strange but most of the questions posted here have people jumping in with snark rude comments. Yes it was something very different from what we had seen in the earlier school which was a private, but what you have written explains it rather well. Having seen the private school administration and how they function in the last few years we felt it would be the same here as well. But as you have said there are other challenges here and probably other critical things to take care of, and bandwidth is low.

How often does your private school have enough new students show up a week before school that the school n3eds to hire a new teacher or two? That happened to 2 grades in my kid's elementary and happens every year or two.

Drawing personalized good luck cards to someone who never really attended the school and who is not going to attend the school is REALLY low on the priority list right now

OP here. Like I said above, we now understand the public school staff/administration is overwhelmed and it is fine. We were just looking for a simple "Thanks for letting us know" kind of acknowledgement from the registrar/principal/someone - nothing else. Will not be commenting on this thread anymore.

[Anonymous]

OP reminds me of a new K parent at the first day of school who marched into a new principal's office and demanded that her child move classes because she wasn't with enough of her preschool friends. She wasn't able to meet with the principal. So she wrote a letter of complaint all the way up to the superintendent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Here are the 2 emails sent with no response
1. Email sent to Principal/Registrar about withdrawing one child from Public school to move him to private - no reply/response - nothing. Not a word !!! They have deleted the student accounts etc. though so we know they have received our email.
2. Email sent to class teacher about collecting the school supplies from the class - not a word back from the teacher again

The first one, it seems like they did what you asked them to do. The person who received your email probably forwarded it to the person in charge of removing the child from their system, and a person got it done. It’s a really busy time, remember, a public school is a huge monster compared to a private school. So the first week or so they’re trying to be as efficient as possible. No need to respond. For the second, how long have you been waiting for the teacher to respond? Today is only the second day of school. Honestly, most of my children’s teachers are extremely fast at responding. My daughter had one older teacher who just didn’t do emails very well. She rarely responded, but she was my daughter’s favorite teacher. I figured out, by speaking with other parents whose children had had her, that the best thing was to send a written note with your child. She would send written notes right back with my child. She was just an older lady who was a fantastic teacher, but just not great with technology. Give the teacher a chance. I would wait a day or so and maybe gently ask again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's what you've learned about yourself, OP: you value feeling seen, heard, acknowledged, and remembered as much as you value the quality of your child's education. You will be better-served by paying for a smaller school system and student body.

However, it might also be worth taking to heart that it didn't even occur to you that there could be an occasion when acknowledging you, when you're doing just fine, might be a disservice to others who need resources more than you. This will come up again sometime when you are involved with a large organization of some kind. Work on thinking the best of people, and projecting outward, instead or wondering why they don't seem to care enough to make you feel good.

OP here. Thank you - to say it again, it was not about making us feel good. We were just looking for a simple "Thanks for letting us know" kind of acknowledgement from the registrar/principal/someone - nothing else. We understand now the differences in the public and private school system are a LOT, in every sense. Not to imply in any sense one is better than the other - but we were just used to one and expected the same from the other.