Alternatives to the admin breakfast at the start of pre-service?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't stand it. Ours is a dog and pony show because our principal invites central office bigwigs to attend and they all stand up and give corny speeches and profusely thank our principal for inviting them. There is a lot of food, but I can't eat any of it due to having food allergies (nor would I want to--everything is prepared by the principal and their family and the prep is questionable). Then our principal taps out after the "show" because they're exhausted from cooking all weekend and getting to school extra early to set it all up, and we have to hear about it all week. We're also expected to thank the principal profusely for their generosity. We have to sit for hours on the backless cafeteria table benches and twist our necks to see the person who is speaking up front. We can't talk to each other because we have to listen to endless speeches from central office wonks about the excitement of a new school year.

All we want is to be left alone in our rooms to start setting up. The last thing I want to do is sit in the hot cafeteria for hours watching the time go by.

Where is your PTA in all of this?! I'm a member of the PTA, and last week we pulled off the breakfast. Of course the principal shouldn't be making/buying/bringing this herself! I am shocked that this isn't a PTA affair.

We have a very small PTA with a very small budget. I work at a high FARMS school. Not all schools have involved PTAs with big budgets.

I wish there was more institutional support in MCPS for sharing and cooperation between/among PTAs. Our school would like to help support a “sister” PTA but other than personal connections between someone at our school and someone at another school, it’s not so easy to find these opportunities. The PTA of course does include teachers, so if teachers on the PTA at high-needs schools think they could use reinforcements of this type, there are people in the community who would be interested in helping out. But it’s not so easy to find each other.

Just go through schools at a glance and look for high farms schools and contact somebody on the pta. Any high farms schools would likely appreciate the partnership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't have a breakfast on the first pre-service day. Or meetings, or anything structured. The whole day is allocated for classroom setup on your own. The PTA arranges a breakfast for Thursday morning when the SEIU employees are also reporting. I think it works fine.

That would be great!

I made this thread because I would like to suggest an alternative to our ILT, but I didn’t know if it was optional. Thank you actually answering my question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a high SES school but our PTA doesn’t provide a meal during pre-service. A parent once told me out of the blue that our parent community specifically advocates to the PTSA to provide as little to the entire staff as possible due to a few teachers that are generally disliked by parents.

Pyle?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't stand it. Ours is a dog and pony show because our principal invites central office bigwigs to attend and they all stand up and give corny speeches and profusely thank our principal for inviting them. There is a lot of food, but I can't eat any of it due to having food allergies (nor would I want to--everything is prepared by the principal and their family and the prep is questionable). Then our principal taps out after the "show" because they're exhausted from cooking all weekend and getting to school extra early to set it all up, and we have to hear about it all week. We're also expected to thank the principal profusely for their generosity. We have to sit for hours on the backless cafeteria table benches and twist our necks to see the person who is speaking up front. We can't talk to each other because we have to listen to endless speeches from central office wonks about the excitement of a new school year.

All we want is to be left alone in our rooms to start setting up. The last thing I want to do is sit in the hot cafeteria for hours watching the time go by.

Where is your PTA in all of this?! I'm a member of the PTA, and last week we pulled off the breakfast. Of course the principal shouldn't be making/buying/bringing this herself! I am shocked that this isn't a PTA affair.

We have a very small PTA with a very small budget. I work at a high FARMS school. Not all schools have involved PTAs with big budgets.

I wish there was more institutional support in MCPS for sharing and cooperation between/among PTAs. Our school would like to help support a “sister” PTA but other than personal connections between someone at our school and someone at another school, it’s not so easy to find these opportunities. The PTA of course does include teachers, so if teachers on the PTA at high-needs schools think they could use reinforcements of this type, there are people in the community who would be interested in helping out. But it’s not so easy to find each other.

The MCCPTA publishes contact information for PTA leadership at all schools. If someone in your PTA really wants to reach out and form.a connection with a sister school, it can be done fairly easily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a high SES school but our PTA doesn’t provide a meal during pre-service. A parent once told me out of the blue that our parent community specifically advocates to the PTSA to provide as little to the entire staff as possible due to a few teachers that are generally disliked by parents.

We dislike the PTA and will not donate as their spending is about them and their pet projects and they are very wasteful. I think its shameful that we cannot give gift cards for supplies for teachers but can spend $10K on pet project of the leadership. I don't like all the teachers but that isn't my reason for not doing it. I'd rather buy supplies and what our teachers need vs. give it to the PTA to do what they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't have a breakfast on the first pre-service day. Or meetings, or anything structured. The whole day is allocated for classroom setup on your own.The PTA arranges a breakfast for Thursday morning when the SEIU employees are also reporting. I think it works fine.

That would be great!

I made this thread because I would like to suggest an alternative to our ILT, but I didn’t know if it was optional. Thank you actually answering my question.

The first day all to yourself?! That’s a gift! That has never happened at my school. We’re not allowed back in the building until the first official preservice day either, so our rooms are as we left them in June (boxes and containers everywhere). We’re allowed in our rooms beginning at 1:00 the first day. You would think the building would remain open a bit later on preservice days, but no such luck. We usually have to be out at 5:00. This is elementary school

[Anonymous]

The day before our first day back is when they decided to spray the school for pests. Ridiculous!

[Anonymous]

NP here - I'm an elementary school administrator who has always provided breakfast for staff the first morning back. I've received generally positive feedback from staff. I introduce new staff, we catch up for about 30 minutes and then teachers have the rest of the day to work in their rooms. I'm not sure this breakfast is worth stressing over the night before your first day back. I hope you have a good year OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach in a high SES school but our PTA doesn’t provide a meal during pre-service. A parent once told me out of the blue that our parent community specifically advocates to the PTSA to provide as little to the entire staff as possible due to a few teachers that are generally disliked by parents.

Pyle?

No

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here - I'm an elementary school administrator who has always provided breakfast for staff the first morning back. I've received generally positive feedback from staff. I introduce new staff, we catch up for about 30 minutes and then teachers have the rest of the day to work in their rooms. I'm not sure this breakfast is worth stressing over the night before your first day back. I hope you have a good year OP.

I suspect your breakfast is set up much more efficiently than ours. Certainly, skipping a real meeting at 8:15 helps.,At my school, people are still standing in line to get food at 8:05.

I’m not stressed, I’d just like to know if it can be replaced. Sounds like at least one school skips it. That makes me hopeful.

Wishing you a great school year as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here - I'm an elementary school administrator who has always provided breakfast for staff the first morning back. I've received generally positive feedback from staff. I introduce new staff, we catch up for about 30 minutes and then teachers have the rest of the day to work in their rooms. I'm not sure this breakfast is worth stressing over the night before your first day back. I hope you have a good year OP.

I suspect your breakfast is set up much more efficiently than ours. Certainly, skipping a real meeting at 8:15 helps.,At my school, people are still standing in line to get food at 8:05.

I’m not stressed, I’d just like to know if it can be replaced. Sounds like at least one school skips it. That makes me hopeful.

Wishing you a great school year as well.

If you really want it to improve, volunteer to set up the coffee cart earlier. Grab your best colleague to help. Many hands make light work.

[Anonymous]

Volunteer to set up 30 minutes beforehand! Send a list of specific issues to the Principal, such as the hot water running out after 10 cups, and explain that half the attendees don't have time for breakfast and aren't in the best of moods for morning meetings.

I will say that:

1. Knowing this, you can eat before you leave your home. It's breakfast, after all.

2. MANY children suffer through this all year because there just isn't enough time to eat lunch! My son half the time eats a few bites of his lunch. If you get crabby because you're missing breakfast, imagine how he's doing in class all afternoon without lunch!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Volunteer to set up 30 minutes beforehand! Send a list of specific issues to the Principal, such as the hot water running out after 10 cups, and explain that half the attendees don't have time for breakfast and aren't in the best of moods for morning meetings.

I will say that:

1. Knowing this, you can eat before you leave your home. It's breakfast, after all.

2. MANY children suffer through this all year because there just isn't enough time to eat lunch! My son half the time eats a few bites of his lunch. If you get crabby because you're missing breakfast, imagine how he's doing in class all afternoon without lunch!

1. Our admin team has heard all of this, for years. They have refused help both in setting up and in donations. If the solution is for everyone to eat breakfast at home and bring their own caffeine, why are we having the event at all. Let’s scrap it and do some other icebreaker or teambuilder. So much wasted food! Which brings me to your second point...
2. I was a poor kid who often missed meals so I don’t need a reminder of how it feels to be distracted in class by hunger. The amount of food that is thrown away at this breakfast is shameful. I’d rather admin give breakfast to the kids who come to orientation on Thursday.

[Anonymous]

We raised 3K by having a lot of parents sign up for Giant A+ Bonus Rewards program. The money went directly to the school. That is the slush fund for the Principal, that he/she can use to do the admin breakfast.

I do not know why PTA feels the need to do this. I speak as a very active PTA Staff Appreciation Chairperson. I absolutely love doing all the lunches and dinners for the teachers once the school opens. However, when it is a staff breakfast to be put up by the Principal during pre-service, the principal and the admin team should be managing it.