Thoughts on the new Churchill principal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing people aren't understanding.

#1 Traffic studies are expensive.

#2 You can't just add an arrow at Gainsborough and Tuckerman without changing the timing on the light which then impacts all of the traffic along Tuckerman, Falls, Seven Locks etc... all carriers of massive amounts of traffic during that same time period.

#3 Given #1 and #2 the traffic study would likely be more extensive and expensive than just this one intersection.

#4 Given all of the above and the variety of needs in our county I don't know how anyone could justify this expense just to shave 5 minutes off of the 15 minute experience of this small subset of citizens.

Here's what you aren't understanding, the traffic study is needed for safety. The current situation is only a matter of time till a student is injured or killed.

That's right. Won't someone think of the children. This is all easily solved if the adults will all just be patient and wait their turns. If parents would stop dropping their kids off in the middle of the street. Why don't some of you volunteer to help direct and manage traffic? Or put your kid on the bus - drops them right at the door.

Kids can live 1-1/2 miles away and not get a bus. When they have a heavy backpack and a musical instrument, it's hard to walk, and it's worse in the rain. Sounds like you haven't been there in the morning. Maybe a traffic study at Gainsborough and Tuckerman would be helpful, but much of this is a new problem created by the new principal. Adults aren't dropping kids off in the middle of the street in front of the school. Adults are in cars that aren't moving at all because the principal wouldn't use traffic engineering resources available to her for free.

At the beginning of the school year, the children were encouraged to stay on the sidewalks. Then, the principal came up with the less-than-brilliant idea that it would be better to keep them off the sidewalk and have them walk through the parking lots. The principal, not the parents, created this mess. I hope no child gets injured, but if they do, the principal is 100% to blame for putting kids in that situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Traffic is horrendous around the school. A 10 minute trip turns into a 25 minute trip just because the roads and school lots weren't designed for the population the school currently has. The line for student drop offs has reached almost to Post Oak Rd. so anyone in the line at 7:35 am will be late to class.

My child has started riding a bike because it's faster than driving. However, I do worry about his safety because a car hit him on his bike this year but luckily he was just bruised. The kid driving didn't stop though to make sure my kid was ok. Anyone driving should slow down and watch for bikes and pedestrians.

So first bell is 7:40 am. If you know the traffic is bad, here's an idea LEAVE EARLIER. It is amazing how many Churchill parents expect their little snowflakes to be able to be dropped off at the front door and not have to wait more than 1 minute for that privilege. So much of this problem has to do with selfish behavior and expectations of this community, cutting through the parking lot, speeding, on their phones, dropping kids in the middle of the street etc. And you wonder why the kids do the same thing? Look in the mirror.

Yes, thank you!

We leave at 7:15 and are in the parking lot at 7:25. It's already bad then. I've not see a parent on a phone or dropping a kid off in the middle of the street. We aren't even allowed to drop the kids off within even a block of the school without being threatened with a ticket. Many parents have jobs with long commutes. The traffic situation at Churchill makes for a horrible start to the day for all. No matter what people thought of Benz, it wasn't this bad last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOVE it that she enforced the rule even when it had implications for the game. She didn’t bow to pressure, which is great. Wish the students knew the full story (mine doesn’t) so it can serve a broader lesson. (What are seniors doing skipping in early fall, anyway? I get it at the end of the year, but in October??)

As a Churchill parent, I agree Mrs. Heckert is on the right path when she consistently enforces school rules. I also agree with your point that to have a greater effect, sending out an email addressing why the event was cancelled would remind students to not skip school in the future.

However, a reminder before the event would have persuaded students to be in school on Thursday and not skip. Perhaps the reminder was forgotten in this situation but perhaps could be done in the future. Mrs. Heckert is new and learning. Not the end of the world but room for correction.

And why is she obligated to send a reminder? 17 yr olds should know by now that skipping school is NOT okay. We are in a different non-w cluster and our Principal would never send such note either. Good for the Churchill Principal.

Reminders are considered a best teaching practice in education. Sure, Mrs. Heckert is not required by MCPS policy to send out a reminder. However, with her training she should know about these types of best practices and it is something easy to do. The rule applies to extracurricular activities for anyone leaving school or absent from school - the student's reason could have been legitimate and just needed prior attendance approval. This rule has only been stressed in the athletic program in the past, not all extracurricular activities so there has been a change in the enforcement of the rule.

+1 The announcement when Mrs. Heckert was selected said she had 18 years of high school education experience. If that's a best teaching practice, why doesn't she know it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I drive my kid to Churchill because teenagers need more sleep than a 7:45 AM school start allows (as discussed many times on this forum). He gets almost an extra 30 minutes of sleep by being driven to school instead of taking the bus (with its multiple stops and roundabout route). I have not encountered traffic problems at Churchill when we arrive at 7:25 AM. The new traffic patterns are certainly an improvement from last year.

My kid always takes the bus home.

Just curious - which loop are you using to drop off? Trying to see if I changed routes if that makes a difference.

I actually prefer the Victory Lane entrance even though I come from south of Tuckerman Lane. I think the separate entrances for the two lanes on Victory Lane has really speeded things up. One still has to be prepared to see students crossing the street anywhere and at anytime. And as others noted in this thread, students going to Seniors parking have to make an awkward crossing of the incoming dropoff traffic

+1 Any other time of day, I go on Gainsborough, driving up Postoak to Victory and then right into the lot is much better for drop off/pick up times.

The drop off on Gainsborough is a disaster. After 7:30, it's impossible to get in or out of the parking lot. Traffic backs up on Gainsborough half way to Cabin John Middle School. The security guard tells kids to walk through the parking lot instead of on the sidewalk. Really smart -- not!

I heard that the new principal personally did the traffic plan instead of asking for help from the MoCo traffic engineers who do this for a living. It will be on her if I kid gets hit because she's too arrogant to ask for help from people who know what they're doing.

+1 She’s made it more dangerous for both pedestrians and cars. That stadium parking lot is a dangerous place to drop off. There are too many kids who walk down that sidewalk to school. They are trying to help the cars get in more quickly by having the students walk through the parking lot and avoid the driveway. The issue is that there isn’t a sidewalk that goes all the way around. They need to step in the parking lot. Such a mess.

+2 Does anyone know why Mrs. Heckert changed the traffic pattern? Her e-mail said she personally observed it before making a decision. What did she see that made her conclude it was better for kids to walk in the parking lot than on the sidewalk?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else think it's kind of funny, that people are so upset with the last principal because she didn't enforce the rules, and now that the new principal is enforcing the rules, they are upset that she didn't remind them of the rules?

Two different groups of people. Some parents supported Benz in lax enforcement so their kids didn't have accountability/punishment. Other parents were upset with lax enforcement because other kids' entitlement/lack of punishment was detrimental to rule-following kids.

Don't kid yourself. There still is lax enforcement in many, many rules. Mrs. Heckert is just cracking down hard in a few, isolated areas to make it look like she's doing something. From what my child, one of the rule followers, reports, except for these occasional high-drama crackdowns, which she does as a show for the parents, she hasn't done anything substantive. The random crackdowns hurt the rule followers much worse than they hurt the rule breakers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"I would also suggest contacting the MCCPTA Health and Safety committee (PTA President Bruce Adelson can help you with the specific contact information for the chairs) because they are concerned about several issues within Churchill. With more information and specific details even if they were events you reported to Mrs. Webster in the past, the MCCPTA can help raise the issue at a higher level than the school director to improve the safety of students at Churchill."

That is funny. The current MCCPTA Board doesn't care about students at Churchill or any W schools. Only DCC...

That is absolutely not my experience with the MCCPTA officers I have contacted. Specifically, the Health and Safety committee chairs have invested their time to meet with MCPS administrators to fix problems and concerns being reported in schools. They have also helped MCPS to make policy changes. They continue to advocate for change especially when they know of a specific incident that fell through the cracks when Dr. Benz and Mrs. Webster were in charge of Churchill.

When you have tried the principal and the director or if you are afraid of retaliation, contacting the MCCPTA gives you a non-MCPS source to help advocate for the school and your child.

+1 The cluster coordinators are a good place to start. They have the the administration's ear. They live in the area, and they want to make Churchill a better place.

[Anonymous]

First world problems. Have any of you met with the Principal (wasn't a small turnout at the PTA meeting reported on DCUM)? Or do you just like to complain?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First world problems. Have any of you met with the Principal (wasn't a small turnout at the PTA meeting reported on DCUM)? Or do you just like to complain?

I'm not sure it's reasonable to think that she would have time to meet with very many individual parents.

Communications is another problem. She doesn't respond to emails. She probably gets a ton of emails. Maybe she can't answer them all quickly. She could at least have staff acknowledge emails. Instead, parents send even more emails trying to get a response.

The PTA meeting where she was scheduled to talk was on Yom Kippur of all days. After a lot of parents complained, she cancelled at the last minute. I was at another PTA meeting she attended but there was no opportunity to talk with her one-on-one.

I'm not a fan, but I don't fault her for not having personal conversations with parents. It's a big job and there are a lot of parents. I do fault her for her bad decisions and poor communication. There wouldn't be so many comments on this site unless a lot of parents were unhappy. It is hard to make that many people that upset in such a short period of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First world problems. Have any of you met with the Principal (wasn't a small turnout at the PTA meeting reported on DCUM)? Or do you just like to complain?

I'm not sure it's reasonable to think that she would have time to meet with very many individual parents.

Communications is another problem. She doesn't respond to emails. She probably gets a ton of emails. Maybe she can't answer them all quickly. She could at least have staff acknowledge emails. Instead, parents send even more emails trying to get a response.

The PTA meeting where she was scheduled to talk was on Yom Kippur of all days. After a lot of parents complained, she cancelled at the last minute. I was at another PTA meeting she attended but there was no opportunity to talk with her one-on-one.

I'm not a fan, but I don't fault her for not having personal conversations with parents. It's a big job and there are a lot of parents. I do fault her for her bad decisions and poor communication. There wouldn't be so many comments on this site unless a lot of parents were unhappy. It is hard to make that many people that upset in such a short period of time.

The PTA meeting was not a good format to have the dialog needed on various subjects. The PTA has other business it needed to conduct and time was limited to ask questions of the principal. As you said, there also was not time for a one-on-one conversation about subjects that might have been too delicate (i.e.. school climate) to talk about in front of the group.

Perhaps the principal could carve out time for 8:15am parent coffee sessions to discuss a particular community concern once per month? When the guidance office has meetings such as these and it is shortly after the buses finish dropping off students, parents can park in the bus loop spots. The morning meetings are normally more highly attended than the evening PTA meetings I guess because it is easier for some parents to attend before work vs. after school conflicts with evening meetings.

Topics could include:

1) Traffic / reason why more problematic this year, limited options to resolve, is more funding needed for a traffic study or a redesign of lots to improve safety, if so, how can parents speak up to the Board of Education and work with Mrs. Heckert to get the funding needed.

2) Child safety / personal body safety lessons, new technology in the school, Student and Employee Code of Conduct, see something say something (how to report a concern), community services available for the prevention of suicide and treatment of trauma

3) Athletics / hazing, performance enhancing drugs, attendance rule, see something say something (how to report a concern), services personal trainer can provide

4) Illegal substances / what is the trending drug of choice, how parents can work with the school, what a parent should do if child has a substance abuse issue, what happens if a child is caught with drugs at school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First world problems. Have any of you met with the Principal (wasn't a small turnout at the PTA meeting reported on DCUM)? Or do you just like to complain?

I'm not sure it's reasonable to think that she would have time to meet with very many individual parents.

Communications is another problem. She doesn't respond to emails. She probably gets a ton of emails. Maybe she can't answer them all quickly. She could at least have staff acknowledge emails. Instead, parents send even more emails trying to get a response.

The PTA meeting where she was scheduled to talk was on Yom Kippur of all days. After a lot of parents complained, she cancelled at the last minute. I was at another PTA meeting she attended but there was no opportunity to talk with her one-on-one.

I'm not a fan, but I don't fault her for not having personal conversations with parents. It's a big job and there are a lot of parents. I do fault her for her bad decisions and poor communication. There wouldn't be so many comments on this site unless a lot of parents were unhappy. It is hard to make that many people that upset in such a short period of time.

Laughable...it’s not hard to upset the entitled parents of Churchill. It’s so clear many of you really don’t understand how you sound. Nor do you realize how many emails the principal is likely receiving. Think close to anywhere from 50-100 emails per day. Your precious snowflake is in for such a rude awakening when they attend college, right along with their hovering, delusional parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First world problems. Have any of you met with the Principal (wasn't a small turnout at the PTA meeting reported on DCUM)? Or do you just like to complain?

I would love to meet with the Principal. I first reached out to the resource teacher who did respond, but the problem still exists. I’ve emailed her twice regarding the issues we’re having with my child’s teacher asking to talk with her and have not heard back yet. I am in the process of debating what to do next.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First world problems. Have any of you met with the Principal (wasn't a small turnout at the PTA meeting reported on DCUM)? Or do you just like to complain?

I'm not sure it's reasonable to think that she would have time to meet with very many individual parents.

Communications is another problem. She doesn't respond to emails. She probably gets a ton of emails. Maybe she can't answer them all quickly. She could at least have staff acknowledge emails. Instead, parents send even more emails trying to get a response.

The PTA meeting where she was scheduled to talk was on Yom Kippur of all days. After a lot of parents complained, she cancelled at the last minute. I was at another PTA meeting she attended but there was no opportunity to talk with her one-on-one.

I'm not a fan, but I don't fault her for not having personal conversations with parents. It's a big job and there are a lot of parents. I do fault her for her bad decisions and poor communication. There wouldn't be so many comments on this site unless a lot of parents were unhappy. It is hard to make that many people that upset in such a short period of time.

The PTA meeting was not a good format to have the dialog needed on various subjects. The PTA has other business it needed to conduct and time was limited to ask questions of the principal. As you said, there also was not time for a one-on-one conversation about subjects that might have been too delicate (i.e.. school climate) to talk about in front of the group.

Perhaps the principal could carve out time for 8:15am parent coffee sessions to discuss a particular community concern once per month? When the guidance office has meetings such as these and it is shortly after the buses finish dropping off students, parents can park in the bus loop spots. The morning meetings are normally more highly attended than the evening PTA meetings I guess because it is easier for some parents to attend before work vs. after school conflicts with evening meetings.

Topics could include:

1) Traffic / reason why more problematic this year, limited options to resolve, is more funding needed for a traffic study or a redesign of lots to improve safety, if so, how can parents speak up to the Board of Education and work with Mrs. Heckert to get the funding needed.

2) Child safety / personal body safety lessons, new technology in the school, Student and Employee Code of Conduct, see something say something (how to report a concern), community services available for the prevention of suicide and treatment of trauma

3) Athletics / hazing, performance enhancing drugs, attendance rule, see something say something (how to report a concern), services personal trainer can provide

4) Illegal substances / what is the trending drug of choice, how parents can work with the school, what a parent should do if child has a substance abuse issue, what happens if a child is caught with drugs at school

5) The math department.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First world problems. Have any of you met with the Principal (wasn't a small turnout at the PTA meeting reported on DCUM)? Or do you just like to complain?

I would love to meet with the Principal. I first reached out to the resource teacher who did respond, but the problem still exists. I’ve emailed her twice regarding the issues we’re having with my child’s teacher asking to talk with her and have not heard back yet. I am in the process of debating what to do next.

Have you tried the counseling office? Most people go there before the Principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First world problems. Have any of you met with the Principal (wasn't a small turnout at the PTA meeting reported on DCUM)? Or do you just like to complain?

I would love to meet with the Principal. I first reached out to the resource teacher who did respond, but the problem still exists. I’ve emailed her twice regarding the issues we’re having with my child’s teacher asking to talk with her and have not heard back yet. I am in the process of debating what to do next.

Have you tried the counseling office? Most people go there before the Principal.

We started with the counseling office and were directed to the resource teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First world problems. Have any of you met with the Principal (wasn't a small turnout at the PTA meeting reported on DCUM)? Or do you just like to complain?

I would love to meet with the Principal. I first reached out to the resource teacher who did respond, but the problem still exists. I’ve emailed her twice regarding the issues we’re having with my child’s teacher asking to talk with her and have not heard back yet. I am in the process of debating what to do next.

Have you tried the counseling office? Most people go there before the Principal.

We started with the counseling office and were directed to the resource teacher.

Resend an email to principal. State you are reaching out again since you did not get a reply to your first email. Cc Peter Moran, her boss and Director for Churchill. If you still do not get a date and time for a meeting, contact Dr. Moran for a meeting.