Has anyone toured their local public school?

[Anonymous]

I'm considering calling the principal of the MoCo public school my child would attend and asking if I can visit and observe some classes. Has anyone done this? If so, how was your request received and how did you approach it?

[Anonymous]

Our local public school has been having open houses where small groups of parents get to meet with the administrators and then tour the school. I found it very helpful.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks, 14:03. Is this in MoCo?

[Anonymous]

I think it varies from school to school. One local school told us we couldn't tour at all, instead we had to show up during an open house (and under no circumstances were we to come during a school day because we might be pervs or something). But the coordinator of the local magnet school gave us a personal tour -- on a day when 50% of the kids were on a field trip. What we really wanted to see was the kids and teachers interacting in a real classroom, but this didn't happen for us.

So I'd call your school. I don't think there's a countywide policy.

[Anonymous]

We called our local elementary school in MoCo and asked for a tour. They were happy to do it. A teacher gave us the tour. We were very pleased to be given the opportunity and found it to be reassuring as we were considering private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks, 14:03. Is this in MoCo?

Yes, MoCo.

Agree with PP, however, about all the schools doing it their own way. We wanted to tour another school which we had heard was "better" - and possibly move into that district - but that other school wasn't nearly as warm and forthcoming about an open house or tour as the original school was...so maybe that's our answer right there! Good luck.

[Anonymous]

We toured Wood Acres years ago. They had a whole group touring - it didn't seem to be at all unusual and the tour was led by the principal. Last year my DD visited Whitman and they arranged for her to shadow a student for a 1/2 day and we spent an hour touring/talking with the principal about the school. Again they seemed used to these requests and were very welcoming.