Just not feelin’ FCPS Kindergarten
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Anonymous
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OP— I don’t know your individual situation, but it might not be as bad as you think. FCPS is choosing to grow the schools, build expansions, bring in mods, etc., rather than building new schools. In most schools, the lunchrooms just weren’t designed to serve the number of kids they get. Result: chaos. I have had kids in 2 ES, one Ms, and 2 HS, and the only lunchroom I have found that wasn’t a disaster was TJ— where the kids can eat lunch anywhere in the building. Which is awesome, but not an option in K. I think all FCPS lunchrooms are loud and chaotic. That said, all 5 of my kids schools were excellent. I’d caution against judging a school by its lunchroom. You need to see the classroom in action before drawing any conclusions.
That said, three adults for six K classes is not sufficient. I would “express concern” to the school about inadequate supervision at lunch. I would not assume it translates to the classroom without checking it out. Also, the first month of school sucks for some kids who are slower to transition. And the transition to K makes it much worse. IDK if you have a new teacher, but if you do that’s another transition. It should not always be this bad, as kids learn the rules and routines and teachers get to know their kids better. All 26 kids miss their cozy pre-school or worse— are away from home during the day for the first time. None of them have had time to get used to lining up for lunch or cycling through stations or internalized the structure of the day or even knows how to line up for lunch. In a good elementary school, the first month of K is by far the worst month. Transition to the next grade will not be nearly this hard. My kid got sent to the principals office and they called me twice the first six weeks of K. Now a HS junior, and hasn’t had a disciplinary referral since. Look at the classroom. Remember everyone in it is new to the school— maybe even the teacher. If you don’t see something that alarms you as unsafe or inappropriate, I would wait until after Thanksgiving and see if things improve. Also, this is K, not junior year. You kid is unlikely to miss much in the way of actual instruction. Since you have another child and being at the school is tough, consider pulling her out for a long lunch with you once a week, or giving her an afternoon off once in a while. Or taking her late. Not forever. Just for a month or two while she transitions. I think this is going to work out okay OP. But I din’t Know the school in particular or your kid and her classroom specifically. If people are saying the school is good, I would give it more time, but get into the classroom at least a couple times to make sure there are no major problems. Good luck! |
Anonymous
I would also suggest talking to the teacher and the principal. See if more parents would volunteer if they knew what was happening. See if there is more help available at the school. If you don't ask, you won't know. K can be ridiculously hard for kids and parents to adjust to. |
Anonymous
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I know someone who is in 1st grade there and I haven't heard these types of stories from her. I'm going to ask her about it, though, next time I see her.
My daughter's school only had four Kindergartens and their teacher or IA ALWAYS ate lunch with them until 4th quarter which is when they stopped coming to the cafeteria with them as they tried to get the kids to be more independent. The few times I visited for lunch, the scene was nothing like you described. That sounds awful. I think you need to speak to the teacher or IA and share with them what you shared with us. They need to know this is going on. It'll help them to know also that your child may need a little more frequent check ins. At the same time, you need to encourage your daughter to self advocate. Good luck! It sounds awful and I feel so bad for your kid. 
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Anonymous
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I will add the perspective of someone that has an older child in parochial school and a younger one at FCPS:
I'd suggest a lot of research into the parochial school. Overall, I would not do it again. I'm not really of the opinion that they are necessarily better just because you pay tuition. I find FCPS to better and more uniformly resourced, and in my experience the teachers have been more responsive and they have understood my kid or when they didn't they reached out to the parents. I've found the parochial to have a couple of teachers that have been there forever - and not in a good way - very rigid and not at all willing to make any changes. I don't find the parochial to be much more advanced than FCPS academically or facilities-wise. And at our parochial school, there are a few families that have multiple kids at the school and there's certainly a perception that those folks have more of a voice as to how things are run than others. I do like the community at the parochial and the parents - that it's small made it easy to make friends with other parents. My older child is still there b/c we're moving next year and didn't want child switching schools multiple times. If we were not moving, child would already be in an FCPS school. Hopefully your daughter will adjust and do great! Good luck! |
Anonymous
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I call B.S.. No way did OP see all this in one visit to a kid's school during lunch hour. Also, her child barfs in class and no one notices the gross smell or chunks in her hair? No chance that a class full of kindergarten aged students passes up the opportunity to point that out. Zero.
I give this a C- in troll class. |
Anonymous
Hold the phone. I’m the OP and in no way am I trolling. My kid got off the school bus smelling of vomit. It had gotten in her ponytail and all in the seams of her backpack zipper. She’s an independent kid and cleaned up (so no chunks) but the residue was obviously still there and she stunk. Update: she FOUND the lost tooth in the bathroom several days later. How’s that for gross  She was really happy though.
I did indeed see all of these things at lunch. Let me be clear: I go regularly. The kids are OK. They’re silly, they’re messy, they’re emotional, they’re needy. The aides and helpers at lunch are kind, and they are HUSTLING. No one is neglecting these kids, and I haven’t seen anything unsafe. I don’t think this is a bad school. I think it’s a BIG school and I’m wondering if/when the chaos will die down and it will feel like the kids aren’t in need of more attention than they’re able to get. Other posters have made the good point that it’s not a great idea to base my opinions on what is unarguably the most chaotic part of these kids’ day. I agree with that, and I’m going to try to spend time in the classroom before I come to any conclusions. DD doesn’t love lunch (but has a cute little crew of nice friends, so she’s not miserable by any stretch). She doesn’t like the bus because it’s packed and hot and loud. She likes her classroom and her teacher, though, which is heartening. Her reluctance to go to school seems equal parts typical for her age and the result of some specific apprehension about the chaos. We’re going to give it a very fair chance, be more present and help out whenever possible, and trust that so many other parents can’t be wrong. I’m also going to work on getting DD to speak up. And if at the end of this year we feel we need to make a change, we will. I really appreciate the feedback, especially from other KP parents. Thank you! |
Anonymous
| Lunch is a crazy time in these big schools, but MAN is it amazing when they figure out how to adapt. We had a very sensitive, shy, spacy but smart kid who almost never ate much lunch in the beginning because he was so distracted by the chaos. After his charming preschool I was appalled by how chaotic and hampering to thinking and learning everything seemed But after the first 3-4 months, I realized he really got into a rhythm and was much more adaptable than he had ever been in preschool. I think having teachers he loved and really trusted but not ALWAYS having an adult at the ready to help out was a good thing for him. |
Anonymous
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What school is this? My son goes to a not highly rated FCPS- Title 1- and I went to lunch pretty often last year when he was in K and I was always amazed at how organized it was run.
I haven’t read all the posts here but be sure to reach out to the teacher, volunteer in the classroom and hopefully with time your daughter will settle in to her school. Has she made some friends? Schedule some play dates with some of the other kids as well if you haven’t already. |
Anonymous
Kings Park ES. |
Anonymous
| Also can you drive her to school so she can skip the bus? |
Anonymous
| Since you are actually observing this firsthand and not just relying upon the word of a kindergartener, I would bring it up with the school administration. That is simply not acceptable. In our Arlington school, they had the K kids eat lunch in the classroom -- I can't remember what the drill was for kids who needed to buy, but they figured something out. |
Anonymous
That might work but only if each class had its own aide who was there every day. Ours are always being used to substitute. |
Anonymous
| K (and public school in general) is chaotic because there are kids who come from households that don't give a s##t about discipline. I've seen some great teachers worked to the bone because of discipline issues. There is only so much the teacher can do. For many parents, school is free daycare. |
Anonymous
I say this as an FCPS teacher: parents need to raise hell about 26 kids in a K class. It’s not acceptable and KP’s principal can make different decisions regarding how she is using school funds in order to hire an additional K teacher. Take 4 kids out of your child’s class an the dyblnamic would be markedly different. We used to have 28 kids in our K classes and our parent community finally revolted and went to our local school board member to complain. We now have an additional K class, all now with 22-23. |
Anonymous
I am the one who said I get roasted regularly for saying that we opted for private as a result of my experience as an FCPS student. I started at KP and dissatisfaction with FCPS starts with my experience at KP. The lunchroom stands out pretty starkly as a particularly weak point of the school to me and my mom who came for lunch pretty regularly since it was so bad. And yes, my experience is a million years old and things change, but do they really? |