Worked my butt off in the PTA and my son is in a "weaker" classroom

[Anonymous]

I am one of the few MC parents in a title 1 school. Worked my butt off on the PTA board for 2 years, plus classroom volunteering, plus working directly with principal to organize events for the school.
Part of the deal as I saw it was that my son was in a stronger teacher's class last year, plus a stronger and better peer group in his class. He almost always got into free enrichment activities where there was a lottery, which I also saw as part of the deal (never was stated by anyone openly but I was even asked for a preference for a summer program).
Last year, I was asked about the preferences for my son's classroom placement, which I stated (3 of them: teacher, best friend, avoiding one other child). Well I saw the class lists today and I got ZERO of my requests fulfilled. I am fine with either teacher, I am more or less ok that his good friend is not with him, but there is a boy I specifically told the school my son had some run ins with and who is just plain disruptive and physically aggressive, and he is in my son's class. Also, I can see that his class is just weaker than the other one. Two kids who were held back a grade, one borderline special needs slow learner, and only one strong student besides him.
I am just so disappointed. I tried to stay loyal to the neighborhood school, tried to make it better, but now I am just tempted to transfer the kid to a more decent school a bit further away. I am drastically scaling down my PTA involvement this year for sure, and looking into other school options.

[Anonymous]

What is your question?

[Anonymous]

I am just venting .

[Anonymous]

I volunteer all the time. I don't ever do it expecting to get favors or preferential treatment for my kids. While, I can see where any parent would be concerned about a classroom placement with a peer that had been specifically targeting their child, I think your comment about the weaker class is pretty harsh. I wonder if your request was ignored because you seem high maintenance.

[Anonymous]

as a mother of a borderline special needs slow learner - screw you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:as a mother of a borderline special needs slow learner - screw you.

It's the combination with 2 more kids repeating a grade that matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I volunteer all the time. I don't ever do it expecting to get favors or preferential treatment for my kids. While, I can see where any parent would be concerned about a classroom placement with a peer that had been specifically targeting their child, I think your comment about the weaker class is pretty harsh. I wonder if your request was ignored because you seem high maintenance.

Good for you, no sarcasm. I didn't expect anything the first year and we surprised when they asked me and granted my request. They asked me agsin next year.
I am not the only one who was disappointed fwiw, so I don't think not granting requests has much to do with me specifically.
I will keep volunteering in the classroom to make my child's experience better. But not on the PTA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:as a mother of a borderline special needs slow learner - screw you.

Many of us have SN kids. The problem comes when they slow down the class to make sure everyone is at the same level so other kids aren't working at their potential waiting for the other kids to catch up. We were dumped in the SN classroom and the academics were slower in that class compared to others.

[Anonymous]

I am actually pretty surprised with the placements. It looks like they took the top and bottom and put them together, and then the middle all went into the second classroom. Also, only two other MC families in our class, while the other one has 5. I had three go to parents for volunteering requests last year, they are all in the other class.

[Anonymous]

MoCo parent here. Thanks for confirming MCPS does not give special treatment,and PTA volunteering has no influence.

[Anonymous]

If some of the things you got were "lottery" I really, really hope you were not just given the spot straight out as a quid pro quo- that would be WRONG and you shouldn't strive for or be proud of receiving such arrangements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MoCo parent here. Thanks for confirming MCPS does not give special treatment,and PTA volunteering has no influence.

Depends on the school. Ours clearly does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:as a mother of a borderline special needs slow learner - screw you.

Many of us have SN kids. The problem comes when they slow down the class to make sure everyone is at the same level so other kids aren't working at their potential waiting for the other kids to catch up. We were dumped in the SN classroom and the academics were slower in that class compared to others.

[Anonymous]

So you "volunteered" because you thought it would curry you favors with the principal with class placement? If you'd just stuck to sharing about how frustrated you were that your communicated request for separating your child from another wasn't met, I would have offered some helpful advice. But you had to throw in the part about expecting some preferential treatment because you volunteered.

You're an idiot, OP. You fail to see how your kid will be fine, even with some kids who learn differently. Even worse, though, is that you're an entitled idiot. Please stay in MD.

-Principal of a Title 1 school in Fairfax

[Anonymous]

They probably assume your kid will be fine wherever given that his mother is such an involved parent.