Janney Principal politely scolding parents...RANT

[Anonymous]

i feel for the OP. dropping off your kids shouldn't be THIS hard. the school should work with this mom, not against. sorry, it's trite, but it does take a village. our DCPS starts at 8:45, but parents are allowed to drop kids off as early as 8:15 for supervised play on the playground. that's still too late for my family, so my DH takes our DS at 7:15 and we pay for beforecare. it's cheap, though....$25/week (plus we pay another $100/week for aftercare). but we only have 1 kid. i don't think i'd like to shell out double the money for such a brief time. this is PUBLIC school! bottomline, this principal should be more flexible. i am thankful that our school is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i feel for the OP. dropping off your kids shouldn't be THIS hard. the school should work with this mom, not against. sorry, it's trite, but it does take a village. our DCPS starts at 8:45, but parents are allowed to drop kids off as early as 8:15 for supervised play on the playground. that's still too late for my family, so my DH takes our DS at 7:15 and we pay for beforecare. it's cheap, though....$25/week (plus we pay another $100/week for aftercare). but we only have 1 kid. i don't think i'd like to shell out double the money for such a brief time. this is PUBLIC school! bottomline, this principal should be more flexible. i am thankful that our school is.

Important to note that OP did not even attempt to take her "concerns" to the Principal. I have kids at Janney, and I've not heard ANYONE say the school should offer free supervised play on the playground in the morning - no one.

And it's "cheap" at Janney, too!! Morning care is $85/month per child, which is roughly $21 per week -- cheaper than you pay!! OP really WAS ranting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i feel for the OP. dropping off your kids shouldn't be THIS hard. the school should work with this mom, not against. sorry, it's trite, but it does take a village. our DCPS starts at 8:45, but parents are allowed to drop kids off as early as 8:15 for supervised play on the playground. that's still too late for my family, so my DH takes our DS at 7:15 and we pay for beforecare. it's cheap, though....$25/week (plus we pay another $100/week for aftercare). but we only have 1 kid. i don't think i'd like to shell out double the money for such a brief time. this is PUBLIC school! bottomline, this principal should be more flexible. i am thankful that our school is.

Are you seriously suggesting that the principal should allow parents to leave their minor children unsupervised on the playground while there is construction going on? What happens if a kid get hurt or wanders away from the playground. As to supervised play, who do you suggest should do the supervising? Teachers? Should they be made to come to school early just bc a few parents are having a hard time with scheduling - what if they have kids.

Op, needs to work with what is available to her, for example:
1. Pay for before care
2. Drop off older kid first or have older kid get to school some other way
3. Join a car pool
4. Get a neighbor/friend to help out
5. Drop her kids off at Starbucks have them sit there until 8:30 and then walk over to school together (I kid).

[Anonymous]

Dropping them 15 minutes away is not going to work for us. Actually it does matter what I think. The world does change for me. When my voice is combined with others voices the world does change. This is how change happens, actually. The few comfy posters on this board may not see a need for change but I do. That matters. But I see my opinion has no support here. That does not mean it is not valid.

But what do you want to see changed? Leave aside the parking ticket issue for a second - I don't think that's within the principal's control, and you're likely not going to have any luck getting MPD to stop ticketing. What do you want changed re the morning routine? What are you asking others to get behind?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i feel for the OP. dropping off your kids shouldn't be THIS hard. the school should work with this mom, not against. sorry, it's trite, but it does take a village. our DCPS starts at 8:45, but parents are allowed to drop kids off as early as 8:15 for supervised play on the playground. that's still too late for my family, so my DH takes our DS at 7:15 and we pay for beforecare. it's cheap, though....$25/week (plus we pay another $100/week for aftercare). but we only have 1 kid. i don't think i'd like to shell out double the money for such a brief time. this is PUBLIC school! bottomline, this principal should be more flexible. i am thankful that our school is.

it's not really that hard. it just sounds like OP doesn't want to explore any option other than being able to drop her kids off unattended for 30 minutes for free. She can continue to do so, but the principal is making sure parents know that the school isn't responsible until 835. Otherwise, she could do beforecare, which is $85 a month (so less than your $25 a week), work out an arrangement with another parent to walk them to school; work out an arrangement with a group of parents who are similarly situated to hire someone to watch the kids for 30 mins at a much cheaper rate then beforecare, drop her other (older?) child first, drop these kids a walkable distance from the school. See there are at least 5 options.

As for parking, it would be nice if there were 15 min parking around the school at drop-off time, but there isn't. But there is 2 hour parking 2 blocks away from the school on Yuma, 43rd, Albemarle and various other streets.

Being a parent is stressful and can be tough to coordinate to be sure, but the OP seems to have an ax to grind (and as others noted has created a hilarious thread--I respond only for those that might need to know what options might help them).

[Anonymous]

Dropping them 15 minutes away is not going to work for us. Actually it does matter what I think. The world does change for me. When my voice is combined with others voices the world does change. This is how change happens, actually. The few comfy posters on this board may not see a need for change but I do. That matters. But I see my opinion has no support here. That does not mean it is not valid.

The other voices in your head don't count.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Dropping them 15 minutes away is not going to work for us. Actually it does matter what I think. The world does change for me. When my voice is combined with others voices the world does change. This is how change happens, actually. The few comfy posters on this board may not see a need for change but I do. That matters. But I see my opinion has no support here. That does not mean it is not valid.

The other voices in your head don't count.

^^^ Quote of the day!!

[Anonymous]

I don't see a problem with DC writing tickets in front of the school for illegal parking. The Albemarle-Wisconsin intersection is one of the busiest in that part of town, the the stretch in front of the school carries traffic to Wisconsin and the nearby Metro stop -- not to mention to Wilson HS and nearby commercial and office development. Plus, there's a large condo building across the street from Janney, so everything has to work efficiently at dropoff with the safety of the kids being paramount. At least they didn't build the development on top of the library and the Janney schoolyard, because then the street would be even more of a mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see a problem with DC writing tickets in front of the school for illegal parking. The Albemarle-Wisconsin intersection is one of the busiest in that part of town, the the stretch in front of the school carries traffic to Wisconsin and the nearby Metro stop -- not to mention to Wilson HS and nearby commercial and office development. Plus, there's a large condo building across the street from Janney, so everything has to work efficiently at dropoff with the safety of the kids being paramount. At least they didn't build the development on top of the library and the Janney schoolyard, because then the street would be even more of a mess.

I agree that illegal parking should get ticketed. The practices do seem pretty predatory in front of many DC schools, though. I also don't think it's such a "mess" -- there really are nearby side streets that people park on and walk their kids to the school. I was surprised, actually, that it ISN'T a madhouse in the morning right in front of the school. I don't hear people complaining that they had to park a 2-3min walk away - truly.

[Anonymous]

"Dropping them 15 minutes away is not going to work for us. Actually it does matter what I think. The world does change for me. When my voice is combined with others voices the world does change. This is how change happens, actually. The few comfy posters on this board may not see a need for change but I do. That matters. But I see my opinion has no support here. That does not mean it is not valid."

One way change can happen is for parents to form a volunteer babysitting arrangement for early drop-off. Are you willing to help organize it?

[Anonymous]

Here is what is disturbing...this mom or whatever she is goes to Janney. She clearly needs to be medicated and she is not working that hard at her job, because she has been doing this all day.

Now I am going to look around the school like "Good God, which one is she????"


Creeeeeeepy.

I mean, everyone knows the mentally ill are among us, but this is not good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is what is disturbing...this mom or whatever she is goes to Janney. She clearly needs to be medicated and she is not working that hard at her job, because she has been doing this all day.

Now I am going to look around the school like "Good God, which one is she????"

Creeeeeeepy.

I mean, everyone knows the mentally ill are among us, but this is not good.

Mee too, when the directory come out I will be looking for the families with a 4th and 5th grader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is what is disturbing...this mom or whatever she is goes to Janney. She clearly needs to be medicated and she is not working that hard at her job, because she has been doing this all day.

Now I am going to look around the school like "Good God, which one is she????"

Creeeeeeepy.

I mean, everyone knows the mentally ill are among us, but this is not good.

Mee too, when the directory come out I will be looking for the families with a 4th and 5th grader.

I agree OP had a weird twist on things, but this is getting too mean.

[Anonymous]

That level of caps and bolding and colored font is NOT a "weird twist." She is a tweaked.

[Anonymous]

what i don't get is why the OP can't park legally 2 blocks away like the rest of the school community does?? Hundreds of us manage to trudge up the hill twice a day with babies, toddlers, older siblings, strollers, dogs, bikes, briefcases, etc. It's REALLY not that bad!