APS- Nottingham

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We love Nottingham, but did not have any special needs to consider. Last year was a rough school year, no thanks to APS policies during the pandemic. The N. Arlington elementaries are all very similar, so not sure I’d agree with the “Nottingham or bust” poster, but it is a nice school with caring teachers and an involved community. Some of the parents can be a little much, but there are all sorts and you can find your people.

Nottingham and Tuckahoe have a better parent community than Discovery. Partly due to Discovery being a newer school (less time to build traditions, community) and partly to COVID putting a halt to most events.

I think Discovery parents would disagree. Discovery has been around a while now and the parents I know there have been lovely, involved, and concerned about schools beyond their own.

I am one, and that's my opinion.

Nottingham parent scene is cliquey.

I haven’t found this to be true at all except for the current year’s pta.

They are nice individually, but as a group very very cliquey. Maybe if I lived on Potomac/Pokomoke it would be better.

Shade!

Not sure what this means, but that’s where most of the pta moms live. In that part of the Nottingham district. They are neighborhood friends.

The PP was “shading” aka calling out the moms on those streets as cliquey in a very passive aggressive way.

Nope not the moms on those streets. The pta moms on those streets. TBH, Nottingham has not been great for my kid, and while I do volunteer more than most others, I do not want to be on the pta. Now can we talk about the Halloween party that they are just now soliciting donations for? Just give it up. It cannot be thrown together in 3 weeks.

Are you talking about the fall social? That’s an annual tradition this time of year, not some new party they are trying to throw together at the last moment. The pandemic disrupted it the past few years so if you are relative new to the school it can see why you wouldn’t be aware of that, but your unfamiliarity with things is not a reason to trash the organizers.

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Yes, I’m talking about the fall social that raises a pathetic amount of money for a school where many of the parents live in $2m homes. I just got an email yesterday asking for donations. In the past, they have not been able to have anything great to bid on. It’s very sad compared to what other schools raise. I first saw that it was even happening a week ago. Usually it’s on the calendar way in advance. For some reason people do not want to donate to nottingham. So, they throw this big party and barely cover costs then complain about how much work it was and no one helps. I’d much rather just be solicited for $200 and give them a check.

OMG. You need a reality check badly. I have no idea what this little fall fundraiser brings in for NES; but do you realize that Nottingham PTA's budget has been over $200K in the past while our poorest Title I schools are lucky to have $15 - $40K for the year? This whole exchange only creates an even more negative impression of NES - and not just its PTA. Nottingham and Jamestown's wealth are similar; but I can tell you that Jamestown is looked more favorably upon by others in this County than Nottingham.

You’d be surprised at the PTA’s budget. I can’t remember exactly, but I want to say it was $50k? They said it was not enough to cover everything they wanted to cover.

I don't believe for an instant that this is the total budget. Maybe it plummeted during COVID; but I am highly skeptical that NES PTA is unable to fund the things they want to fund,

They have 50% participation rate and have said in emails that they don’t have enough to fund the things they want to fund.

DP. The budget amount posted above is wrong. But obviously if people don’t volunteer to help with fundraisers, line items would have to be cut. Do you really think the PTA is sitting on an entire year’s worth of cash?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We love Nottingham, but did not have any special needs to consider. Last year was a rough school year, no thanks to APS policies during the pandemic. The N. Arlington elementaries are all very similar, so not sure I’d agree with the “Nottingham or bust” poster, but it is a nice school with caring teachers and an involved community. Some of the parents can be a little much, but there are all sorts and you can find your people.

Nottingham and Tuckahoe have a better parent community than Discovery. Partly due to Discovery being a newer school (less time to build traditions, community) and partly to COVID putting a halt to most events.

I think Discovery parents would disagree. Discovery has been around a while now and the parents I know there have been lovely, involved, and concerned about schools beyond their own.

I am one, and that's my opinion.

Nottingham parent scene is cliquey.

I haven’t found this to be true at all except for the current year’s pta.

Definitely agree as a longtime NES parent. And it’s not that they aren’t nice – but they are super duper cliquey.

You mean the same people who are doing everything for at least their second year because no one else was willing to step up and volunteer? It’s not surprising that after working closely together for all this time, they have become close friends. I am not part of the board but know about half of them from other contexts, and none of them have been unfriendly, but I also don’t expect to be invited on their girls weekends and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I don’t care about girls weekends. What I was referring to was the first day of school lunch at dominion. I’ve been at nes for a few years, but don’t know the pta moms because my kids don’t overlap with theirs. Not one pta member introduced herself to me. I thought it was strange. We are neighbors after all. I’m sure they are nice once you get to know them, but I was definitely intimidated by the fact that they were so cliquey at that lunch.

Okay? The PTA board is a very small portion of the community, and there are plenty of other people with whom you can make friends. I don’t know why people are so fixated on this one particular group of women, simply because they were the only ones willing to step up and keep the PTA going.

Really? If the PTA sponsors an event, part of the point is to recruit new members and get people volunteering and involved in the school and PTA. The PTA officers are representing the PTA organization and should make an effort to introduce themselves and meet people and make sure everyone feels included and welcome. It's not a lunch they arranged with their friends, who also happen to be on the PTA.

They put on a social event they thought people might enjoy. These are all volunteers, but you are acting like they are your paid employees who are responsible for your well-being. It is unfortunate you did not find anyone you connected with at the lunch and that it was an awkward experience for you, but maybe drop the sense of entitlement to their unpaid labor for just a bit.

Entitlement to their unpaid labor. Dear god. People are saying it is in THEIR OWN DAMN SELF INTEREST to be friendly so that more people will volunteer. That way they can expend less of their unpaid labor and feel less put upon.

Unless of course that has nothing to do with it and they like this small arena of power they run with their friends and this fills their time. Which I have no problem with personally but then stop complaining that no one else helps and keep doing it yourself.

If people don’t volunteer, then PTA events won’t happen. There will be no fall social, no book fair, no Mayfest, no bingo nights, no Halloween parade, etc. If parents don’t care about those events, the PTA can cancel them and save themselves the time and effort of organizing them. Personally, I like these events and volunteer for the ones I care about, regardless of whether a board member chats with me or not.

I am the one who told the story a few pages back about feeling flat out ignored and uncomfortable and left to run an activity alone with no courtesy of even bothering to tell me. I don't need to be chatted with by a board member. Just common decency works for me. Other people clearly have similar experiences. I have other stories that are less extreme but not great either. Because I do still volunteer. That is great if you don't care at all and just show up to do your thing. More power to you.

I don't think it's all PTA Board people driving the dynamic either. In my story I happen to know the woman paired with me to run an activity was a PTA board member but the gaggle of women she was with - who were talking about insider baseball school topics - could have been just people active in PTA.

I think many people on this thread have gotten very defensive when really it's just something to be aware of if you at all see yourself in any of these stories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I'm sorry are the PTA people the cool kids?

Not at Nottingham they aren’t. But they think they are.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We love Nottingham, but did not have any special needs to consider. Last year was a rough school year, no thanks to APS policies during the pandemic. The N. Arlington elementaries are all very similar, so not sure I’d agree with the “Nottingham or bust” poster, but it is a nice school with caring teachers and an involved community. Some of the parents can be a little much, but there are all sorts and you can find your people.

Nottingham and Tuckahoe have a better parent community than Discovery. Partly due to Discovery being a newer school (less time to build traditions, community) and partly to COVID putting a halt to most events.

I think Discovery parents would disagree. Discovery has been around a while now and the parents I know there have been lovely, involved, and concerned about schools beyond their own.

I am one, and that's my opinion.

Nottingham parent scene is cliquey.

I haven’t found this to be true at all except for the current year’s pta.

Definitely agree as a longtime NES parent. And it’s not that they aren’t nice – but they are super duper cliquey.

You mean the same people who are doing everything for at least their second year because no one else was willing to step up and volunteer? It’s not surprising that after working closely together for all this time, they have become close friends. I am not part of the board but know about half of them from other contexts, and none of them have been unfriendly, but I also don’t expect to be invited on their girls weekends and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I don’t care about girls weekends. What I was referring to was the first day of school lunch at dominion. I’ve been at nes for a few years, but don’t know the pta moms because my kids don’t overlap with theirs. Not one pta member introduced herself to me. I thought it was strange. We are neighbors after all. I’m sure they are nice once you get to know them, but I was definitely intimidated by the fact that they were so cliquey at that lunch.

Okay? The PTA board is a very small portion of the community, and there are plenty of other people with whom you can make friends. I don’t know why people are so fixated on this one particular group of women, simply because they were the only ones willing to step up and keep the PTA going.

Really? If the PTA sponsors an event, part of the point is to recruit new members and get people volunteering and involved in the school and PTA. The PTA officers are representing the PTA organization and should make an effort to introduce themselves and meet people and make sure everyone feels included and welcome. It's not a lunch they arranged with their friends, who also happen to be on the PTA.

They put on a social event they thought people might enjoy. These are all volunteers, but you are acting like they are your paid employees who are responsible for your well-being. It is unfortunate you did not find anyone you connected with at the lunch and that it was an awkward experience for you, but maybe drop the sense of entitlement to their unpaid labor for just a bit.

Entitlement to their unpaid labor. Dear god. People are saying it is in THEIR OWN DAMN SELF INTEREST to be friendly so that more people will volunteer. That way they can expend less of their unpaid labor and feel less put upon.

Unless of course that has nothing to do with it and they like this small arena of power they run with their friends and this fills their time. Which I have no problem with personally but then stop complaining that no one else helps and keep doing it yourself.

If people don’t volunteer, then PTA events won’t happen. There will be no fall social, no book fair, no Mayfest, no bingo nights, no Halloween parade, etc. If parents don’t care about those events, the PTA can cancel them and save themselves the time and effort of organizing them. Personally, I like these events and volunteer for the ones I care about, regardless of whether a board member chats with me or not.

I am the one who told the story a few pages back about feeling flat out ignored and uncomfortable and left to run an activity alone with no courtesy of even bothering to tell me. I don't need to be chatted with by a board member. Just common decency works for me. Other people clearly have similar experiences. I have other stories that are less extreme but not great either. Because I do still volunteer. That is great if you don't care at all and just show up to do your thing. More power to you.

I don't think it's all PTA Board people driving the dynamic either. In my story I happen to know the woman paired with me to run an activity was a PTA board member but the gaggle of women she was with - who were talking about insider baseball school topics - could have been just people active in PTA.

I think many people on this thread have gotten very defensive when really it's just something to be aware of if you at all see yourself in any of these stories.

The year has barely started. When was this, the ice cream social? What activities were there to run besides keeping the line moving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm sorry are the PTA people the cool kids?

Not at Nottingham they aren’t. But they think they are.

That comment was obviously a joke, but at the same time, no one would care one bit about how cliquey they supposedly are if, on some level, they didn’t want to part of the group.

[Anonymous]

All this bickering really shows how great a school Nottingham really is.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know about you, but this thread makes me want to go to this school. 🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know about you, but this thread makes me want to go to this school. 🙄

It’s the same complaints people make about every school’s PTA. People making excuses for why they don’t volunteer to help the school is not unique to Nottingham.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We love Nottingham, but did not have any special needs to consider. Last year was a rough school year, no thanks to APS policies during the pandemic. The N. Arlington elementaries are all very similar, so not sure I’d agree with the “Nottingham or bust” poster, but it is a nice school with caring teachers and an involved community. Some of the parents can be a little much, but there are all sorts and you can find your people.

Nottingham and Tuckahoe have a better parent community than Discovery. Partly due to Discovery being a newer school (less time to build traditions, community) and partly to COVID putting a halt to most events.

I think Discovery parents would disagree. Discovery has been around a while now and the parents I know there have been lovely, involved, and concerned about schools beyond their own.

I am one, and that's my opinion.

Nottingham parent scene is cliquey.

I haven’t found this to be true at all except for the current year’s pta.

Definitely agree as a longtime NES parent. And it’s not that they aren’t nice – but they are super duper cliquey.

You mean the same people who are doing everything for at least their second year because no one else was willing to step up and volunteer? It’s not surprising that after working closely together for all this time, they have become close friends. I am not part of the board but know about half of them from other contexts, and none of them have been unfriendly, but I also don’t expect to be invited on their girls weekends and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I don’t care about girls weekends. What I was referring to was the first day of school lunch at dominion. I’ve been at nes for a few years, but don’t know the pta moms because my kids don’t overlap with theirs. Not one pta member introduced herself to me. I thought it was strange. We are neighbors after all. I’m sure they are nice once you get to know them, but I was definitely intimidated by the fact that they were so cliquey at that lunch.

Okay? The PTA board is a very small portion of the community, and there are plenty of other people with whom you can make friends. I don’t know why people are so fixated on this one particular group of women, simply because they were the only ones willing to step up and keep the PTA going.

Really? If the PTA sponsors an event, part of the point is to recruit new members and get people volunteering and involved in the school and PTA. The PTA officers are representing the PTA organization and should make an effort to introduce themselves and meet people and make sure everyone feels included and welcome. It's not a lunch they arranged with their friends, who also happen to be on the PTA.

They put on a social event they thought people might enjoy. These are all volunteers, but you are acting like they are your paid employees who are responsible for your well-being. It is unfortunate you did not find anyone you connected with at the lunch and that it was an awkward experience for you, but maybe drop the sense of entitlement to their unpaid labor for just a bit.

Entitlement to their unpaid labor. Dear god. People are saying it is in THEIR OWN DAMN SELF INTEREST to be friendly so that more people will volunteer. That way they can expend less of their unpaid labor and feel less put upon.

Unless of course that has nothing to do with it and they like this small arena of power they run with their friends and this fills their time. Which I have no problem with personally but then stop complaining that no one else helps and keep doing it yourself.

If people don’t volunteer, then PTA events won’t happen. There will be no fall social, no book fair, no Mayfest, no bingo nights, no Halloween parade, etc. If parents don’t care about those events, the PTA can cancel them and save themselves the time and effort of organizing them. Personally, I like these events and volunteer for the ones I care about, regardless of whether a board member chats with me or not.

I am the one who told the story a few pages back about feeling flat out ignored and uncomfortable and left to run an activity alone with no courtesy of even bothering to tell me. I don't need to be chatted with by a board member. Just common decency works for me. Other people clearly have similar experiences. I have other stories that are less extreme but not great either. Because I do still volunteer. That is great if you don't care at all and just show up to do your thing. More power to you.

I don't think it's all PTA Board people driving the dynamic either. In my story I happen to know the woman paired with me to run an activity was a PTA board member but the gaggle of women she was with - who were talking about insider baseball school topics - could have been just people active in PTA.

I think many people on this thread have gotten very defensive when really it's just something to be aware of if you at all see yourself in any of these stories.

The year has barely started. When was this, the ice cream social? What activities were there to run besides keeping the line moving?

Not this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know about you, but this thread makes me want to go to this school. 🙄

It’s the same complaints people make about every school’s PTA. People making excuses for why they don’t volunteer to help the school is not unique to Nottingham.

Yes, even the <gasp> South Arlington PTAs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know about you, but this thread makes me want to go to this school. 🙄

It’s the same complaints people make about every school’s PTA. People making excuses for why they don’t volunteer to help the school is not unique to Nottingham.

That’s what you’re getting after multiple pages. People making excuses about why they don’t volunteer. That’s the takeaway.

Ugh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm sorry are the PTA people the cool kids?

Not at Nottingham they aren’t. But they think they are.

That comment was obviously a joke, but at the same time, no one would care one bit about how cliquey they supposedly are if, on some level, they didn’t want to part of the group.

No. That’s not it at all. This is just more self-serving deflection.

We don’t want to be in your group. We just want to show up to things and not feel uncomfortable and completely invisible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know about you, but this thread makes me want to go to this school. 🙄

It’s the same complaints people make about every school’s PTA. People making excuses for why they don’t volunteer to help the school is not unique to Nottingham.

But they aren't posting and complaining about it on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm sorry are the PTA people the cool kids?

Not at Nottingham they aren’t. But they think they are.

That comment was obviously a joke, but at the same time, no one would care one bit about how cliquey they supposedly are if, on some level, they didn’t want to part of the group.

No. That’s not it at all. This is just more self-serving deflection.

We don’t want to be in your group. We just want to show up to things and not feel uncomfortable and completely invisible.

What's wrong with that? Why do people have to want to be part of the PTA board to be treated warmly and like they are appreciated for being there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know about you, but this thread makes me want to go to this school. 🙄

It’s the same complaints people make about every school’s PTA. People making excuses for why they don’t volunteer to help the school is not unique to Nottingham.

But they aren't posting and complaining about it on DCUM.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/785755.page
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1084744.page
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/998391.page
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1021084.page
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/809225.page
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1060113.page