Reply to Franklin Montessori student age 3 left in Forest Hills Park by teachers today

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Another Franklin parent here, and I'll second basically all of this.

Overall, the school has been a fantastic experience for our children. They have learned and grown in ways I never would have expected. Each of the teachers we've had have been stellar. We had a number of reasons for choosing it, all of which it has delivered on. And then there's some other things that we didn't expect that turned out to be huge perks; I never would have considered the quality of an art program in choosing a school, but have been absolutely amazed at how good that program is, for example.

But the school obviously has some minuses. The ones on my list (before this incident) would be:
 - It is expensive;
 - The parking situation can be a mess;
 - The school is below average at communicating with parents; and
 - The on site outdoor play area is too small.

As to the last point, I haven't found this to be a major issue in the past, for several reasons: The indoor playspace is great, the woods program is great, and the kids go to Chesapeake fairly often. It now sounds like the reaction to this incident is that they'll stop going to Chesapeake Park. I can't really fault this decision, but its still sad, because it will make the small on site playground into a larger problem than before.

Regarding your specific questions:

Was it an hour: I think it is impossible it was an hour. The group got back to the school after 5 and last pickup is at 6, so if it had been an hour, the girl's parent would have got to school to find her missing, which did not happen. Whether it was 2 minutes or 35 minutes, I do not know.

Did the school know she was missing: I don't believe so. This is different from the previous incident, where the teacher realized the mistake before she got back to the school (though simultaneously someone called the school).

Why the director goes: She started going after the first incident as a fail safe. Most people thought it was a good idea. It obviously did not work as intended.

Rock Creek Park procedures: I don't know if there's a listed set of procedures, though its similar to the playground procedures. I think the risk of getting left behind is a lot lower here because the class is alone in the woods, unlike at Chesapeake, which can be crowded with other kids. 100% of the people in the woods go back at the same time, so its easier to police. I don't know if there are anticipated changes but I assume it will be brought up at the Monday meeting.

Student-teacher ratio:  I think others (particularly people who are not parents there) will disagree, but I don't think it has a ton to do with student teacher ratio. Aftercare tends to have a lower ratio than primary, plus the director is there. I don't have a good explanation for how this managed to happen twice, other than that the two events were kind of linked, because the procedures put in place after the first time inadvertently contributed to the second time. Its also the case that this is an order of magnitude more likely to happen at a school that takes kids to an offsite playground multiple times per week than at a school that goes on field trips once or twice a semester.

Are the staff tired? If they are, I have not personally noticed it. I would caution you against listening to one poster on here, who, as I think you've already deduced, is probably the troll who has been banned from the other Franklin threads.

Regarding generally how the school is managed, the main thing to know is that parents have mixed feelings about the director and about the school's level of communication. Some people view her as straightforward, efficient, and professional. Others view her as closed and somewhat intimidating to talk to. We have known a couple families who have left the school, and they generally had similar reasons: they didn't like the level of communication and felt like the director wasn't being responsive to their concerns. Although I've had a positive experience with the school, I think it should work on ways to address this problem. For example, I think having something more akin to a PTA or a parent board might be a needed change, particularly after this incident.

One thing that I do want to say in the director's defense, however, is that some of the comments on this thread implying that she does not care about safety or does not take these incidents seriously are utter B.S. and are written by people who I cannot imagine have any first hand knowledge of the situation.[b] I have absolutely no doubt that Monday was one of the worst days of her life[/b], that she is incredibly upset about what happened, and that she takes it seriously. And while I don't want to doubt anything said by the poster who helped comfort the little girl (thank you!), I honestly find it impossible to imagine that there was 15 minutes between when she talked to the director and when the director got to the park. It would truly shock me if she didn't sprint there the moment she realized what happened. And I would interpret her not appearing appreciative when she got the girl as her being incredibly focused on attempting to deal with the situation at hand.[/quote]

How sad for the director. What about it being probably the worst day of that little girl's life?[/quote]

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