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[quote=Anonymous][quote]Thanks, PP. I was the one who asked about East Silver Spring. How often do kids get music and art from dedicated teachers who specifically teach those classes? PE? How much recess? Science and technology? And in technology, are the kids exposed to keyboarding and junior coding basics? Are there smartboards in the technology room or in the classrooms? Is the library well outfitted and do the kids get to choose books there weekly?

How responsive is administration to parent concerns? Have been trying for weeks to get a tour, to no avail. Might improve though when the principal returns from her externship from the middle school?

How's the socioeconomic diversity among the active PTA membership?

TIA
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As another PP said, Music, PE, Media, and Art are MCPS standard, so once a week for each with dedicated teachers who only teach those subjects.  30 minutes a day of recess either before or after lunch depending on the grade.  One nice thing about a smaller school is that none of the kids have lunch at a super unreasonable time.  Smartboards in every classroom, as is MCPS standard.  They don't have the extra technology push-in that TPES has, but I think TPES may be one of the only schools with an extra half position dedicated to STEM.  Keyboarding in the earlier grades, coding later.  The library is well outfitted as far as I can tell, in that my kids have always found age-appropriate and challenging books there.  I think in kindergarten the kids can only check out books to take to the classroom, and then starting in 1st they can check out books weekly to take home.

I'd say the administration is semi-responsive to parent concerns.  I've had good responses on the issues that I've raised, but other parents have said they felt blown off by the administration.  With that said, the principal used to be at Rolling Terrace, which has a reputation for allowing the concerns of upper middle class white parents to run roughshod over  needs of the majority Latino working class population.  So honestly I think some of her defensiveness is about seeing what happens when you let the vocal minority run the place.  It's a balancing act, but I've not had issues and our family has been there for years with multiple kids with different needs and strengths.

You are probably right that you'll have better luck with a tour when the principal gets back and the principal intern goes back to her role as assistant principal.  The principal intern is great, but I think she's just learning the ropes and focusing on the basics during her interim period.

The PTA does skew middle class and whiter than the school population but not completely middle class and not entirely white.  Many of the white parents on the PTA are also raising kids of color, so are sensitive to the ways in which some schools can be dismissive to those kids.  The PTA leadership (board) appears to be fairly racially and socio-economically diverse, but again probably whiter and more middle class than the entire student population.  They don't bring in interpreters or anything, though, so that might be something parents raise as possibilities in the future.

Certainly activities like reading night or international night are very representative of the student body.  Hundreds of families turn out for those events, so PTA isn't the only way that families get involved in the school.

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