Based on what I'm hearing from other parents of K'rs at other MC schools, very inconsistent. No emails, no progress reports, no room parents, no volunteering, very little involvement from the PTA at our school -- vastly different than schools nearby. Very different homework expectations. I think it depends entirely on the school staff, the PTA, etc.

Security seems consistent with what we experience in our MC ES. Granted on open house we had to sign in and use a name badge but were free to come and go once we were in the school. We receive a weekly school newsletter and a weekly grade level email. The PTA is very active and involved. From what I've heard from other parents the PTA reflects the school parental involvement. We happen to be in a school that has a high level of parent volunteerism and its a very active PTA. Curriculum is the same but even the benchmarks achieved are different per school - based on the student body.

I think the buzzer thing is now required at all MCPS elementaries...however annoying it is really a good thing for security.

How consistent are they? They're consistent on paper (same curriculum and general policies) but vary greatly. That's why I think it's unhelpful to generalize too much over a school district, because the specifics of a school matter greatly.

Sorry to hear that your school isn't what you hoped.

I can't speak to all of your points, but the security thing (the requirement to be buzzed in to school during off hours and entering through the office) is a safety measure and one I would think you'd want for your child. Do you want any random person off of the street to be able to walk into a building full of children any time they want without having to at least pass by the secretaries and identify themselves? I sure don't.

I always thought that most of the elementary schools within a cluster or clusters close in rankings would be very similar.

Our elementary school seems to have a very different tone. First, the school security seems like a maximum prison ward. Parents are never allowed in the school. When you enter the doors, you must walk through the office. For aftercare you must bang on the outer door of the cafeteria and wait for someone to open it, you can not walk in the front door even though the inside door to the cafeteria is right next to it and wide open. For open house, all parents had to wait outside and were not permitted to walk back to the classrooms until it the minute it started. Parents were quickly ushered out the minute it finished. We did daycare at a facility that was on the grounds of another school in the cluster. The daycare would sometimes use the gym and we could easily walk in to get our kids. I know parents at the other clusters who are allowed to walk in to their schools. They aren't hanging around or anything but they don't feel like intruders.

Our PTA is very poorly attended. The PTA seems very focused to sticking to the bare minimum.

There are no emails or newsletters from our grade level. You have to try to figure out what they are doing from the worksheets that come home. There is a principals newletters but it is 80% reminders about some policy. It reads more like a warning letter.

The administrators at the back to school meeting kept mentioning how happy there were not to have helicopter parents and praising us for not being helicopter parents.

The whole thing is VERY off-putting and just seems like they do everything possible to keep parents out of their hair. I was looking forward to the community aspect of public school not just dump my child off in an institution with no idea what she is doing.