Maybe stop by one day and ask in person if you can make an appointment with the principal or assistant principal. I know that the administrative assistant at our local private always has a million things going on and someone calling about a school visit isn't likely a high priority for her, sorry to say. I suspect you may get a better response if you are standing there in front of her.

OP, we had the same problem years ago. It took a certified letter to the school superintendent to get to see the school. The principal was apologetic like she had never known that we wanted to see the school. Not a good way to start, but I had to make a decision.

OP here. We decided not to crash the Columbus day visit today. We will try again to contact the principal/vice principal by email and then take your suggestions to call the superintendent. I don't want to put the name of the school here. I have been trying off and on for a while now and they really don't want us to visit. I do have to say that we also applied to the elementary GT program in Takoma Park several years back and had a wonderful experience there. The principal herself took us on a tour of the school. She was so welcoming and informative. My kid did extremely well on their exam, but we weren't picked in the lottery. Anyhow my current experience was making me apprehensive about applying for the 4th/5th GT program at our local school. Thank you for your support and encouragement to give our local school a chance. We will.

OP, can you post the name of hte school? I get your frustration, but it does seem really weird to me that over two years, you have sent multiple emails to teachers, principals, administrative staff and NO ONE has responded. My son's teachers have all responded within hours, and on the few occasions that I've had to email someone in the front office, the result has been the same. And these are not small schools where anyone would know my name or feel obliged to treat me gently. Besides Columbus Day, most schools have orientation tours and programs in the spring for prospective parents. I think I actually attended the earliest one when my son was still 4yo - I wanted to get a sense of whether we should apply elsewhere for K.

BTW if you are interested in applying for the Grade 4 highly gifted program, you should attend the county-wide meetings on the process. http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/enrichedinnovative/events/elementary.aspx

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
Thank you. I will try calling tomorrow and asking for the administrative assistant, but I am not hopeful. We will also try to go in person and see what they say. I just think it's very odd that no one at this school will return our calls and emails. I did mention that our child was going to apply to their magnet this year (in 3rd grade ATM). They even changed the principal/vice principal since we first started so maybe it's a school policy.

They need to respond to you. You are a taxpayer and entitled to visit the school.

If you don't get a response, I would get in touch with the community superintendent (to whom the principal reports) and explain the situation.

Have you sent any email to the principal or the vice principal? I would do that so that you have a paper trail/evidence of non-responsiveness.

I'm sorry this is happening. The HGC is a terrific program, well worth a visit.

In Montgomery County, you can google the Montgomery County Public Schools website for the community superintendent's number. The community superintendent should definitely know of the problem you are having with your local school and can help facilitate an appointment to visit. It is unacceptable that the principal and vice principal are blowing you off. Not a good sign that there will be open channels of communication if your child does attend that school. May be a factor you will wish to consider.

Our PTA offers tours for prospective parents. Try asking a neighbor with children in the school about this. Admin staff in MCPS elementaries can sometimes be unwelcoming -- even in schools that are great in other ways.

Call the school by telephone. Maybe they are not getting your email. There was a time that there was an error in the MCPS system and they were not receiving emails from certain email providers. That may be happening again. Of course the school will let you visit. We have visitors all the time at our school.

I'm having similar issues. I consider it a bad sign for the school when the administration puts you off. We came at Columbus day and I had a great feeling in the classrooms. But the admin office and Principal and VP are very unresponsive and when you pin them, they have these sly polished explanations (which really irks me). If your child has no issues, enjoy and support the teachers. Also go to a PTA meeting (usually 1st Tuesdays of the month -- so last night maybe? sorry) and ask. And get on the PTA listserv and you'll see the sorts of issues at hand.

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
Thank you. I will try calling tomorrow and asking for the administrative assistant, but I am not hopeful. We will also try to go in person and see what they say. I just think it's very odd that no one at this school will return our calls and emails. I did mention that our child was going to apply to their magnet this year (in 3rd grade ATM). They even changed the principal/vice principal since we first started so maybe it's a school policy.

They need to respond to you. You are a taxpayer and entitled to visit the school.

If you don't get a response, I would get in touch with the community superintendent (to whom the principal reports) and explain the situation.

Have you sent any email to the principal or the vice principal? I would do that so that you have a paper trail/evidence of non-responsiveness.

I'm sorry this is happening. The HGC is a terrific program, well worth a visit.

I had one very rude admin assistant tell me that they don't do tours of the school and I could see it when the did the enrollment open house. I told her that was too bad because I would have already enrolled my child in a private school by then. I left my number and asked for the principal to call me back.

He did within 24 hours.

I toured. I was appalled. I took a vow of poverty to pay for private school. So far so good.

Had he not called me back my next step would have been to call my local school board member. And then my county council member. And then the media. Because I pay a whole lot of freaking taxes and I should be able to see the environment my taxes dollars buys before committing to sending my child there.

OP here.
Thank you. I will try calling tomorrow and asking for the administrative assistant, but I am not hopeful. We will also try to go in person and see what they say. I just think it's very odd that no one at this school will return our calls and emails. I did mention that our child was going to apply to their magnet this year (in 3rd grade ATM). They even changed the principal/vice principal since we first started so maybe it's a school policy.

I'm a principal in Fairfax. It's unacceptable that no one has responed to your email. I would have responded and cc'ed my administrative assistant directling her to set up an appointment.

Call the school and ask to speak with the administrative assistant. Make an appointment.

The Columbus Day idea is a good one. You could also tell them your kid is interested in applying to the HGC and that you'd like to tour the magnet to see how it differs from your private school. This would only work if your kid is in the year before entering the HGC, of course, and if you figure out the deadline for applying (which is coming up very, very soon) and get in before it.

What school is this? I'm a teacher and can imagine that either a) the admins do not have time/interest for giving a guided tour to prospective parents (some do, some don't), or b) the safety issues of allowing strangers into a building who don't have actual students there. But if you have a child who could potentially be a student there, I don't understand why you haven't gotten an explanation. I would try again getting in touch with the principal about visiting on Columbus Day/Open House. You could probably get in simply by signing in at the office, but if you went into any classrooms, the teacher would probably know that you did not have a child there. You might also try going directly to the school--not on Columbus Day--and asking to speak with the principal, AP or SOMEBODY about this issue. That way, they can't just ignore you. the answer might be "No," but you would at least get an explanation.

Hi!

We are currently at a private school, but are interested in exploring our local elementary school as another option. The problem is that we have not been able to visit so far. This has been going on for the past two years. I've tried contacting the school directly, sent emails to the teachers in the grade we're interested in, the principal, the vice-principal, and have gotten no response. What gives? I have friends in other neighborhoods that say that they have no problem visiting. Could it be that they are just too busy because they have a 4/5 magnet program? What can we do? We're thinking of trying to visit on Columbus Day when they let parents of kids attending visit. But they may ask us to leave. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.