I don't care if my child is in a portable but it shows how over capacity the school is. It shows poor planning on the part of MoCo as a whole. They are resourced (admin wise) for a specific amount of children and they are obviously understaffed and it is more obvious by how much by how many portables there are.

Besides, our schools are like little cities anyway.. which I hate.

There are the rich kids with tutors in the AP/honors classes (away from the rifraf). There is the middle "class" in normal classes. So you might as well have a trail park to round out the imagery.

I wish they didn't take up half of the play space outside.

Our portables had bathrooms.

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a problem with portables at all. I do have a problem with the effects on the regular building. More people than planned in terms of bathrooms, library, parking, lunch room, lockers...

I agree with this.

I don't care.

Some of our teachers feel the extra moving around and fresh air is beneficial.

My issue is with the loss of learning time when it takes so much longer to get everyone from the classroom to lunch/recess, to specials, to the bathroom, etc. It's only a few extra minutes each time, but when you're moving in and out of the classroom a few times a day, that adds up fast and suddenly you're down 30 minutes of instructional time.

Anonymous wrote:Because this is Montgomery County, not Bangalore

Well, trailers for MoCo it is

I don't have a problem with portables at all. I do have a problem with the effects on the regular building. More people than planned in terms of bathrooms, library, parking, lunch room, lockers...

For little kids, the bathroom access is a big issue. Plus the classrooms are smaller in most cases, so in our part of MCPS with huge class sizes, the kids are really crammed in the space.

I don't think it's awful in every case, but it's definitely sub-optimal. And I think it's a problem when portables are used as a long-term solution to overcrowding - in each of my kids' schools, they are a permanent feature of the landscape because MCPS can't/won't undertake necessary expansions or contemplate redistricting to address chronic and severe overcrowding.

Anonymous wrote:Not good for kids with asthma or other health issues.

At my kid's elementary school the portables are the only classes with air conditioning so they work better than the classes in the big school for my asthmatic kid.

The only time I've objected to a portable placement was when the school put the special ed resource classroom out there. Kids who could least afford to lose instructional time were losing 5 minutes at the beginning and end of each period 2 or 3 times a day, as they managed coats and walked back and forth. Plus the symbolism was awful. They switched it out for music which I thought was reasonable the next year.

Not good for kids with asthma or other health issues.

I always associated them with trailer parks and poor white trash. I was worried about DD being so far away from the bathroom, and not feeling included in the school. Then my daughter spent third, fourth and fifth grades in two different trailers. It was fine. All my worrying was for nothing. She had a fine time in them.

Because this is Montgomery County, not Bangalore

I see people complaining about this in some of the schools which are at or over capacity. What difference does it make if the student has a great teacher and a place to sit while the teacher teaches? So many people have been taught and learned with far fewer accommodations. For example, my dad was raised outside of this country and the entire school was in one room and everyone sat on the bare floor. He now has a Bachelors, two Masters degrees and a PhD.