At our MCPS middle school, the science teachers run it and usually get enough parent volunteers to coach some events and host practice/study in their homes, with snacks

I just don't get parents who decline to volunteer and help out but then seem to resent and/or want to micromanage the parents that do volunteer and are doing things to benefit all the kids in a group. Not everyone wants to or can volunteer, but parents should at least be appreciative of the parents who are willing to put in the extra time to make activities available for kids.

My cousin volunteered to run the Science Olympiad at a school similar to GBW. She did it for two years. There were so many interested kids that they had to do a lottery for spots-but she could never get a volunteer to help her or even fill in in days she couldn't make it. Parents complained to the PTA that her child was given an automatic spot in the club-they felt she should have to enter the lottery like the other dc. They lost some meetup (sorry i don't know the technical term!) and a parent sent her a long email telling her what she did wrong! Also one father was late picking up his kid every week and when she asked him to be on time, he just said "this is when I get out of work" and continued to pick up late the rest of the year.

She refused to do it a third year and the PTA sent out several requests for a volunteer to run it. Last I spoke to her, no one had stepped up which she was greatly amused by.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of Asian parents want things like Science Olympiad and MathCounts there for their kids-- but do not want to roll up their sleeves and get involved, coach a team, support the coaches etc. if their kids benefit (indeed-- dominate these teams), they need to get involved.

From conversations I have had at our very Asian elementary school, I've learned that many Asian parents are used to a school system where these types of things were run by the school. Parent volunteers - for anything - was not the norm.

That might be true, but it's pretty obvious in a FCPS elementary that parents are needed to run things-the Pta sends out emails translated in 3 languages saying "Hey, we still need parent volunteers to run the Lego club and the science club."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of Asian parents want things like Science Olympiad and MathCounts there for their kids-- but do not want to roll up their sleeves and get involved, coach a team, support the coaches etc. if their kids benefit (indeed-- dominate these teams), they need to get involved.

From conversations I have had at our very Asian elementary school, I've learned that many Asian parents are used to a school system where these types of things were run by the school. Parent volunteers - for anything - was not the norm.

This has been an issue for our HS orchestra too. Band has parents popping up everywhere. Orchestra is lucky if we can get four people to volunteer for the P, VP, T and S.

Anonymous wrote:Lots of Asian parents want things like Science Olympiad and MathCounts there for their kids-- but do not want to roll up their sleeves and get involved, coach a team, support the coaches etc. if their kids benefit (indeed-- dominate these teams), they need to get involved.

From conversations I have had at our very Asian elementary school, I've learned that many Asian parents are used to a school system where these types of things were run by the school. Parent volunteers - for anything - was not the norm.

Lots of Asian parents want things like Science Olympiad and MathCounts there for their kids-- but do not want to roll up their sleeves and get involved, coach a team, support the coaches etc. if their kids benefit (indeed-- dominate these teams), they need to get involved.

What kind of problems with parents?

Probably because the big glut of students who had parents who were extremely involved (in more ways than one) have all moved on and are in 7th grade now. I know quite a few of them no longer have kids at GBW anymore.

Past years many clubs like Math club and Science Olympiad have quite a bit of parental support in GBW. But heard that GBW is revamping its afterschool clubs due to problems with parents!!!
Not sure what went wrong but now GBW PTA does not want to continue these clubs???

I read on here that GBW pta has a hard time getting certain demographics to pitch in for the greater good, so this post is interesting.

So it's only shocking for an AAP school not to have a math or science club? Lol.

At our school, PTA volunteers organize the clubs. No volunteer, no club. Have you volunteered to organize and run the clubs, OP?

Perhaps you should step up to volunteer to run both of them, if it's an issue of lack of help. Or consider donating if it's a lack of funding.

Very disheartening and shocking that an AAP school is cutting down on Math clubs and Science Olympiad for the 2016-2017 school year in Green Brair West Elementary school!!