Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen the thing where seniors come back in their college shirts to visit their elementary teachers, but haven’t heard about the clapout. If they do it, it would be nice if they could invite kids who moved away or left for private school. No one needs to come but it makes a transient place feel less transient. Brings neighbors back together whose children’s paths diverged. I’ve always thought MCPS could do more to sustain ties with departing teachers and administrators as well. Invite retired teachers and even those who only stayed for a couple years before heading to another place. Builds goodwill. Currently, if you leave MCPS, student or teacher or administrator, you’re dead to them. It’s dumb. The best PR is creating a big stream of “alums” who feel a tie to the system and connections to one another. Good networking opportunity for all as well. Might even drum up more potential subs. The benefits may be less tangible, but they’re real. This is an area of growth for Dr. McKnight, who treats most departing staff like traitors.
While the alumni idea is nice I think people greatly underestimate how much work this actually takes in reality. Colleges and Universities have entire staff dedicated to this and even they outsource some of it in order to keep up their databases. And MCPS gets complaints about every initiative they take on that isn’t strictly focused on math and reading, despite how it might help kids(see the Bocce comments).