Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any teacher that does not email back in 48 hours you email them again and copy the Principal and the counselor.

No response after another 24 hours you make an appointment will all of them.

advocate for your kid.

You do realize that high school teachers have over 150 students and very little time, right? And we are bombarded with emails all day, yet we are given little time at work to respond to them. I can get 15 in just one class period alone. My first chance to respond is usually in the evening after my own children go to bed. That’s when I open up my laptop and work through the backlog from the day.

You can quickly escalate if you want. That’s your right, of course. But it isn’t going to take away my workload or make it any easier to respond to you.

Parents have no idea what our day is like. There’s no down time during the duty day. Yesterday, I attended a course-alike teacher meeting and a 504 meeting during my planning periods. I helped students during my contractually duty-free lunch. I didn’t check my email until after dismissal. And then, I graded off the clock for four hours after dismissal.

Here’s where following the letter of the law rather than the spirit kicks in:

The first time a parent ccs the Principal and counselor because they didn’t get a responses within 48 hours, I shift them to “minimal timely-reply mode”.

Within 48 hours of emailing me, they get an initial email thanking them for contacting me and expressing regret that I am unable to give their email a full and thoughtful responses at this time. They can rest assured that I am looking into things and will respond within two more business days.

Then, I handle whatever the real priorities are.

Four days after they asked if Larla could be switched to a field trip group with her BFF Kourtleigh, I respond thanking them for their patience while I gathered the information requested and, unfortunately, all field trip decisions are made by the Team Leaders.

Does the school have a new principal? That could perhaps lead to a shaky start

OP, are you talking about Einstein? We’re new to the school and it definitely feels chaotic and disorganized.

Would share my concerns at the PTSA meeting the principal is requiring to be in person, but it’s the same day and time as the MS MSMC virtual meeting.

As a teacher the beginning of this year felt much more disorganized than usual. Central office was telling my high admin new directives only a few days before teachers arrived and then they were also saying more county directives were coming. Staff need all the info at once to plan. Piece meal approaches doesn’t work well as we have no time to incorporate things quickly and it’s easy to forget details once teaching kids and reality hits.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here- also there is a staff member listed as the dual enrollment coordinator for the mc program on the school website- but when I ask her questions about it, she says she has no oversight over the program nor does anyone else at the high school- so there is no one on the high school side to answer questions about it.

They are also missing pictures for main staff members on the website.

What’s the point of starting a thread to complain about your kid’s high school but refusing to name the school?

Maybe to understand what options they (OP) have to deal with this "disorganized" school ??
-new poster

We can’t give options if we don’t know what school we’re talking about. Anyone who knows anything about MCPS knows that there’s incredible variability from school to school.

I'm not the OP, but have a kid at a "disorganized" middle school that has notably deteriorated following a change in principal. I'd be interested to hear about options too and not sure why they would differ depending on the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any teacher that does not email back in 48 hours you email them again and copy the Principal and the counselor.

No response after another 24 hours you make an appointment will all of them.

advocate for your kid.

You do realize that high school teachers have over 150 students and very little time, right? And we are bombarded with emails all day, yet we are given little time at work to respond to them. I can get 15 in just one class period alone. My first chance to respond is usually in the evening after my own children go to bed. That’s when I open up my laptop and work through the backlog from the day.

You can quickly escalate if you want. That’s your right, of course. But it isn’t going to take away my workload or make it any easier to respond to you.

Your excuses are half the problem.

You have a despicable attitude.

Anonymous wrote:^ also get the PTA on board, and the PTA President has to request a meeting with the Principal and tell him that this is not how things are run. I've known PTA Presidents who could make Principals shake in their boots.

Interesting. My experience has been the opposite unfortunately. I’ve seen far more PTA presidents scared to be direct or confrontational with their principals or MCPS.

^ also get the PTA on board, and the PTA President has to request a meeting with the Principal and tell him that this is not how things are run. I've known PTA Presidents who could make Principals shake in their boots.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here- also there is a staff member listed as the dual enrollment coordinator for the mc program on the school website- but when I ask her questions about it, she says she has no oversight over the program nor does anyone else at the high school- so there is no one on the high school side to answer questions about it.

They are also missing pictures for main staff members on the website.

What’s the point of starting a thread to complain about your kid’s high school but refusing to name the school?

Maybe to understand what options they (OP) have to deal with this "disorganized" school ??
-new poster

But such cumulative disorganization is not normal in MCPS. My kids are 15 and 20, we know so many families who have attended or still attend different MCPS high schools, and no one has had a similar experience. One or two experience out of the many on OP's list, certainly. But all of them at the same time? Never.

Is the Principal new, or very ill? Has there been a lot of staff turnover such that no one knows what to do? Is there one bad actor in the school administration who is threatening or otherwise scaring everyone into incompetence (that happened with Beidleman, the sexual abuser Principal of an MCPS middle school).

There's got to be a reason for all this stuff. You need to alert Central Office, and list all the things that have gone wrong, so they contact the Principal and chew him out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here- also there is a staff member listed as the dual enrollment coordinator for the mc program on the school website- but when I ask her questions about it, she says she has no oversight over the program nor does anyone else at the high school- so there is no one on the high school side to answer questions about it.

They are also missing pictures for main staff members on the website.

What’s the point of starting a thread to complain about your kid’s high school but refusing to name the school?

Maybe to understand what options they (OP) have to deal with this "disorganized" school ??
-new poster

We can’t give options if we don’t know what school we’re talking about. Anyone who knows anything about MCPS knows that there’s incredible variability from school to school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here- also there is a staff member listed as the dual enrollment coordinator for the mc program on the school website- but when I ask her questions about it, she says she has no oversight over the program nor does anyone else at the high school- so there is no one on the high school side to answer questions about it.

They are also missing pictures for main staff members on the website.

What’s the point of starting a thread to complain about your kid’s high school but refusing to name the school?

Maybe to understand what options they (OP) have to deal with this "disorganized" school ??
-new poster