Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is my #1 hesitation about MCPS — the unsafely low teacher to student ratio at lunch and especially during recess — and is the reason we are applying for a rising K student.

It’s such a shame MCPS will not allow us to fundraise for more staff the way DCPS does. The equity concern seems unfounded; parents who can afford it would foot the bill, and all children would benefit from the safer environment!

Sigh…

The equity concern is across schools. If W feeders just pay for paras from parent donations, those parents won’t convince MCPS to properly staff all schools.

Yes recess is chaotic. But it’s good for kids. Unsupervised play time raises test scores and lowers anxiety among kids. Significant problems are rare.

So if everybody doesn't get what they need nobody can have it? The foundations are already disproportionate and surge resources, I believe the Whitman Music program raised 25k from parents this year to support various efforts in the cluster, I doubt that most HS do that for their feeders. Outlawing washing because of the presence of unwashed doesn't fix the stink

Most other HS don’t do it for their feeders because they can’t. They are doing everything they can just to supply for the HS program. Do you know how much the HS band programs cost vs the amount they get from MCPS?

Recess is fine. It’s the time to be loud and wild.

Lunch really bothers me. It’s insanely overstimulating and many kids don’t do well in that environment. Half the noise is from the teachers/paras/admin trying to get the kids to be quiet. My kids say they can’t talk to their friends unless they are right next to them. Add in the days lunch is something popular and they kids spend more than half the time in line and some kids barely end up eating.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is my #1 hesitation about MCPS — the unsafely low teacher to student ratio at lunch and especially during recess — and is the reason we are applying for a rising K student.

It’s such a shame MCPS will not allow us to fundraise for more staff the way DCPS does. The equity concern seems unfounded; parents who can afford it would foot the bill, and all children would benefit from the safer environment!

Sigh…

The equity concern is across schools. If W feeders just pay for paras from parent donations, those parents won’t convince MCPS to properly staff all schools.

Yes recess is chaotic. But it’s good for kids. Unsupervised play time raises test scores and lowers anxiety among kids. Significant problems are rare.

So if everybody doesn't get what they need nobody can have it? The foundations are already disproportionate and surge resources, I believe the Whitman Music program raised 25k from parents this year to support various efforts in the cluster, I doubt that most HS do that for their feeders. Outlawing washing because of the presence of unwashed doesn't fix the stink

Are there any order elem schools that don't allow parent volunteers at recess or just ours in Potomac?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is my #1 hesitation about MCPS — the unsafely low teacher to student ratio at lunch and especially during recess — and is the reason we are applying for a rising K student.

It’s such a shame MCPS will not allow us to fundraise for more staff the way DCPS does. The equity concern seems unfounded; parents who can afford it would foot the bill, and all children would benefit from the safer environment!

Sigh…

The equity concern is because you are essentially creating privately funded schools in a public school system. Then the rich schools sit pretty and nobody wants to fund more staffing for the low income schools. "My school is great so why do you need to raise my taxes?"

MCPS should not be trying to become more like DCPS.

Agreed. Understaffed recess doesn’t bother me. Unstructured playtime is a good thing. I’ve never heard of a major injury having had two kids go through ES.

I do wish my kid’s ES teacher who has 32 kids in their class had a para to help her so my kid could get more attention/feedback in the classroom.

This is about what I remember from my *own* 4th grade recess almost 50 years ago!

Anonymous wrote:This is my #1 hesitation about MCPS — the unsafely low teacher to student ratio at lunch and especially during recess — and is the reason we are applying for a rising K student.

It’s such a shame MCPS will not allow us to fundraise for more staff the way DCPS does. The equity concern seems unfounded; parents who can afford it would foot the bill, and all children would benefit from the safer environment!

Sigh…

The equity concern is across schools. If W feeders just pay for paras from parent donations, those parents won’t convince MCPS to properly staff all schools.

Yes recess is chaotic. But it’s good for kids. Unsupervised play time raises test scores and lowers anxiety among kids. Significant problems are rare.

Anonymous wrote:This is my #1 hesitation about MCPS — the unsafely low teacher to student ratio at lunch and especially during recess — and is the reason we are applying for a rising K student.

It’s such a shame MCPS will not allow us to fundraise for more staff the way DCPS does. The equity concern seems unfounded; parents who can afford it would foot the bill, and all children would benefit from the safer environment!

Sigh…

The equity concern is because you are essentially creating privately funded schools in a public school system. Then the rich schools sit pretty and nobody wants to fund more staffing for the low income schools. "My school is great so why do you need to raise my taxes?"

MCPS should not be trying to become more like DCPS.

This is my #1 hesitation about MCPS — the unsafely low teacher to student ratio at lunch and especially during recess — and is the reason we are applying for a rising K student.

It’s such a shame MCPS will not allow us to fundraise for more staff the way DCPS does. The equity concern seems unfounded; parents who can afford it would foot the bill, and all children would benefit from the safer environment!

Sigh…

It's so depressing to me that there are parents who would freak out about kids running and being loud during recess. Do you have kids or robots? The school day is long and regimented especially in public schools; a little running and chaos is exactly what most young kids need.

As for supervision, I volunteered for lunch/recess duty when my kids were in an MCPS ES and it was a great way to get a sense of how my kids were doing and see the school environment up close. I work FT so I only did it sporadically but if your school permits it, it's really worthwhile.