Woops, actually since I said 1st AND K, that would be like 140 parents roaming the halls. Yikes!

You know, this week has taken some getting used to for me coming from our last few years at an extremely open daycare, but I totally understand why they would prefer parents to drop the kids off outside and leave.

There are five kindergarten classes (plus I presume as many classes in the 1-5th grades) at our ES. Each class has 25-29 kids. Even if only the K and 1st grade parents walked their kids in and even if only half of the parents did this, that would by like 70 parents roaming the halls in the morning. Maybe 15 parents standing in the classroom with kids clinging to them wanting to just ask the teacher one really quick question. Not to mention that any random adult could just be wandering around.

That number of kids is extremely different from a smaller town where everyone in the town sends their kids to the same ES where each class has like 20 kids. MOCO is huge and their schools have a huge number of people. They are going to have to have rules like this in order to have the control they need to do their jobs successfully.

This is only our first week, but already they are begging us to come volunteer, so I don't think our school will be like a prison.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ridiculous, you pay taxes to fund the school , you should be able to drop by to verify faculty and staff are doing their jobs.

Really dumb comment. Your taxes fund the fire department. Should you be allowed to ride on a fire engine to the next three alarm fire?

My kindergarden child is not being taught by the fire department and spending hours away from home at their firehouse. Besides, he is too young to communicate back how things are going.

He's too young to communicate in K? He's not communicating because your child is a boy, not because he's too young. Send an email to the teacher and ask how he's doing. When my son was in K all I got was "school was awesome, someone got on yellow, played with so and so at recess".

Now that my daughter is in K, I get EVERYTHING - what the teacher is wearing, where my daughter is sitting, the songs they learned, who has allergies and what kind, what she drew in art class ...and the list goes on and on.

Anonymous wrote:We switched from private to MCPS and the parents never being allowed in the school and being excluded did feel very strange. At our private school there were never parents wandering the halls or hanging out in the building after drop off.

It was perfectly fine to walk your child into class if they were bringing in a lot of heavy things. If they forgot something it was fine (as long as the school and front desk was open) for them to run back and get it. MCPS has a policy that if a child leaves something behind they can not go back to get it even if they remember in the hallway.

There were opportunities for parents to sign up to read a story, tell about their career, or help out with a class party or activity. At MCPS there is a lottery to be a room parent and be allowed in for the Halloween party. At private school, everyone could sign up if they wanted to help out.

Its all very rude and sends a message that your child is in an institution not a school. I'm thankful that we have really great teachers and the PTA holds a good number of events that build community since the principal and administrators are hostile to inclusion.

What you are describing is not an MCPS issue, it is specific to your school. At our school, parents (all parents) are welcome to volunteer in the classroom and for parties. And kids can go grab stuff in the hall. Our school is nothing like you describe. Parents must be buzzed in and sign in for security reasons, so strangers aren't roaming the halls. But we aren't banned from the building.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just moved here from another state - what is up with not being able to walk dc into classroom, let alone into the building? We have to drop off outside the doors. Thoughts? Very disturbing for us, coming from a co-operative school with parents welcome inside classrooms and building. Is this countywide?

You also cannot land your helicopter on the roof.

Not quite true at our MCPS - they land helicopters on the football field. Although I think it is meant for medical emergencies rather than parenting emergencies.

We switched from private to MCPS and the parents never being allowed in the school and being excluded did feel very strange. At our private school there were never parents wandering the halls or hanging out in the building after drop off.

It was perfectly fine to walk your child into class if they were bringing in a lot of heavy things. If they forgot something it was fine (as long as the school and front desk was open) for them to run back and get it. MCPS has a policy that if a child leaves something behind they can not go back to get it even if they remember in the hallway.

There were opportunities for parents to sign up to read a story, tell about their career, or help out with a class party or activity. At MCPS there is a lottery to be a room parent and be allowed in for the Halloween party. At private school, everyone could sign up if they wanted to help out.

Its all very rude and sends a message that your child is in an institution not a school. I'm thankful that we have really great teachers and the PTA holds a good number of events that build community since the principal and administrators are hostile to inclusion.

Anonymous wrote:Just moved here from another state - what is up with not being able to walk dc into classroom, let alone into the building? We have to drop off outside the doors. Thoughts? Very disturbing for us, coming from a co-operative school with parents welcome inside classrooms and building. Is this countywide?

You also cannot land your helicopter on the roof.

This is one those "wow" threads. I have had 2 kids come through MCPS and I would be beyond pissed if schools allowed adults to come and go willy nilly.

Is that what some of you want? To have adults wandering around your kids' school and hanging out in the classroom?

It is understandable to want to know waht is happening in school, but some of y'all need to cut the cord.

This is the norm for many schools. All of the schools my kids have attended (public & private) in three different states have had the same "locked doors"/buzzed in policy.

Anonymous wrote:

I heard that in MOCO it was a sweat heart deal by the Teacher unions to shape parent's view points early on to avoid accountability.

I think there is validity to this. There currently is no accountability to parents in MCPS. The only accountability is test scores. It honestly doesn't matter if a teacher isn't good as long as the majority of students in her class will test well.

OK, you don't like the testing -- and neither do the teachers. What do you suggest?

Anonymous wrote:

I heard that in MOCO it was a sweat heart deal by the Teacher unions to shape parent's view points early on to avoid accountability.

I think there is validity to this. There currently is no accountability to parents in MCPS. The only accountability is test scores. It honestly doesn't matter if a teacher isn't good as long as the majority of students in her class will test well.

Paranoid much? Ask to volunteer in the classroom, bet you will not have a problem getting in.

I heard that in MOCO it was a sweat heart deal by the Teacher unions to shape parent's view points early on to avoid accountability.

I think there is validity to this. There currently is no accountability to parents in MCPS. The only accountability is test scores. It honestly doesn't matter if a teacher isn't good as long as the majority of students in her class will test well.

Anonymous wrote:Ridiculous, you pay taxes to fund the school , you should be able to drop by to verify faculty and staff are doing their jobs.

By that logic, every single federal agency should have a completely open door policy for you, the taxpayer, to just waltz on in and sit in on their meetings, asking questions, and generally preventing them from doing their jobs.

I weep for your child's teacher.

I heard that in MOCO it was a sweat heart deal by the Teacher unions to shape parent's view points early on to avoid accountability.

They don't want you in the classrooms during class time because it is a major disruption and your kid won't pay attention to the teacher at all