The New School

I’m going through it with Munch’s new school. I moved at the end of April to the northern part of the County. I drove back and forth to Munch’s old school and kept him in camp and swim lessons on the southern side of the County from April through August. I wanted to keep it consistent for him.

I anticipated this new change as being amazing because it was a Blue Ribbon School a couple of years ago. They know what to do. My son would be fine is what I kept convincing myself. He will go and meet new friends and have wonderful experiences. His teachers will be exceptional and engaging and I will be glad of the choice I made.

But, I’m not so sure now. I shared with you some of my frustrations in my prior post, but I haven’t updated you in a while. The school has a new principal and vice-principal this year. Both seem very nice and I’m sure they are qualified, but I feel like screaming sometimes.

Here’s what happened…I check grades every Monday because the County states that teacher’s have until 11:59 on a Sunday night to enter the grades. It so happened that I didn’t check grades for two weeks in a row. I didn’t check on 9/26 and 10/3. I logged into the on-line portal to review Munch’s grades and found out that no grades had been entered since 9/16.

I had some emails that were outstanding from his teacher that I was getting ready to follow-up on and then noticed that another woman’s name was under his teacher’s name. Now, Munch had mentioned that they had a substitute, but other than that nothing had come home. So, I reached out to the principal and vice principal about the change and received no response.

I sent an email to the parents in Munch’s classroom to ask them did something come home about the new teacher and they all said no. Later that afternoon some parents started to respond that they had heard rumors that he was on administrative leave along with three out of the four first grade teachers. What?

So, I sent an email to the woman whose name was listed in the portal regarding his grades and awaited a response. I was going to be volunteering at the school on Friday of the same week and I wanted to meet with her. That evening the County had a meeting at our school about the process they take when teachers are placed on Administrative Leave.

I was unable to attend the meeting and was told by the PTSA president that they would send out notes. I waited patiently and nothing came home. Three days later I sent the principal and vice principal another note saying that I had requested a meeting with two teachers and never heard back. I forwarded the emails and asked what is the expectation that I should get a response? The teachers responded within 10 minutes.

Now, let me back up and let you know that the school had announced last month at Back to School Night that it would no longer allow parents to just drop by and observe their child’s class or have lunch with their child. Parents were livid. I didn’t say anything because I tend to plan everything and unscheduled drop-ins aren’t my thing, but I felt the outrage. That being said I didn’t like the fact that you have that rule and teachers are allowed more than 2 business days to respond to a request for a meeting.