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This is in response to the smart alex that wanted to know what it mattered. As a parent, the school culture matters. I'm not sure why that is funny or comment worthy. That's the entire reason we have such growth in the school choice/charter movement. Why would someone think parents making the choice to send their kids to public school care any less about the "culture" of the school they send their children to.
Baybrook, let's take it in the context it was stated....Weddington has scores of 9/10 across the board....I am very curious what you encompass into "Culture"....there are many reasons a person would send their child to a private school. Some are very specific: ie: curriculum, academic performance, athletics....none of which can be honestly gauged by a 30 min walk around the halls. I more more curious as to what the OP was trying to gauge by a tour. You know what you are getting with Weddington without setting foot on the campus. Now if you said you were worried about mold on the walls or even trailers, I get that. You were the one who said "culture". Care to expand on what you were referencing?
In a top rated school what does a parent expect to really see in a couple of minutes tour???
Not to mention that I don't want an ongoing tour service of adults in my kids school...not safe and distracting plus time consuming with no benefit to anybody.
Good public schools don't need to sell themselves to wondering parents, private schools do.
As my wife and I will be visiting the area next week and have elementary school age children I had requested a tour and got the following reply,
"Good afternoon Mr. and Mrs. xxxxx,
Thank you for the email and your interest in Weddington Elementary. Due to the considerable amount of requests for a tour of the school, we reserve all tours for families who have secured a housing purchase agreement or the children are currently enrolled. If you would like to review our school data, I encourage you to search the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and click on N.C. School Report Cards.
Also, we are currently planning one afternoon a month to provide a tour to any family interested in our school. You will not need a purchase agreement or enroll your children to participate. The first tour will be in March. The dates will be forthcoming and posted on our school website.
I hope this is helpful. Have a nice evening.
Sincerely,
Kristen Zappa Sebek
Principal
Weddington Elementary School"
My reply was as follows as we are both pretty surprised to say the least at our request being denied;
Kristen, thank you for the prompt reply and I realize that you must entertain a lot of these requests, however, we are disappointed to say the least regarding your seemingly new policy to not do these tours upon request without having a home purchase agreement in place?! That seems like putting the cart before the horse don't you agree? How could someone make an informed decision regarding a home purchase before seeing the schools? In my opinion it defies logic and common sense. I can appreciate you moving to a "monthly" tour schedule, however, this doesn't help anyone who would be coming from out-of-state, we are personally driving over 13 hours one-way for this trip. As I understand, you are an employee of a publicly funded school and I would think that a providing a tour upon request would be something that could be routinely accommodated for prospective home buyers. It is our sincere hope that you pass along our feedback and consider revisiting/revising your new policies relating to touring the school.
Is moving to the area now considered so great that public employees don't even attempt to make an effort to attract potential newcomers????????????
- Frustrated
Sounds reasonable to me. They provide times when all are welcome to come tour. They are there to run a school not be tour guides. Their job is to educate kids, not hold parents hands at the drop of the hat. From your response I was surprised the phrase "because i pay your salary," was not used. Sounds like a good principal who has her priorities straight and doesn't feel the need to bow to parents.
P.S. : I find it funny you post her full name then "x" out yours.
Sounds reasonable to me. They provide times when all are welcome to come tour. They are there to run a school not be tour guides. Their job is to educate kids, not hold parents hands at the drop of the hat. From your response I was surprised the phrase "because i pay your salary," was not used. Sounds like a good principal who has her priorities straight and doesn't feel the need to bow to parents.
P.S. : I find it funny you post her full name then "x" out yours.
The way our school system is now, no principal is going to entertain a tour for someone who is looking at houses. Our BOE made it clear that no house is guaranteed to attend any school and all our schools are equal. By allowing you to tour schools and then choose a house based on that school goes against what is touted as a "county wide school system". You may like the school but by the time you close on your house, your kids may no longer be slated to attend that school.
I can kind of understand folks wanting tours, but school staffs are limited in size and most are pretty busy.
If they are providing tours, there is something they are not doing. Educating comes to mind. What would the OP have the administrators not do so as to free up time for tours? Or is the answer, work later in the day?
I find it REALLY disruptive and annoying when our guidance counselor brings people by my door to show them what I am doing. My job is to teach children, not perform for home buyers!
I more more curious as to what the OP was trying to gauge by a tour.
Okay, I can clarify a bit...and I don't know what the right answer is to the issue regarding touring schools. if budget allowed I imagine this could become a full time position for an admin type person and potentially disruptive to the students/faculty...I had heard that in the past some parents of current students were offering to do tours...not sure if this still occurs. Being that most schools in Union County are over capacity I would indeed use the tour to judge classroom size...whether or not kids are being stuffed into temporary trailers, etc. The high school rating is comforting but often does not tell the entire story.
As to why I included the Principals name and censored my own, well that's an easy one - she is a public school employee, with her name and picture on the school website, I am a private citizen, afforded a higher level of privacy...
You can learn a lot from a tour that you cannot get by just looking at statistics. From the facilities themselves, to maintenance, to how staff and students interact, etc. what is displayed in public areas - be it artwork, awards, posters or whatever can be indicative of what a school values.
At the same time, I agree that it's not the staffs responsibility to conduct tours on demand, especially at a public school. In some schools, the PTA picks up duties like these.
We found tours - both group and individual - to be extremely helpful in making our choice for schools. There are very distinct "feels" or "cultures" or whatever you want to call it that you can begin to get a sense of on a tour...but you never really know until your kids are there every day.
Okay, I can clarify a bit...and I don't know what the right answer is to the issue regarding touring schools. if budget allowed I imagine this could become a full time position for an admin type person and potentially disruptive to the students/faculty...I had heard that in the past some parents of current students were offering to do tours...not sure if this still occurs. Being that most schools in Union County are over capacity I would indeed use the tour to judge classroom size...whether or not kids are being stuffed into temporary trailers, etc. The high school rating is comforting but often does not tell the entire story.
jd
It occurred to me that you may not know whats going on with public schools in NC these days. Our state legislators have basically declared war on our own school system, and its not pretty. I would imagine that every school principal in NC has way more than they can handle right now just trying to run their school in the face of less funding, abysmal teacher morale, high teacher turnover, increased enrollments, etc., etc.
You might want to consider a move to a more education friendly state, or budget for private schools if at all possible.
Last edited by carolinadawg2; 02-20-2015 at 06:18 PM..
You can learn a lot from a tour that you cannot get by just looking at statistics. From the facilities themselves, to maintenance, to how staff and students interact, etc. what is displayed in public areas - be it artwork, awards, posters or whatever can be indicative of what a school values.
At the same time, I agree that it's not the staffs responsibility to conduct tours on demand, especially at a public school. In some schools, the PTA picks up duties like these.
We found tours - both group and individual - to be extremely helpful in making our choice for schools. There are very distinct "feels" or "cultures" or whatever you want to call it that you can begin to get a sense of on a tour...but you never really know until your kids are there every day.
I ask this in all seriousness, what "feel" are u getting from a 15 min tour? All schools have the artwork posted and the conference championship banners in the gym. All schools essentially value the same thing, do your best, strive for excellence, etc. again, my opinion only, do I think a tour of the school is a good idea, sure, after you close on the house to get the kids accustomed to where their classes are going to be. When researching where to buy, I would think school performance, class size, crime stats can be easily researched with all the online resources that are available. Unless "culture" is code word for something else
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