McLean Mama is back from vacation but as we all know moms never truly get a real vacation. It is what we sign up for when we choose to bring our little babes into the world!
Yesterday was the first open house at Kent Gardens Elementary School in over thirty years without the recently (and abruptly) retired Principal Dr. Hooker. Despite a few glitches with the posting of classroom lists and last minute changes it went rather smoothly. Children were happy, teachers ready to teach and parents reminded themselves again why they paid way too much for their mid-century Cape Cod – we really have terrific schools in McLean!
The best new change – instead of rushing to the front of the school like salmon up a stream on the last Friday before the Labor Day Weekend to read the classroom lists the new administration tastefully posted them online on Thursday night so moms like me could gracefully sip a nice Pinot Grigio and see where our little geniuses were placed for the year.
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Of course, because I’m “that mom” I reminded my children that being a student was their full-time job and there would be no whining about school work, keeping their desks tidy, going to bed on time, getting up on time and getting out the door in the morning. (I know! Perhaps I was a little tipsy! Who am I kidding? But, I gave it the old college try!)
The one fumble made by the school is the keeping of the wait list for the French Immersion program. Second grade is the last year students have a “shot” at getting into the program and – alas – there were many unhappy families.
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Part of the challenge is the 60/40 split. Sixty percent of the pupils in the French Immersion program are from within the Kent Gardens Elementary School “lines” and 40 percent are from anywhere in Fairfax County. Parents were asking themselves – “Why the hell did I pay way too much for this little Cracker Jack Box house within the Kent Gardens' district lines and I can’t even get my little Monet into the damn French program?” Quelle dommage….
Rumor has it the French Immersion wait list was as accurate as the voter lists in Chicago, not accurately kept up-to-date and in some instances the previous administration may have provided favors and moved kids up and down the list on a whim.
McLean Mama does not know the truth here but she does know there needs to be a bit more transparency on how this list is kept and monitored in the future for the sake of fairness. (Yes, yes, yes, I know “fair” is a weather term but it is very important that Kent Gardens gets its act together here because all those Napoleons and Josephines need to believe their children are getting a fair shake at learning French so they can go to garden hotspots in the future like Haiti, Lebanon, and Ivory Coast and use their French skills to get a bottle of wine, cheese and baguette.)
Okay – so now that I’ve complained I wanted to offer a solution – I believe the new Principal should call together a committee comprised of the Principal, the head French Immersion teacher, and a parent without a child involved with the French Immersion program to offer transparency. Instead of a messy folder with scribble marks left in the margins the list should be posted to the Blackboard (internal website) where parents can access the list at any time and see where their child stands via their student identification number. When a spot opens the committee would jointly make the offer to the wait-listed student and then bump everyone up on the list as needed. If you refuse the open spot for your child – you are off the list and end of story.
Moreover, the split between the two wait lists really should be 70/30 – with those of us in the Kent Gardens' district getting a bigger shot at success because we live here and are paying a higher amount of the tax burden because of housing prices.
What do you think about this solution?
