Safety, Health and Wellness Concerns @ school

So I signed up to for a newly forming PTA committee. We are to design a survey identifying the parents' primary concerns with regard to safety, health and wellness. The school is K-5. My main concern is the students having to cross a busy three-lane school driveway and no crossing guard for a four lane street to enter our subdivision. My other concerns school lunches and amount of gym/recess time. Preliminary ideas from the committee chair are: crossing guard at Grindstone, pick-up procedure, vistor/volunteer procedure, building security, desk cleaning schedule. As a public school parent for all of three weeks I'm wondering what your top concerns are. What would like you to see on the survey?

BTW -there's already an email catfight over scheduling/"most talented survey writer" going on and we haven't even had our first meeting yet. Is this normal? Also - dumb rookie question: is it normal to bring the kids to a committee meeting or not? I need to let her know when I'm available, with kids, pretty much anytime, alone is linited to a few afternoons or evenings. This committee has 6-8 members. thoughts?

TIA!

 

PTO committees are all different. As to whether or not to bring a child along, find out where they are wanting to meet. Some of our committees meet in homes (with or w/o alcohol involved). Some of our committees meet in restaurants (with or w/o alcohol). The ones I am on generally get everything done by email or I've had one meeting in 2 years and it was in the teachers lounge at school with smaller kids there. It truly depends on the parents on the committees.

As to the catfight, well, unfortunately I would say that is normal. There are going to be personalities that do not get along. I more sat back and observed and did only a little helping last year (with kids in 1/2 day kinder. that was easy) and did figure out some parents that I'm not sure that I would do as well working with. I tried to stay off their committees this year and did a pretty good job of avoiding them. The more you are up there, the more you'll figure out who you want to work with, and who you don't. The trend I've noticed is that the parents who are front and center and have very prominent positions, tend to be doing it for the praise and attention it gets them. I've seen a few exceptions. I generally noticed the parents willing to take the committees that quietly just do what needs done are usually easier to get along with. This is mostly generalities, and I'm quite confident there are exceptions to the rules.

As for concerns, it depends on what you're school is already doing. The crossing guard sounds like it is greatly needed. Other things like the desk cleaning, I know that our teachers do on a weekly basis and more often as needed. We had something come up with playground safety where a child got badly hurt on the playground. That caused a policy change where the teachers or adults out on playground duty had to have something like a minimum of 10 ft. between them while watching the kids. (Teachers were socializing and a group of boys were using the equipment in a very unsafe manner. No one noticed and one of the boys ended up with his arms pinned behind him and his head hitting the ground resulting in the loss of multiple permanent teeth.)

Our school has a couple of things that I really like. They ask parents to donate clothes that the nurse keeps in her office for accidents, spills, etc. Our PTO also started a grant program where teachers can apply for a grant (up to $500) for something that benefits the class. That's been used for things like toner or a duplicating system where the teachers can make extra copies of the books on tape that they use in class.


Marissa

 

I would say the big issue that I can see at our new school a drop off lane for cars dropping their kids off. So many parents stop the car, get the kids out and walk them up to the school and sit there and chit chat while the line gets backed up and people go around while kids are crossing. There is a parking lot for a reason and if you want to walk your child up, do it that way. Our school actually discourages parents walking their kids up to the doors (whole other can of worms, but they want the kids to become more independent).

Our school actually asks for donations of clothing as well for children that might need it if they get sick or have an accident. It think that's great!

 

My big issue is that we have no bus service - at all. We live more than a mile from the school. It's just too far for them to walk, but driving them seems so wasteful. Also, all the other parents are driving. There should be a bus route for the kids who live the furthest out.

Our have PE everyday, which is great. But they get sunburnt nearly everyday on their faces. I haven't yet figured out how to get sunscreen on them in the morning that lasts until PE at mid-morning.

As for the cat-fighting, it's why I refuse to join PTA. It feels like the movie Heathers or Mean Girls. The mean girls have merely grown older, but they haven't grown up much. I've heard other parents complain that they are excluded from PTA because the meetings are conducted in Spanish. But that's likely a unique problem to where I live.

 

Weekly PE should be daily. The cafeteria menu is filled with processed crap, far too much sugar and salt, and not nearly enough fresh fruit/veggies/whole grains.

The school here does a lot of things right, though. Those of you complaining about pick-up/drop-off should see how they do it here. It's 3 lanes but very controlled. Cars are brought in to fill a space in front of the school, a big sign is held up, and everybody stops for loading/unloading/crossing in that space. Once everyone is clear, the sign goes down and that group of cars exits the parking lot with a traffic cop letting them exit in a group. Repeat. There is a queue of cars two-three cycles deep winding through the parking lot with another sign holder who tells the queue when to go and when to stop. She also helps guide anyone needing to cross through the parking lot on that side of the building. There are several people positioned at doorways and in halls to make sure the kids get help if they need it and to see that no adult enters without a visit to the office first. I don't think they employ extra staff for these jobs, either. They use volunteers and people who have other jobs at the school.

 

We have drop off issues as well, since we lost 7 bus routes to the elementary school due to budget cuts. Parents are actually not allowed to exit their cars during drop off and children MUST exit on the right hand side. One note as to crossing guards, we found out, through the issues this year, that the school has no say in crossing guards, it is a town issue. The town has to provide them. so the school may not have anything to do about that.

 

The fire dept here won't allow vehicles to line up to pick up students. They say it's a fire zone, so no stopping and standing. Sigh.