I have written that I am involved with AGATE and via this conference, connecting with school administrators.

DH has started going to the District Community Education Council meetings (they were a subset of the school board a few years ago but now are just PTA type of things for the district as the mayor got rid of the school board in NYC). But the plan is for him to get to know people, schmooze and have someone to call if need be.

Ren

Excellent thought...we did just that fairly recently! It was a pain, but we do now have "more room".

We certainly can add-on but, being a small horse farm, we have acres of grass to maintain and a 600' driveway that'd we'd just rather not have to care for anymore.

We are very hard working for the District. I've seen how we are treated compared to other parents who just complain, moan and threaten and never roll up their sleeves to run a program. HUGE difference. We also tend to advocate for things that all TaG kids can benefit from. We're not at their door harping only about our kid. DS10 is an only child so we're very big on gathering together like minded peers for clubs, groups and activities.

The mayor got rid of the BOE? Is that legal? I guess it is. Sheesh. I wouldn't feel comfortable with that.

PTA and PTO groups are necessary, I suppose. I force myself to go to the meetings. We suffer through the "...is the school color royal blue or more of a navy blue" 30 minute discussions or they prattle on about which fund raiser candles smell best... I sit and bide my time wishing they'd discuss something, oh, I don't know, EDUCATIONAL! But they fund my programs and I'm very happy for that.

Do they have TaG or similar meetings in NYC? Those meetings are THE BEST! I love them. All District Admin is there as well as many of the BOE.

Do you have Charter Schools near you?

DS10 was nominated and accepted to go to the summer program at Claremont Prep School in NYC this year. Money is tight, not to mention the transportation logistics, so we had to pass on it.

I don't know what happened to my post, but I did respond.

Yes, the Bloomberg got rid of the BOE. Yes, there are Charter schools around, but they do not necessarily cater to the gifted. Sometimes, they cater to disabilties as there is more money there. In fact, some of the regular schools are creating CIT classes -- money for an extra teacher, but the emphasis is keeping the kids the same. If someone comes in reading chapter books, but by grade one, they will be in the same place. That was their answer, three times. I only asked twice, two different teachers. Another parent asked the principal since it seemed strange as this was the most popular schoo on the westside.

Ren

RPM9 - It's wonderful you have such an open and inviting school!!! YEAH!!! I know a someone whom it took 3yrs to get into the school to run an engineering course. Even after all his positive volunteering, the school sees him as an exception and still keeps parents out of the school. Programs can only be run by teachers who must be paid extra salary to do so which costs money compared to parent volunteers.

At my son's K-1 school, parents are not allowed on campus until after November. The last year my son was there, the Principal issued a mandate that siblings are not allowed in school for any reason. Her reason was that it spoils the lure of school for the siblings having become familiar with it already. The PTA had to ask to make the meetings an exception b/c if everyone had to get sitters to go to the PTA meetings, not many would show up. Not being able to bring a sibling keeps many parents out. I was nearly accosted by a teacher once b/c I was there for Parent PE day which is held in the gym and you enter the rear of the school so you don't walk down the halls. Well, DS's teacher asked me to take something to his classroom which is on the 1st floor, literally up the stairwell from the gym, and a teacher cornered me. I had to go flag down the teacher to say it was OK for me to be there. Now this is a well to do district - violence is NOT an issue - safety is not an issue - it's just one more way to make parents feel unwelcomed in the school. I mentioned running some science classes for the kids to the Principal and she rolled her eyes at me on the part about it being run by parents. GASP! OH NO not the parents!

I haven't read the other responses, but we get NOTHING like that and 40-50% of the kids at our school are tagged GT. I think because of this, they think all GT kids are the same and they don't need any special attention. I do agree, many MG kids do very well at our school. But more HG+ kids languish. My son hit the ceiling on their screener, but I've gotten nothing but acknowledgment of a poor fit from our teacher this year. I've actually seen teachers roll their eyes at the GT designation at school board meetings.

I personally think that kind of attention and acknowledgement is amazing! Enjoy!

Our district is pretty hostile to GT parents. They have information meetings where they explain the programs in rosy terms such as enrichment, curriculum extension, and programs begin in K. Then the parents gripe and you hear the real problems- no acceleration, GT teachers are too busy doing the older grades to do anything below 3rd, etc. Then the administrators explain the rules of funding (the principal chooses where to put the GT resources, don't blame the district, and all children need to do the curriculum because extension and enrichment are based on the curriculum. That happens once a year. I enjoy hearing the edu-speak terms in response to the parents concerns. But I don't feel like it's empowering to anybody. And I still don't understand how if 40% of the kids qualify for GT, it can really be GT, and how they can justify assigning only 1 GT teacher per school of 600 elem kids. What GT teacher can handle 240 kids?
Fortunately, our school principal has been wonderful. Parents are encouraged to volunteer at the school. In fact, our local private school that we expected to attend does not allow parents in except to help with lunch. They said it is the law that only certified teachers could do anything that's educational. Yet, the public school has parents doing drills, tutoring, handwriting, reading, chores, whatever the teachers and kids need, and to my knowledge, there have been no arrests. To me, having an open school where the administrators are not afraid of the parents is key. If the school can't trust me, I won't trust the school with my children.

We were told that the statistical average for children requiring an SLP [Student Learning Plan] was 1-2% and our District is right in that range, give or take.

[quote=master of none]Our district is pretty hostile to GT parents.

That statement just made me really sad. My gosh, our TaG kids are giving =gifts= to the schools with perfect ELA, Math... scores. Our kids are collectively propping up our districts!

I couldn't imagine being treated so poorly for just wanting to help! I hope things get better for you.

After reading here I realize that I really have no right to complain about our District.