I agree, that's not a pto issue. I would also recommend, if you could, helping out during lunch. One person is solely responsible for monitoring all 350 of our students who come in for lunch. And there are days when the kids take full advantage. I'm sure the monitor would greatly appreciate any extra volunteers who would come in and relieve her of some of the load. [img]smile.gif[/img] It may be that she is just totally stressed out. Can you imagine tending to that many kids? Wow, I have hard time with 2 at the supper table. I would definitely follow up with the principal as well if you are truly concerned about her behavior before going any further.
While I think the principal could have handled it more tactfully ... I also agree that the PTO meeting was not the forum for this discussion. He could have nicely said to you "This is not the place to discusss this and see me after the meeting".
What you should do is get some of the other concerned parents together and go have a meeting in the office with the principal to discuss the matter.
I have to agree that the PTO meeting was not the place to address the issue. But you should definitely follow-up by meeting with him separately about it.
Any time you feel like your children are being mistreated (and if they can't relax and chat at lunch, when can they??!!) you might need to go over the Principal's head. Talk to your area superintendent or whoever it is that your Principal answers to. Or make an anonymous complaint to the district offices. Chances are, there are just as many people who feel the same way you do, but are afraid of standing up for themselves. Good luck!
I would not leave it alone. With the other Parents, I would go to the school and have a meeting with the Principal. He didn't want to discuss it at the Parents' meeting, but he didn't say He won't discuss it at all. I would wait and see what he says at that meeting. Then dicide what to do next.
We are having problems during lunch with the secretary who 'watches' the kids. She is extremely rude and disrespectful to them. They can not talk except for the last 10 minutes and then they have to whisper. I completely understand this to a point that it has to remain quiet for obvious reasons but it is way too intense to the point parents and children are complaining. I brought this up at a PTO meeting and did not name names, offered positive suggestions - perhaps a story could be read while kids are sitting down to lunch - and maybe it won't be so intense. I said that parents are complaining and that the kids need to be treated with more respect instead of being yelled at. The moms in the room were all shaking their heads in agreement. (It was a very small group) Our principal looked at me and said angrily "I will not address that in this forum, this is not the place to address this". I said, "this is the Parent Teacher Organization and I believed it was the place to address this". He said "No I won't discuss this". The meeting continued and that point I got up and walked out. After the meeting several parents met and discussed having a meeting about the way the kids are being treated in the lunchroom were in agreement with me. What should I do now? I'm choosing to leave it alone because I am so mad at how I was treated by our principal. I have given seven years of a lot of volunteering to that school.
