Are You Missing Great Schools That Fly Under The Radar?

The Q at Parkside‘s Tim gives us more to think about this week with his review of PS 249. As you may remember, Tim has been on a mission to find the perfect school for his daughter, and was blown away by his experience at the (admittedly-elusive) Caton School. Tim says:

… you just won’t find this school talked about in the Montessori-Maple-Street-Progressive-Nursery-School-Circuit… for whatever reasons or non-reasons it’s administration doesn’t consider it a priority to “reach out” to new families in the neighborhood… More than one parent I know have been so put off when trying to arrange a conversation with a principal or find out about a tour or open house at non-reaching-out local schools, that they ENTIRELY WRITE OFF A SCHOOL BEFORE THEY EVEN VISIT IT (or in one case a mom wrote off public school all together) because they’re not getting the kind of customer service they’d expect from a school that will be serving their kid and family.

Finally, after several attempts to contact the school and being told his daughter must be accepted before scheduling a tour, Tim finds himself pleasantly surprised:

Interestingly, on our eventual school tour, Mrs. Q and I did have an awesome encounter with an enthusiastic first year science teacher at The Caton, whom I’ll bet the kids adore, named Mr. Gonazales, who said the following: “the kids take the test at the end of the third grade year and it’s awesome. All year long we’re learning stuff that they’re going to be tested on, but they don’t need to know that. That’s MY job. The common core is AWESOME. I wish I had it when I was coming through.” Refreshing, given all the negativity about testing you hear. One man’s opinion of course, but refreshing nonetheless.

So, would you trudge through a slew of phone calls and an inconvenient scheduling process for the hope of an exceptional teacher at the end of the tunnel? Or do you think an administration that doesn’t reach out reflects poorly on everyone involved?