| Author |
Message |
    
CageyD
Citizen
Username: Cageyd
Post Number: 1
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 1, 2003 - 12:03 am: | 
|
The Baird Center offers some great programs but why is it so poorly organized? Once again this year the forms for the summer camp weren't ready until the Thursday/Friday before camp started?!! WHY? This is not rocket science - getting a form printed and information compiled regarding what the program will offer, counselor to student ratio, etc. Today I dropped my child off at the Duck Pond and the counselors admitted they had no idea how many children would be attending (how could they the Baird Center did get the forms out until Thursday afternoon) or what they would be doing with the kids. How can this be safe???? How can this be a well run program when no one knows how many children will be attending!! There is no excuse for this! The summer camp is an established thing is South Orange yet every year it is so poorly organized that parents have no idea how it will be handled. Who oversees the Baird - and I don't mean the man (Andy?) who runs it. Who is his boss and can he/she honestly tell me they are satisfied with how well the Baird is run? (I found similar poor organization with the Cal Ripkin baseball enrollment too but the main point is the summer program.) Why can't they get themselves organized better - there is no excuse. Again, this is an issue concerning the safe tending of our children!! I think there should be accountability for the running of the Baird Center. Any insights? |
Southorangemom
Citizen
Username: Southorangemom
Post Number: 16
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 1, 2003 - 8:26 am: |
|
No insights here, just nodding my head in agreement.
This has been going on for so long in South Orange that it has come to be accepted as the norm, sorry to say.
Same deal with the pool badges. The folks behind the counter hold on to their power to intimidate and bully those who are waiting for a badge. A clear case of petty bureaucrats. |
Lizziecat
Citizen
Username: Lizziecat
Post Number: 3
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 1, 2003 - 6:14 pm: |
|
If I were the parent of a young child I would think twice before entrusting my child to the Baird center. The reason I say this is: Last summer I was sitting in the hallway waiting for the incompetents at Baird to process my husband's and my pool badges. A young woman rushed out of another part of the building, dragging a small boy--maybe 6 or 7 years old--by the hand. She opened the door of the men's room and ushered the child in, and then turned to me and asked me to "watch" him. Remember, she had never seen me before, didn't know who I was. I could have been an ax murderer instead of the kindly grandmotherly soul that I am. Because I didn't know her or the child, I refused. She then asked the clerks behind the counter to "watch" the boy. Since they were having enough trouble working the stapling machine, they also refused. The young woman then raced back to whereever she had come from--presumably where there were other children for whom she was responsible--leaving the little boy alone in the men's room, where he was possibly vulnerable to anyone who came in from the outside.
Either the Baird programs were seriously understaffed and there weren't enough staff members to supervise the children, or the staff was totally inept. I suspect a combination of both. In any case, it is totally out of order to ask a total stranger to look after a child who has been entrusted to one's care. It is also out of order to leave a group of children alone in order to take one of them to the bathroom. There should have been someone else there. I don't know if the situation at Baird is the same this year, but it really gave me a chill when it happened. I think that any parent considering Baird for his or her children should investigate it thoroughly.
|
|
Closed: New threads not accepted on this page