Pretzels with Justin: Interview with Parent Coordinator Sabrina

By Justin McCarthy-Hill

What are the pros and cons of working in the office and the pros and cons of working in the cafeteria?

The pros of working in the office are that you meet the parents, and you get to see how the school works, and you get to see more of Terri, and the different things that she does all day, and you get to interact and figure out problems that come up in the school, and help anybody that needs help. The cons are that you don’t see the kids as much. The pros of being in the lunchroom are that you see the kids. There are really no cons. The lunchroom is fun.

What has been the best part about being the parent coordinator so far?

The best parts about being the parent coordinator are helping the parents through any questions, problems, issues they have. Learning about them and learning more about their children through them, and finding out all the different things in the community that are available to the school that will help our students.

Who do you work closest with out of all the staff members in the main office?

I work closest with Erica because we both do registration and help the parents that walk in. She keeps the main school database and if I need any help with changing or adding stuff, she helps me with that.

What is a typical day for you?

A typical day is that I come in at 7:30, and just start answering emails from parents and any help they might need, and any issues. At about 8, the students start coming in with questions and things they need help with, and then parents start coming in with different administration stuff they need, and then that slows down a bit and then I start returning emails again and working on some of the different job functions that I need to do in the office. At 11:30 I go up and I do lunch and I help the little ones with lunch and then I come back down and answer more emails. That’s it.

Have there ever been arguments over things regarding communication and scheduling that you have had to deal with as our parent coordinator?

We never argue, but I send out information, the class parents send out information, the PTA sends out information, so we have to figure out who sends out what information so it’s not repeated. Information should come from one source, if it comes from too many sources then people stop reading. We have to figure out who is responsible for what sorts of communication. I do school-based, PTA does all the extracurricular stuff, teachers do important things from their class/grade - we worked that out in the beginning of the year.

That’s the end of our interview, you can have some pretzels now.

Thank you. I’m taking three. I’m taking four.