Yes, you should have received a response.

You have been more than patient. Time to enlist the Superintendent and or a school board member or two.

You are not being unreasonable. I would stop by the office, speak to his assistant, and make an appointment to see him.

The only leeway I would give is that December is a busy time and the principal might have wanted more time in approving your request. Maybe other matters were more pressing?

I'd call. I'm not sure email is the best way to communicate over such an issue.

I have been on both sides of the desk in matters as you describe. I understand your frustration and confusion about seeming to be ignored. Depending on the issue, the principal may have had to go up the chain of command, and the matter is stalled, and he has nothing to tell you yet. I am not sure what the response would cover if you and your son already met with the principal to discuss the matter. I do not think it is reasonable for you to expect a blow by blow of the action he took in response to your concern. The admin and the teacher have a right to privacy. On the other hand, if you requested a specific action like changing your son's schedule not to be in the teacher's class which is under his authority, then it is reasonable that he inform you of the feasibility in a more timely manner. However, your request may need the approval of a higher up. Be that as it may, a month is a long time without a response to your request and recent communications. On the forum, you have demonstrated yourself to be a helpful, interesting person. You mentioned that you have had no problems in the past 10 years. I advise you to continue to be patient and reasonable in all your interactions with the school, but rather than email, I suggest that you phone the office to speak with principal or set up another meeting. Contacting the school board or superintendent is a very last resort in my opinion, especially if you have younger children. It is better to have a good rapport with the local school. I advise that you also avoid any discussion of the matter with outside parties now and post resolution. I hope the problem is resolved by the beginning of the new semester.

At the very least he should have responded that he received your email(s) and that he was looking into the the matter. Call.

In our business, DH and I regularly receive emails from our clients asking for an update on the work we're doing for them. Our rule is to respond the same day or the next.

If there's no progress because of certain circumstances or third parties dragging their feet, we just say that in our reply email. If we hadn't heard from other parties involved for awhile, we typically call them for an update before we reply to the client. That includes calls to government offices like IRS or such.

If we get no prompt response from the third party, we say something like that: "After receiving your email, we called/emailed such and such for an update yesterday. No response came so far. We'll call/email them again tomorrow."

Also, our experience is that talking to the other party directly often helps push the matter along. Sometimes that involves going over there in person.

My DS is in high school. The teachers and other school staff always reply to our emails the same day or the next at the latest. The principal seems to have a firm policy of maintaining a good and prompt communication between the staff and parents. If she doesn't have anything to report right away, she replies with an email confirming that she has received our request and will get back to us within X days/weeks.

Thank you all. I am somewhat reluctant to simply call as email provides me with documentation that I have continually raised the issue and shows exactly what I have asked for. I have shown up in person twice to discuss the issue. I have asked for a specific action by the principal. I believe that he does need to go up the chain with it because of the factual circumstances. However, I expected a response by this time and I think a response letting me know the issue is still under considerstion would be reasonable rather than silence, but I am obviously very close to the issue and wasn't sure if my expectations in terms of the timeline were unreasonable. It seems like it is reasonable to have expected some kind of response at this point.

I appreciate the feedback from everyone.

I understand the desire to document progress and steps taken. Call and document the call in a "follow-up" email stating you called on date/time and left a message with (name) and hope to talk directly soon, or if you called and actually talked to the principal, send an email recapping the conversation and next steps agreed to (or not).

Give it until next week. If you don't hear back by Tuesday I would make an appointment. The weeks leading up to Christmas break are busy for everyone. With the kids getting back to school this week, it's also hectic.

I do think he could have emailed you to at least say he's working on it, even if he didn't have a concrete answer for you. I'd give him the benefit of the doubt that things have been busy for him, but it's possible he is knowingly avoiding you in hopes you will just go away.

When /if you do meet with him I would express my concern that it's taken too long and too many emails to get the matter resolved. Remind him that your children have been in the schools for ten years and this is a first request for you......that you are not a buggy parent and deserved a quicker response time and resolution. Good luck!

My biggest pet peeve in life is bad manners. He is being incredibly rude not to reply back to you no matter what he's done on the matter at hand. I consider people like this to be on power trips.

What I would do is wait a few more days, then contact the superintendent. If the matter is important as it sounds, it's time to go over his head.

If there is a legal component to the issue, it could be that the matter has been turned over internally to the legal department. Not that this would excuse the lack of response, but it could explain it. If this may be the case, in your next communication to him, consider including something along the lines of "I understand the potential that this matter may no longer be in your hands. If his is the case, please forward this email to whomever is handling and ask them to reply to me with a status". Or something like that.

My guess is that he gets a million emails every day and they get pushed down and "lost", so to speak. I would imagine it would even be difficult for a principle to find the time to read and respond to all the emails he or she likely gets, from parents, from Town councils, etc.

Why not try and get him on the phone and let him know you've emailed a number of times but have gotten no reply and you are wondering if that is not the best way to communicate with him. I would do it in a way that makes it seem like you want to communicate in a way which is easiest for him.

Yes, I would be upset not to receive a response. I can see how maybe the 12/14 email got pushed to the back of the burner around the holidays, but I would then expect a fairly quick response to your email yesterday, if only at least to say "still working on it".

Thanks everyone. I will admit that I do not want to communicate with him in the way that is easiest for him. I want to communicate with him in a way that documents what is happening. Fwiw, he has not ever asked me to call rather than email and he has previosuly sated that direct emails to his district email address are easier than emails through a somewhat clunky grade reporting/communication system the school uses. I have only sent direct emails per that expressed preference.

I appreciate the outside perspective on the timeline here.

i would be upset too... i never experienced a 'no response' to emails to the school- it would be very odd for a principal not to respond to multiple emails from a parent.

i agree with jakabedy tho, that if there is legal involvement, he may have been advised not to respond... but i think you would understand that tho and not be as perplexed in that case....

Our schools have a policy that a teacher (principal, coach, counselor) must reply to an email within 48 hours. The principal should have acknowledged receiving your email. I too wonder if he has been advised not to respond. In any case you deserve some type of response from someone!

Is it possible the emails have not been received and that they got filtered into a spam folder based on your sending email address? I know I had an issue at work for a while with vendor emails not going through due to an admin having a typo in a filter. I mean how do you know the principal has actually received them. I would at least make a phone call to say I've sent several emails and I hadn't gotten a response so wanted to confirm that you received them and also wondering if you have an update.

Just a thought and not knowing what the situation you are trying to discuss with him is....If he thinks that you may be documenting his responses to use against him he may not be in a hurry to write anything back to you.

IF the principal does not have a complete answer for you maybe he is waiting so he can give you a more thorough explanation??? Your situation may not be the most important matter he is dealing with right now.

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I would be surprised if my emails are accidentally going astray. He has received them in the past and my daughter's teacher who receives email through the same system has seen and responded to several emails in this time period (I volunteer in her classroom and she has initiated these contacts to coordinate with me). So it would have to be an awfully specific glitch.

I agree that he may be dealing with more important situations, though I do consider ours to be quite significant or I would never have gone to the principal in the first place. But at what point can you no longer use that as a reason for not responding at all? He has had a month and he committed in our Dec. 4 meeting to getting back to us "soon."

If he is refusing to respond because he thinks I am documenting matters, that seems quite inappropriate for a school administrator. I do think as a public school principal you should be willing to have your decisions documented.

I appreciate the feedback. I have discussed the situation with dh and we have decided on our next steps.

crl, does he have a secretary? Can you call her at least to mention your concern that you have not gotten a response yet?

I stopped by the school this morning and asked the office staff politely if the principal could talk with me. I waited about five minutes and he was able to talk. He started by apologizing for not responding to my emails so he did receive them.

He told me the status of the situation, which remains unresolved. I am not pleased that matters are unresolved but at least I know where we currently stand.

Thank you again for the feedback.

crl, not returning emails in a timely fashion is one of my pet peeves. Considering you initiated the discussion in November and it took a visit today to get the principal to acknowledge that he had indeed received your emails is not the way to run a school (or business or any other enterprise for that matter). I know the holidays just happened, a near-universal excuse.

If email is one of the legitimate means of communicating with your principal, then he damn well better figure out a way to let you know he received it. If he can't divulge any details of the matter, he should say that as well. Keeping you in the dark, making you feel ignored, isn't doing himself any favors. I email and get quick responses from my doctor at Kaiser. It is expected. I'll bet she has as busy a workday as your principal.

I think you are wise to use email to communicate and therefore have the documentation.

tina, prolly the same reason the principal didn't want to reply in writing...

I feel you should have received a response. Lack of response and proper communication absolutely grate me. Even if he doesn't have an answer at this point, it's considerate to give a heads up and at least acknowledge he got your emails and is working on it. If people/companies would only ask how they would feel if it were flipped.

Good you're doing this in writing. Just saw you talked with him. I hope the issue is resolved soon and to the positive!

Thanks for the update. I once had to fight tooth and nail so that my youngest would not be in a class with a child that she had a long history of bad experiences.

I personally knew the family, they lived down the street and I agreed with my daughter. I would never think to get involved and have always felt that this is one of those life's lessons, learn to deal with what is thrown your way. But, personally seeing this child and family "in action" I felt that if there was a way we could avoid even more stress at school , I would at least try.

The principal really didn't want to back down. The meeting took over an hour, but my daughter's class was changed.

I understand how things can get sticky. If the principal does this for you once, will you keep expecting it? If he does this for you, how many more parents will step up even for just minor issues? The list goes on and on.

That said, each situation is different and should be handled individually. I hope this gets resolved to your satisfaction.

Technically, is there a fifty/fifty chance of getting or not getting this teacher?

It is also possible that he has indeed contacted higher ups if it is as serious an issue as you imply. He may honestly not have a response as those above school-based level are notoriously difficult to pin down or get answers from, especially if it may be a legal matter. The time of year may also have played a part in the delay.

I do agree he should be more responsive even if he is waiting for direction from a superior. He could certainly send a quick reply just to let you know he received your communication and I imagine he could let you know if he is consulting with anyone else. However, not knowing the situation, it is difficult to say definitively. We can all give you feedback, but it isn't based on anything other than generalities. As a teacher, I always get back to parents within 24 hours.

Oh, and may I add that my experience in getting email responses from my administrators over 25 years of teaching is much the same as yours. Not a stellar performance.