You might also ask the fire chief, if the 'CAPACITY' of the room should not be posted visibly in the assembly room - usually it is code to do so.
If its posted, yuo can walk your principal in there and show her how many the rm can hold, and if its not posted but should be, then she can make a sign to get up to code.
I placed a call to the county fire department to inquire about the number of people who can occupy our school gym according to code. Great starting point!
It is really sad that we have a PTO who will even march along to this principal's every whim.
I would also add on the corporal punishment issue: lobby your lawmakers. They are ultimately the ones who have the power to change this horrible practice. I honestly cannot imagine in this day and age that one single lawmaker would be in favor of beating children. Get parents to write letters, and send something to the media to attract attention to your cause. Start making a lot of noise about this. There's an election coming up and you still have time to get your issue noticed.
Several years ago, when there were some parents complaining at our school, trying to be heard at site based meetings, bringing issues to light, this is what happened:
A teacher called me at home the day before the PTA meeting, {now PTO}, and told me that the principal had gathered the faculty in the library after school and told them that an announcement would be going home the next day, in backpacks, telling parents to report to homerooms instead of the auditorium or gym. The teachers were also told to keep this a secret until the notes went out. I got the call from a concerned teacher, who knew that this principal was trying to fragment the student body. Our school is even more overcrowded now than it was, and they plan the PTO meetings with an open house, and send us to homerooms. There are never more than a handful of parents in each room, we could easily be gathered in one area. It is a power thing for this principalvery purposeful, and supported by her handful of PTO board members who would rather follow her commands than to question her authority. Parents who question are seen as controversial, so many just tolerate it.
There is one other school in the area that I know of that I am told does this, it is an elementary school that feeds into our middle school.
peg are you saying that the pto meetings have been like this for years? What about schools around you how are their meetings held, I still say it is so you dont all tie him up and make he be accountable to things...there is power in numbers!
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
