Rec Registration Process Disappointing

(The following letter to Parks and Recreation director Barbara Kasbarian has been received for publication)

 

Dear Madam: As a taxpayer and a parent of two young children who have been participating regularly in Parks and Recreation programs for the past few years, I was sadly disappointed and angered by the recent registration process. Or should I say, the apparent lack of process.

It has always been my understanding that the programs operate on a first come, first serve basis, and that placement is determined by the postmarked date of the applications. As I was fifth in line when the Post Office opened on the morning of March 11, I fail to understand how it is mathematically possible for my daughter to have been below the cutoff point for her inclusion in the Little Recers program.

My distress over my lack of understanding is relatively minor, however, in comparison to my concern over the arbitrary and capricious enforcement of policy in this issue, and the inherent lack of regard for both parents and children that is implicit in this behavior. If the requirements of registration are such that I need to stand in line at the Post Office a few Saturday mornings a year, I’m happy to do so, but not so that I can be told after the fact that the rules have mysteriously changed.

And if you think I’m making a mountain out of a molehill, I’d like you to explain that to my three-and-a-half year old daughter, who’s heartbroken about not returning to the program and a teacher to whom she’s grown very attached.

Yours in anger and distress,

Janet M. McKeown

10 Hillcrest Drive, Newtown                                      March 21, 2000