I love our elementary and middle school directories. The first section has the class lists, kids names and just phone numbers. For example it would say. The back part is the family directory, alphabatized by last names so it would say Smith- phone number - parents names and address and also the kids first names and class info. (1st grade - teachers name)

Last night I had someone call to see if I knew the phone number for a parent of a student in my HS junior son's class. I whipped out my old Middle School directory and found the number in less then a minute. I have DRAWER full of old directories. I think these are even more handy in middle school when kids are coming from a wider area so you can't easily look up a number in a phone book. Also, it's fairly common to have more then one last name in a family which makes it really tough to look up.

You can also put basic school info in there like what to do in case of early dismissal, lunch prices, names of committee chairs, PTO/PTA names, meeting info. In the elementary one we added two pages of ads from parents that have small businesses. We sell these business card ads for about $15. One year a church put in an ad. Someone else put one in for piano lessons. These ads just about pay for the cost of the paper. If you put in ads it's important to say that the parents group has the right to approve/disapprove ads.

The kids in our school k-3 still do that. All visitors have to wear a visitor tag and most put Mrs. so and so, but I like the kids to just call me Mrs. Debbie,( the Odeh messes them up) maybe I'll start a trend.

SHC's is right - I use the directory as a cheat sheet for parents' names, too!

Don't you miss the pre-school days when it was acceptable (because all the kids did it) to address another grownup as:

"Kathy's mom" or "Tommy's mom" or whatever the child's name was with "mom" tagged on.

Worked well in a pinch when you didn't know someone's name or as an icebreaker. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Interesting points, I'm beginning to think this might be a new project for me...not...maybe for someone else though. I think even in our small area, it might be very useful for parents who aren't as plugged in as some of us are.

Thank you so kindly!

I couldn't live without my school directory. I buy an extra one for my car and the upstairs. It's what I need to address birthday party invitations and see exactly who is in my child's class, what their mom's name is, etc. I bet I use mine every single day.
Shelly

We would say the same as KMAMOM. The directory is a convenience, a quick reference.

In the small town where I grew up, a directory probably wouldn't have been as critical. Everyone just used the phone book.

But in our large metropolitan area, the phone book is so huge it's pretty much useless if all you know is the child's last name.

Also, being smaller, it's also much easier for a child to use when they need to contact a friend.