Look out for big mother on campus.
Manhattan’s elite private schools have enlisted the parents of their students to spy on prospective families during school tours to get the skinny on how the kids and their parents act when they’re not under the glaring eye of the admissions director, insiders told The Post.
The tour guide or a wandering assistant teacher traditionally reported back to administrators at schools like Columbia Grammar, Mandell, Collegiate and Episcopal on their behavior, but after parents learned whom to act their best in front of, the schools have upped their vetting process and are now planting parents in the tours to observe perspective parents and then hand in notes.
“At a certain point a mom spilled that she had been asked to go on the tours and watch how the prospective parents behaved, and then it got out that it was a common thing,” private-school mom and social researcher Wednesday Martin said.
“If you see a school parent on a school tour but she’s not conducting the tour, just ‘coming along,’ shut up and don’t check your cell!”
And parents are eager to be “admission volunteers” because of the power it gives them in the admissions process.
“You are an insider. You get to know admissions staff and when your friends apply, you can put in a good word,” said Amanda Uhry of Manhattan Private School Advisors, who previously acted as an admissions volunteer at Temple Israel Early Childhood Learning Center.
A staffer in admissions at Columbia Grammar, who refused to provide her name, denied that the school uses parents as ringers.
“The ones that are tagging along are the ones that are learning the tour routes. They’re learning to volunteer,” she said.
“We don’t interview parents.”
But when asked if the tour guide reports back to the school, she said, “Not really.”
Uhry, a private-school adviser, said she’s not surprised that the schools are denying their latest technique for weeding through the thousands of applicants who apply for a few precious spots.
“Oh, yeah, they say, ‘This is Jane, and she’s just learning how to be a tour guide,’ ” she said.
“She’s spying, duh!”
“Sometimes they say it’s two people giving the tour. It’s really two because one is there to suss out what’s going on.”
Terri Decker of Smart City Kids said she warns her clients — not the students who are applying for nursery school and kindergarten — to be on their best behavior before the tours.
“You’re being watched by everybody,” Decker said.
“The main thing to remember is that your kid isn’t going to mess up the process. You’re going to mess up the process by being a jerk. People forget that this isn’t buying a car, you can’t come in there and kick the tires.”