I would suggest (if I may) Dr. Zubair not to make any one else incharge of the program next time. If you do so then there will be more complaints. Now you have experiance so please continue this inshaAllah. I would request to make Br. Ali Mousa one of the judge next time. Let him be the part of the process. I can see the passion in his words and inshaAllah he will be a great help.
As for our 4 years old and other like her and for every one, we must give some sort of gift. We dont need to call every one on stage but they all should get some thing.
Secondly ask (announce early enough) who wants to come on stage and explain his/her project and let only those kids come on stage who are really interested in presenting their projects. Then prizes can be given (at least one category of rpizes) on the basis of presentation and not on the basis of project.
I am saying all that only after readin the text here. I was not present in the event. So please forgive me for my words.
InshaAllah we can grow as a good community.

On
behalf of the staff of Sunday school I like to thank you for the time
you took to participate in this event. I am really saddened after
reading your passionate letter. I am saddened because the event brought
sadness to you and your family. This was absolutely not our intention.
Let me try to make an effort to respond to your letter. I hope it helps
you understand the whole process, which might help to clarify some
misunderstandings and also understand our shortcomings. There are about
15 people involved in Sunday school; you can check these facts with any
one of them.

This
project was announced in front of all students and the parents present.
Rules and regulations of the project were clearly stated and a copy of
the announcement with rules was provided to each student. In addition, I
spent ample time explaining the project and what was required. There
are always multiple ways to do a project like this. We did it this way
because of the problems we incurred in previous years and the complaints
we had. We tried are best to make it as transparent as possible and the
judging as just as possible. Reading your message, it is clear that we
have not fully succeeded.

Let
me explain the judging process: From our previous experiences, we
learned that judging on the day of display is not feasible. It takes a
lot of time. We decided to do it the night before. Every effort was made
to select judges without any conflict of interest, e.g., a child in
Sunday school. Three judges were Br. Zaid Tuaffa, Sr. Suzanne Bajwa, and
Sr. Hasanah. They spent the whole evening reviewing all projects. They
were given the same rules and regulations we gave to each child so that
they would understand the rules and what was expected from children.
They were asked to pick up 3 top projects from each of 4 groups. They
were not asked to grade them further. We had decided that we would give
these 12 kids opportunity to talk about their projects and further
grading for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place
would based upon
that. In general, our children are very shy and seldom agree to stand
up and talk. For this reason, we had decided to keep it simple and give
them 3-5 min each. As you might have noted, even that much time was too
much for most of the contestants. As far as the judges for the Sunday
event are concerned, they were again picked based upon similar
criterion, i. e., minimum conflict of interest. None of those judges
have their own child participating.

Now,
our regrets and mistakes. Before going further describing them, I take
full responsibility for all these regrets and mistakes. I am extremely
sorry that they happened or these matters were overlooked. I also like
to make it very clear that none of this was intentional.

a.       Before
the judging on Sunday, we should have given more time for parents to
move around and review all projects. We gave half an hour, which was not
enough.

b.       We
could have asked initial judges to do their job on Sunday but there are
many more reasons, besides our prior experiences, to do it a day or two
before. To counter some of that, we decided to have the final judging
on Sunday.

c.        We
could have given children more time to explain their projects but as I
stated above, almost all kids could not speak more than a few minutes.

d.       I
should not have asked children to take the projects home. My reason for
this was based upon what happened last year. Many projects and material
attached to them were left in the hall for many months.

e.        We
should have recognized each and every child who did the project, which
might mean that we should have brought every child to the stage, may be
with the project, and given him/her a small gift. We discussed this
possibility. There are about 125 kids in the school. We thought it was
going to take a lot of time. But, looking back now, I think we should
have done it.

f.        I should have asked somebody else to lead the event that day.

Finally,
again, I am really sad that part of my actions brought tears to your
four years old daughter. I would ask her and Allah SWT for forgiveness
and try my best to avoid it happening again.

M. Zubair Kareem

    The manner in
which the projects were judged prior to the public viewing seemed vague.  Were the questions being asked part of the
judging?  Judging for myself the lack of
knowledge of one’s own project leads me down a path that makes it seem that it
was not a fair judging or at the least not impartial.

    Furthermore, the
announcer gave the impression of just rushing the participants off the stage
and having them take their projects with them. 
I think we should embrace these projects to make the children feel their
time and effort was worth their whilom. 
This was a chance to have their projects exhibited out at the mosque,
which in turn would bring praise to the efforts of the children but also an
opportunity to come together in celebration of the efforts given.

    With all due
respect to Dr. Ali, I don’t understand his lack of action in response to our
questions and concerns about this event. 
We voiced them to him and all we felt we were left with was more
questions.  I understand he is a very
busy man and must have a lot on his ploate, but we would have liked to feel a
greater sense of concern on his behalf to ensure a more positive feeling at
this event.

I missed the imam his attendant was very important

    Lastly, my four
year old daughter walked away from the event in tears.  She couldn’t understand why her time and
effort were not celebrated as well.  Not
that is was necessarily the best project, but her best effort.  In an attempt to bring together our
community, I feel it alienated the children who were not recognized.  Opportunities like this are first and
foremost an opportunity to give our youth a voice, to be heard in our faith.  It encourage their young hearts and souls a
desire to follow Allah and his prophet, and in turn instill a love for Allah
thru their everyday doings.  This was a
missed opportunity from start to finish and I can only hope we learn from this,
so to avoid something like this again.

Sincerely

Ali I Mousa

wa eyyakum brother Abdallah !