Floral Avenue Elementary School

It is clear that Polk County schools district does not have the proper training for their teachers and administrators on how to work with children that are Autistic. This school has clearly lacked the basic fundamental understanding of Autism and how it affects Autistic children that live with sensory disorder, anxiety, and depression. We have provided the school with a neuropsychological report that explains why the manifestations of certain behaviors with my daughter occurs. If you have an Autistic child, do not enroll them in this school. Also, go to the ESE section of the Polk County schools and review their advisory board minutes. The district is fully aware of their lack of training with ESE students. Very sad!

Hello, I am Sheila Dyer, the current principal at Floral Avenue Elementary. I have been the principal at Floral for the past six years. We are a community school with school grades of A and B for the past several years. We are focused on ensuring that all students are making learning gains. Floral Avenue Elementary School has been a Positive Behavior Support Model School since 2007. We strive to model and teach appropriate behavior expectations for school and life. We offer a balanced curriculum based on Next Generation Standards with a transition to Common Core Standards. Our students participate in weekly art, music, and PE in addition to their academic subjects. We have Smartboard and Document Camera technology in all of our main classrooms. Our next family involvement event is our Open House on 9/18/12 at 6:00 P.M. We welcome any approved parent or community volunteers in our classrooms and to mentor students. Please don t hesitate to call me if I can help in any way. 863-534-7420 Sheila Dyer Principal Floral Avenue Elementary

If you love your child, do not send them here. I attended Floral Avenue for my Kindergarten, First, and Third grade years. The experience was traumatizing and it is my belief that my years there are a culprit in my development of Borderline Personality Disorder, Severe Anxiety Disorder and accompanying Social Anxiety, and Depression. The teachers are cruel and spiteful, they are there to earn a paycheck and do not understand the social and emotional needs of children. I was severely bullied AT THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF MY TEACHERS TO THE OTHER CHILDREN, who were instructed to belittle and ostracize me. I was treated as subhuman and the result is that I have severe social issues that cripple my ability to function in public situations, including work. I qualified as a gifted student but received no encouragement or challenging material. Now, I agree it has been just over ten years since I attended, but the same teachers remain and my sister's friends inform me that they, too are frightened and uncomfortable in the FAE environment. Please, for your child's sake, send them somewhere, anywhere else.

I agree with the negative statements about this school. They are so worried about their dress code that education seems to come second. But for some reason, the dress code is only strictly enforced to certain children. I received a call from the school one day because my daughter's "shorts were too short" (which they were not). I had to take her new shorts to wear. The next day I was at the school for an awards ceremony. One of her fellow classmates was wearing shorts so short, they could not be seen under her sweater she was wearing. I just couldnt believe that was acceptable, but my daughter was humiliated in front of everyone for shorts that were perfectly acceptable to wear, and this other girl was allowed to walk around in daisy dukes! And this is just one of the many problems we had with this horrible school and their staff. As proof of how bad this school is, we received a letter from the school board saying we had the right to switch schools the following year because Floral ranked so poorly.