Pinar Elementary School

The principle and guidance counselor should be fired. They took my daughter and interrogated her with out her parents being there in order for her to say what they wanted to hear and made her sign a form and suspended her for something she did not to. She was scared and felt hurt. We are moving this situation up the ladder and taken legal action. The school also does not do anything when the kids experience racism. Terrible support system for children.

I love Ms.wilbanks she had made the difference in my child she always helping him and he love her very much. He had her for 2 years and my son growth was extremely. Teacher like her is what we need to teach our children. Teachers that care for our children's education. Thanks MS. Wilbanks Luis and I will miss you this coming year.

Both my kids go to this school i love this school the staff and teachers are something out of this world i could not have chosen a better school.The team work that this school provides makes you feel like you have family and your not alone my son has ADHD and this school just got him in every way shape and form they made my son feel like he was the smartest kid in school they made him feel important when he was feeling down so to that i would like to say thank you to pinar for being a part of my kids life and ours

As a former teacher, I am happy to see that Pinar's reputation in the community is positive, but I also see a huge misconception about how outsiders view school success. From the outside, yes, Pinar has made academic improvements. What the data does not tell you is the overall school culture. Pinar has an extremely high teacher turnover. Why? Well, teachers are highly stressed and overworked. They are expected to treat the students like mini adults and use external motivators (like rewards such as candy and toys) to increase their compliance. Test prep is started the second day of the school year, and engaging, child-friendly projects are "not allowed" for the upper grades. There is no one person to blame for this. It stems from a dysfunctional culture in much of Orange County, even Florida as a whole.I firmly believe a school has a responsibility to the WHOLE child, not just the child's test scores, which is why a no longer teach at Pinar. Unless we all stand up and show that we want more for our children, nothing will change. Children should have choices in their learning. We should help them build internal motivation and instruct them at their developmental level to ensure success. They should LOVE school.Improved test scores are great but not the whole story.