Pinellas Park Elementary School

I must agree with much of the last parents review. This school is focused on all the wrong things. They seem to be so concerned with the outer appearance of things & test scores rather than what a child is actually learning. What they need to focus on is teacher improvement. Only about 1 in 5 teachers seem to know what they are doing. The teachers with drive & compassion is what this school needs. Office staff that have some education or even medical backgrounds wouldn't hurt either. I have 2 children in this school & as a parent I've learned to trust my children over what the adults are telling me. I trusted too many of the adult opinions & looking back I terribly regret it. I thought it was just my kids being kids but I know now it wasn't them. This school is in terrible need of a teacher makeover. I can't believe I found this school listed on this website www.greatschools.com as it should be on a needs improvement or unsatisfactory website. They do have a few wonderful teachers & office personnel & those people are the only ones holding this school above water. God bless them.

It's no wonder this school is nearly failing; bullying is ignored or encouraged - including bullying by the teachers. Kids who are really excited about learning and work all year to get into state-wide contests but have some (very small compared to so many other kids I've seen there) issues - due to said bullying - are attacked and goaded into ONE tiny outburst (seriously, it was a yell to 'STOP HITTING ME') and disqualified (the teacher even admitted she was looking for an excuse to disqualify him). Every year there has been a new principal... not sure why the one year before last quit, but she was the only one I saw attempting to make a difference. Gotta tell you guys: replacing the principal isn't going to make any difference if you don't change your attitude toward the kids who are actually giving your school some credit. This isn't saying everything about this school is bad: there are some *very good* teachers here that I am happy my son has had. But, the only reason my son is still here is the other schools around here are just as bad or worse, we've never been lucky enough to get him into one of the charter schools, and private school is too expensive.

N/A