Fruitville Elementary School

I substitute regularly at this school after teaching for many years in Indiana. I LOVE this school! The staff is friendly and supportive. The kids are loved. I have worked in all the grades and overall find this school to be superior in teacher efforts to insure that every child has an optimal learning experience. There is a warm, accepting climate that you can feel when you enter the building. I can't say enough good things about this particular school. I would send my child there in a heartbeat if I had a school age child. The staff has excellent qualifications and does a terrific job of trying to meet the needs of many differing abilities.

Fruitville is an outstanding school. The teachers really care about the students, and teach them to respect and encourage each other. A great example: As I sat in the audience of a student awards ceremony-- the student body sits in front to watch some of their peers receive various awards-- I was impressed to see many of the observing students giving high-fives and congratulating the award winners. Every child has different strengths and needs, and at Fruitville, they seem to make an honest effort to get to know each child and to accommodate them specifically, with individualized attention in the classroom, and many specialized programs on-site, including one for sensory processing, and their renowned gifted education program. It's been a wonderful experience for us.

Very disappointed in the entire school. Fortunately my son has only 2 months left and moving on to middle school. It hasn't been a good experience. He is in the Spark "the gifted program" and its been a mess. They have lost the best Spark teachers since he has attended, they even had the Principal run off in the middle of the 2015 school year. The have no clue how to run the program and its at the expense of the children. My son has been verbally abused at the school by some teachers of which is on record. The best thing that happened at the school was his first 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Johnson, you will be so fortunate to have her. As for the rest, good luck. His 3rd grade teacher was not even qualified to teach gifted yet they allowed it anyways. Don't rely on the liason there either, as she is extremely rude and I'm not really sure what she even does for the children. Anyways, that's my opinion. I would recommend any other elementary school even if not gifted.

We moved our 2 boys from the montessori school to this one. They are both in the full-time gifted (1st and 2nd grade last year and now entering 2nd and 3rd). We selected it over pineview and couldn't be more pleased. The teachers (thank you Mrs J and Mrs C) couldn't be better. Our boys have flourished and the extra activities they get to engage in are outstanding. We love it so much we 'choiced-in" for our 3rd childing entering kindergarten in 2014. Dr Kingsley is one of a kind and her love for the school and the kids remarkable. I think its the finest school in Sarasota!