Belvidere Central Middle School

This is our 1st year in this district, we have always gone to private schools. Our family is very happy with Central Middle School! It's a great environment, the staff is amazing, the school is clean and well taken care of, the office staff is phenomenal, the administration is receptive and caring. I've had a lot of experience with middle schools and I have never been to one where the office staff is so kind. My daughter is being challenged, but yet nurtured to do her best. We are very glad we made the switch to this school!

I somewhat agree with the comments about some of the teachers are only here for a check. Certainly, this does not reflect on everyone. But we experienced issues following up on homework, because they would not post info online in the required time period. If your student is sick, they have a minimal amount of time to make it up. However, some of the teachers would be weeks behind posting assignments, and use the excuse they had a sick child at home. I believe there needs to be more flexibility. Too much homework. 2-3 hrs a day not acceptable at this level. Not enough coordination between the different teachers. Accountability, as it pertains to their role in updating online performance, as well as executing preconceived plans to enhance individual performance, is lacking.

I noticed there were three one-star reviews on this website. All three one-star reviews have similar terminology, grammar, syntax and spelling, which makes me wonder if it's someone bitter, writing multiple reviews over the years. Specifically, they say the teachers only care about their paychecks. I have no doubt they care about their paychecks. Who wouldn't? To say that's all they care about, how would someone know this? My son came to the school with very minimal cultural understanding, and almost no educational background. The accommodations they made for him, caught him up to speed, and set him on the path to learning, that I highly doubt would have happened at any other school in this area. Despite Illinois financial problems, it does place a priority on student education. Well I've had little dealing with the principal, I do believe that their allocation of limited funds has been well spent. My son's teachers have all been phenomenal. I stay on top of his progress; any issues, and they have been ready, eager, and professional to meet with me immediately. The front office staff has a professional yet nurturing interaction with the student body, evident just by my sitting and observing while waiting to pick up my son off schedule for appointments. There is a "zero toleration" for bullying. I suppose, if your son is a bully, this might be a negative; however, I consider the cultivation of a safe learning environment, which is perceived as safe, to be a powerful advantage. One negative reviewer complained about busses getting in the way (REALLY?!?), and the chaos of drop off/pick up. Considering the volume of kids, I personally was impressed with how well expedited the process was. And I also liked that, instead of having several schools situated throughout the city, with multiple speed zone changes, all the schools are grouped reasonably close together. I only have one child,but I it seems to me that if you had multiple children, it would make a drop off extremely convenient. Just my 2 cents.

I think this school is trying really hard to improve. Given the fairly high percent of student body is low income and parents can't stock up on 3-4 tutors for the child, this school does a lot to help low performing students to improve. We've been in this school for almost two years and my child had a couple of pretty impressive teachers, who helped him to maintain his 90th percentile in ISAT Math and woke up his interest in social studies. Not to say that there are no lackluster teachers, but the principal is working on that. I'm also really pleased how this school deals with bullying - very promptly and effectively, if you are the parent that communicates your and your child needs. There are many schools that are way much worse than BCMS.