Jim Thorpe Elementary School

For Mother's Day the art teacher had the children color the words "Happy Mother's Day" in a coloring book and then rip the page out of the book. That was it. The lack of effort and creativity is unbelievable!The front office is totally disorganized and they assigned my child to three different teachers in one month. One day, they assigned her to two different grades. Then we got a letter in the mail saying that she was assigned to yet another different teacher. The poor child was crying, she loved her first teacher and had no idea why she kept being told she no longer had that teacher. The principal is extremely defensive and refuses to see that there is a problem. The place is a zoo.

Principal is extremely incompetent and is usually hiding in her office from parents. I observed a staff member and parents both being shouted down being shouted down in the office in front of parents and children by her. Avoid this school and get a zone variance if at all possible to Treem next door. My child loves it there as the principal is available to parents and is seen interacting with kids much of the time

My son has been at this school since 1st grade. We loved it. The teachers cared about students. They had PTA and fun social activities. I love that they have different activities during the week for students. They have great teachers. My son is now in 4th grade. It seems that there have been lots of changes since the new principal started. The students are treated as if they are in prison. Parents are not allowed to be on school grounds. The office staff is unorganized except for Ms Mary. I loved taking my son to school and talking to teachers, and staff but now it seems like the new rules make it hard to have a relationship between the parents and the staff at school. I also do not agree with the new rules stating I must send 5.00 for future field trips and my son did not go on any field trips. The fund raisers they have are not for specific activities for each grade. It is generic. I am also upset that they no longer have PTA. I would have loved to be a part of it. They do not have any reward systems for students. My son works hard to g wt straight A's but got a ribbon along with every student in the same grade. My son works hard and is rewarded as if he is just like everyone else. His hard work is not rewarded. He is easily an honor student but they g eery ribbons at the end of the year for "maintaining a passing grade all year". The principal from 2012 actually walked the school and talked with parents. Ms Gibson seems to be hiding from parents or something because I only see her walking around unhappy with her walkie talkie like a prison guard. It's a school, not a prison. Something needs to change. Maybe she looks good as a principal on paper. Why is she teaching students that hard work doesn't pay off. So why work hard when you get the same reward as someone who is not. Not a fair system. Each student is not equal. You should be rewarded for the work YOU put in. Hope things change soon!

I cannot begin to start with how unstructured, unorganized and out of touch this school is. There is an obvious disconnect from the administration into the class rooms, and the communication from the classroom in the house is just absent. There is rarely involvement asked of parents, in fact I was even dissuaded from participating under a false guise there is strict restrictions for parents being in the classrooms. The teachers send homework photocopied out of the text book with no instructions, there is no social incentives for good behavior, no goals in the classrooms for kids to reach. The social environment is much to be desired, a lot of behavioral issues with students AND staff. Be warned.