Harvey N Dondero Elementary School

I have seen so many changes at Dondero ES over the years. They have new buildings, a new library, and a new lunchroom. Now they have a lot of sports, musical performances, and dance.

My daughter has been there K-5 she loves it there no problems no issues staff has been amazing my youngest started K last yr and she is already loving the school the staff and all the new friends she is making

My children currently attend this school and I am very displeased with the School's staff at policies being implemented at this school. The first year my children attended this school it was great. As of last year is when the school started to decline due to getting a new Principle and Vice Principle. These two have completely changed everything good about this school. They completely lock down the entire campus before and after school forcing children and parents to walk all the way around the campus. Causing many kids to be late which was a big issue for us last year. Parents and Children are not allowed to go inside or through the school before or after school. They will not allow parents to go in the cafeteria with their children in the mornings for breakfast. If you have a complaint and you go to the office or staff they will try to argue with you and dumb you down. My children do not even enjoy going to school anymore they feel like school is not fun and they are restricted from using the restroom during class, they are always told to be quite during lunch and if their class is loud they lose their recess time and have to practice lining up. They have a shorter recess and a short time to eat their lunch as the cafeteria is very small and does not fit a lot of children. I have had so many problems with this school since last year. More than half of the teacher who were employed at this school for a long time have left or been terminated. They even target children and parents for being late or absent and put them in a truency class once a week and make them do extra assignments and send the child with a progress reports to give to their teachers without parent permission or notifying the parents. There are no cross walks on either side of the school where the children enter the school at the back of the school. Last year I found out that all the homework and class work my children do is not being counted as part of their grade and they get a lot of homework. My Kindergarten student came home with a 10 page packet full of homework. I am very disappointed with this school and I am currently trying to find a new school for my children to go to.

*Updated*. My children attend Dondero in preK (A great program through Child Find. For age 3 and up that need extra help or as fellow students to model great behavior) and Ms Sanobia's Kinder class. My K student loves their teacher and class and has learned so much in just the 2 months school has been back. My K student loves all the Specials classes as well, with PE and art being tied as favorite. I'm still waiting to love my PreK student's class, as it hard to not compare to our amazing experience last year at Theriot. Ms Amy, the Speech Therapist has been w my child for 2 years and is wonderful. We have had no issues w staff (besides the awful hassle w enrollment in the new system that started this year) and are looking forward to a wonderful year.So after another month, the preK teacher grew on us and we were so excited to have her as a teacher. Then BAM! She is now gone (no goodbye, no notice from the school. It was by chance I even found out, as my child rides the bus (and we don't have a teacher as of yet, not even a perm sub!) My K student is now on teacher #2 and October isn't even over with. Today we finally got a note saying our K teacher had left (nearly 2 months ago!!!!)And also, when I went to the office to ask questions (not during lunch), the first 2 staff members I spoke with wouldn't even get out of their seats at their desks across the office and made me yell to them all of my questions (I have a quiet voice and don't like to speak publicly about private matters so that just made it worse) What was that!? And they were misinformed on some info (someone else corrected that info then) and made me feel unwelcome. Last update: My K student went through 4 teachers. We liked 3/4. My preK student went through at least 3 that I know of ( but had Ms. MJ as an ast all year. She was awesome!)I really like Mrs Poster, and I see her making Dondero really great in the next few years. She has lots of good ideas and a great vision for the school. Out of the schools nearby, I would definitely choose Dondero based on our experience vs family and friend's experiences at those school.