First District El School

As a mom of a 9 yr. old lil boy with some learning curves I DO NOT recommend anyone send their child to this school if they have any kind of learning curves! They are quick to punish children who dont work at their pace and have a very fast judgement of the parents of these children as if we are some sort of dirt bags! And for a teacher to tell a child "Well I'll believe it when I see it" after he tells her he is moving and is excited about the move is absolutely absurd!! My child used to fight me every morning to go to school because he was afraid of his teacher yelling at him for not working fast enough or being afraid to ask for help with something! I feel so horrible about all this because like I said at first I thought it was behavioral and was punishing him for the notes the teacher would send home but after numerous meetings with the teacher and staff I began to understand what my child was telling me was the truth and why he did not want to go to school everyday!! As for bullying there isnt much done either! My child had bookbags ripped and stuff stolen and all the staff had to say was well just stay away from the kids that are doing these things to you! However that scenario is almost impossible when the kids are in the same class all day together!! I even asked for my son to be transferred into a different class but he was so scared of retaliation that he begged me not move him!!

All three of my children have attended this school over the past 16 years & I am very familiar with it. This school practices ability grouping starting in 2nd grade which is the same thing as "tracking" according to wikapedia. This is another form of segregating & discrimination. The children are divided according to "ability" into classes which is great if your child is advantaged & has had A LOT of preschooling before starting kindergarten but NOT so great if your child hasn't. The current Principal also treats all parent's like they are deadbeats from the getgo unless they have proven otherwise by brown-nosing with the PTO & teachers. Many of the younger teachers are just there for a paycheck, although some of the veteran teachers are fantastic. The newer curriculum there basically demands that the parent's teach their own children to read before they even step foot in the building or else your child will be slapped in Title I status & then descriminated against & slapped in the lower level reading class starting in 2nd grade. This has been some of my experience in the most recent years. Tons different than it was for my 1st child's attendance there 16 years ago.