Plymouth El School

Principal is arrogant and belittling of parents. She is not supportive of parents requests and attempts to minimize parents when they call with valid concerns. She makes up protocols and procedures that are not aligned with district protocols and procedures just to create obstacles to parental involvement.

Plymouth Elementary has top rated teachers who really care about their students beyond the classroom setting. My child had some learning difficulties through his kindergarten school year and his teacher took him under her wing scholastically, but also attanded his T-Ball games outside of school on her own time, plus she lives in another State. You can't get teachers in every school dictrict that are that this dedicated to seeing their pupils excel, even in the kindergarten class.

The plus side is that many of the teachers are quite caring and the school is safe. Unfortunately, that desire for safety goes way too far here. They have lots of security measures (most of which don't actually provide any real security) and the administrative staff think their job is to make sure you never get in the building. I've had the office staff block me from going to meetings with teachers, because they "had to double check if I was supposed to be there". When they usually let me through half my meeting time has been wasted. This school seems to have the attitude of "Give us your child and go away". Other "safety" measures are equally paranoid and counterproductive. They make children always travel the halls in pairs (even to the bathroom!). This doubles the amount of time children are out of the classroom. As a result they have reduced the amount of recess to just 15 minutes a day, which gets further reduced since they have to all stand quietly in a straight line before they are allowed to go play (all 24 kids per class!), And the whole process has to be repeated on the return trip before the 15 minutes are over. Result: playtime is just 7-1/2 minutes a day.

My daughter is now in the second grade and I love this school not only was Mrs. Heartel her first grade teacher but Mrs.Heartel actually took the time to work with my daughter help her achieve her education goals. All the staff in this school really care about your child and every time there was a problem they all worked hard to solve any issues this school is 100 in my book