Merton Primary School

This school is terrible for special needs. While the therapists have been great, the special education has been awful. My son struggled for 2.5 years and they kept blaming him. I even took him to Children’s to their Child Development Clinic where he was diagnosed as intellectually disabled. The school still didn’t change their approach until they brought in their own consultant. The staff is inexperienced and doesn’t know how to handle special needs. The administration is even worse. They could care less about the special needs kids. They are always an afterthought. They make changes and policies that don’t work for special needs and don’t care. Stay far away from this school!

We moved to this district because we had heard great things about the principal and because they have a larger (i.e, more inclusive) student body. We previously came from a district that had very little and poor special education support. We have been very pleased with the willingness of this school to work with us, and to meet the needs of our child who struggles with severe mental health issues, but is also highly intelligent. Mr. Budisch, the principal, is amazing! It is obvious he cares about all the students, and his staff as well. There is only one reason a person with his experience stays in the same role for so long: he truly loves it! And it shows. We have also worked extensively with Mrs. Day, as well as our son's primary teacher. Both are wonderful and genuinely interested in supporting our child and helping our child succeed.

We moved in the middle of the school year from a state ranked 1st nationally for their public education. Our daughter was in 5K and had the privilege of being placed in Mrs. Shannon's class. She Skyped with us before our official move so our daughter could meet her new classmates and even Skyped with her old classroom after we moved so our daughter could see her old classmates. This is just a small example of how great this school is. Most parents participate and contribute making the school even better. The whole school from other parents, administration, and especially our teacher exceeded our every expectation! We know we made an excellent choice by choosing Merton Primary and living in the community. We look forward to continuing our academic journey here.

This school in general is ok. We had great expectation and not so good experience. The principal is great but the worst problems we came across are the teachers. Some of them personally disliked my child (only 5 years old). My child would come back home crying that teachers are yelling at him and he didn't want to go back to school the next day. I have never had such situation before. These teachers didn't like that he was more of a individualist. They do not know how to get the child involved and interested in a lesson, neither do they care as I talk to them few times. They let their personal feelings get in a way of responsible teaching. I personally talk to them few times and it didn't help. They seem like the have no clue how to talk to my child and they just assume my child is a problem. Also, I decided not to do the bus as I was afraid my son will be lost after what I had seen in the morning. At this point I have to contact someone higher level.