My son was a kindergartner at Woodrow this past year, and I have filed an administrative complaint…read moreagainst the principal JOANNA O'BRIEN and am in the process of transferring him to a new school for first grade. I didn't know what to expect for the first year that my son is in school, but I have had an awful and truly unacceptable experience at Woodrow. I saw one review claiming that Woodrow doesn't notify parents when their child is hurt at school, and I can corroborate that claim with my own experiences. One day, my son came home and told me that another child had choked him at recess. I know that adults were present and aware of what happened because my son told me that an adult talked to the child who choked him afterward; but I was never notified about it. Another day, my son came home with a black eye after another child had accidentally kicked him in the face at recess (he was walking too close to the swing set); and again, I was never notified about it. I was only told what happened when I took my son into the office and wanted answers. My son could have been seriously hurt in both of these situations, and not only was I not notified about them; but my son didn't receive any medical attention! Unfortunately, this is not the worst of my experience with Woodrow. One day, I received a phone call from Woodrow that my son had had an accident and was in the office. I went to the school, and when I got there; I asked my son what happened. He told me that he had asked his teacher to use the bathroom, and she asked him if he could "hold it". He told her that he couldn't; and she said, "I think you can," and then he wet his pants. My son was embarrassed and upset. I complained to a woman in the office, and she said that she would "let someone know". It was obvious that she had no intention of doing that, however; considering that she didn't even bother to ask who had denied my son the right to use the bathroom, even after he had told his teacher that he couldn't "hold it". I asked her, "Don't you want to know the teacher's name?" and she said, "Oh yeah," as if it was an after thought. Her indifference and lack of action made it VERY clear that Woodrow does NOTHING to keep students safe or to hold staff members accountable for incompetence or misconduct. Again, it gets WORSE! For context - Parents can drop off afternoon kindergartners as early as 10:20 am, but the bell doesn't ring until 10:27 am; so drop off time for afternoon kindergartners is between 10:20 am and 10:27 am. For the first half of the school year, I dropped my son off at 10:20 every day. One day, I had to be at work early; so I dropped my son off at 10:19, and I instructed him to sit in the office until 10:20. There were other kindergartners and their parents gathered outside the school, and I saw my son's teacher walking toward them to unlock the gate for them and let them in. I waited until my son was inside the office, and I left. After school when I picked up my son, I was reprimanded by his teacher for dropping him off 60 SECONDS early. I was told that I left him "unsupervised", despite the fact that there were kindergartners, their parents, and office staff (who he was directly supervised by for the entirety of the 60 seconds that he waited) present. After that day, I changed my work availability so that I had more time in between dropping my son off at school and work; and I started dropping him off by 10:27 every day. Unfortunately, dropping my son off by 10:27 also seemed to be a problem for his teacher, who regularly passive-aggressively projected her frustrations onto my six year old. My son told me that his teacher (the same teacher who reprimanded me for dropping him off early) made MULTIPLE statements to him over the course of the second half of the school year along the lines of, "You need to tell your mom to be on time," etc. To clarify, 10:27 IS ON TIME; and regardless, talking badly to a six year old about his parent(s) is inappropriate and unacceptable. What's even more inappropriate and unacceptable, however; is that on April 1st, my son came home and told me that his teacher had given everyone in his class "pop it" bracelets except him. When he asked his teacher, "What about me?" she responded that the bracelets "are for kids who are on time," THIS IS NOT OKAY! This behavior indicates low emotional intelligence at the LEAST and is very concerning. Dysfunctional adults are in no position to be in the presence of, much less to be responsible for children. That being said, I'll move on to the straw that broke the camel's back. I'll post the rest of my experience in pictures since I've exceeded the text limit.

Woodrow is a very inviting and wonderful school. Teachers and staff are very helpful. Dr. O'Brien…read moredoes an exceptional job as principal and school leader.