great school, nice teachers, Mr. A was my kindergarten teacher and he was the best teacher ive ever…read morehad, so was Mr. Vaugh, Ms. Bryant, and Mr. olive, my little sister still currently go there and its the best elementary school in the area, highly recommended!

Very nice. Teachers were nice. The school has a nice format and the work is easy(for most of us)…read more2021 is when the school was at its peak though.

John Dower is the name of this school. My initial thought from appearance is that the building from…read morethe outside lacks luster and looks a bit creepy. I hate that I prejudged. Once I toured the school the property seems to be well maintained. This includes the classrooms. The staff was welcoming and friendly, which is important to me. The principal seems to be quite involved. I was honestly horrified by the low scores of the school however I have come to learn that parent involvement plays a large roll in the success of your children. Last but not least, I am pleased with the structure and curriculum.

ETA: The new leadership team is amazing. The school went through some challenging times, but it's…read moreback to feeling like a home away from home again.

Think hard, don't lie to yourself... Does your child need a bit of support academically? Do you…read morethink they might? Do you want small class sizes? Are they on meds that need to be administered at school? Are they Neurodiverse (Dyslexic, Anxiety, ADHD, Autistic, Dyscalculia, etc.)? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, this school probably isn't for you. We really loved the school when the kid was younger. But, partway through the lower school, supports and amenities suddenly got a lot more scarce! The Middle School is even worse. Were the staff at fault? Usually not. Decisions were made and the kids that needed a bit of help paid the price. There isn't a school nurse. They have remodeled some of the specialist-type classrooms to convert them into classrooms. There has been quite a bit of staff leaving in the last 5 years. There isn't a real 9:1 kid to teacher ratio in practice, they use alternative accounting practices including counting staff members like the librarian (kids see the librarian for an hour or less per week while most teachers rush back to their rooms for preparation time leaving the librarian often alone with the kids). Teacher assistants in the lower school are not necessarily full time and are often pulled from class to cover teachers and things like playground duties. The administration is actively trying to add more students per class, and more classes overall, as all administrators are prone to do. In short, while it is a beautiful school, it isn't for everyone. Try not to be dazzled and ask the hard questions. See if this is right for your family. It is an expensive question to get wrong.

Let's just say they're great at forcing you, as the parent, to do what they want by threatening…read more But god forbid you turn around and fight back because they'll simply kick your kid out of school and/or deny/delay services, forge documents, allow teachers to belittle you and your kids, lie about and stretch the truth, get justice through continued punishments towards your child... the list goes on, and on and on. We thought we were making progress, but (in hindsight) were treated like children and talked down to while the teachers, principal(s), dean of students,(school staff in general), school liaisons, and ESPECIALLY the Assistant Superintendent, Othene Wade ALL spoke to and treated my husband and I like we were children that needed to be taught how to "do as they told us" even when it was wrong and would cause damaging effects on our child and his progress. But they don't care and NO ONE in the school was willing to step up in our child's defense against her! Instead they're supporting and backing the their teacher who forged and lied on paperwork that got our child to lose his waiver!! This is by far the worst experience for our family and our for our child. Our fight continues, but this district, especially Mrs. Wade, has proven to our family that they'll say it, but they won't follow through and they really just don't give two sh!@$ about your kids!! DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE FINDING YOUR HOME SCHOOL!!! OR... JUST HOMESCHOOL AND PULL THE MONEY OUT OF THEIR GREEDY POCKETS!!!