SARASOTA Plan in Highmeadow by Drees Homes
Morrow, OH 45152

My spectrum child had an excellent experience at the elementary school. The administration was well educated and understanding of neurodivergent children. He really thrived at the school, because they understood gifted children, and they understood that not all children are exactly the same.That said, the middle school is very different. The administration is not as informed or progressive in the education of neurodivergent children. They want outgoing cookie cutter kids. Any kids who do not fit in their molds face discrimination and bullying from the teachers. I have been appalled by the childish behavior from teachers who should be able to hold their emotions in check. One even crumpled up my child’s schoolwork and threw it in the trash. Adults need to do better than this. Unfortunately at the middle school, these seem to be teachers who hate their jobs and hate any kid that isn’t cool and popular.

School do nothing when kids are sexually or physically assaulted because it "wasn't caught on camera". Same cameras that go down all the time and are "too blurry" to tell who's who. Zero tolerance policy is an absolute joke! Laptops don't block anything. Kids sit on social media and YouTube all day. Kids can go all semester without doing work and turn everything in the last week and pass with papers that look like an elementary schooler wrote them. They cancel book fairs because of a book option, but allow kids to identify as cats. Offer mental health options, but there's constant turnover so kids never see the same therapist, if they see one at all. Parents are pulling their kids out of the school constantly and going to ither districts or online options, yet they still don't see a problem. Turn off commenting on social media to hide it all. We moved here for the schools. Sad it's come to this.

We are a military family so we have experienced the good, bad, and ugly of what schools can offer. My son is in 6th grade now and since pre-K has attended 8 schools in total. One of which was home schooling. My son had two teachers at this school in the fifth grade, and both are wonderful. They were quick to respond to my concerns, and always had a sympathetic ear. They were wonderful with my son, and he loved them both. My son had a few learning concerns, some topics needed reinforcement and some topics he needed more of a challenge. In this year’s program they reinforced responsibility by having each child responsible for their assignments and turning work in with the use of a large binder. The school has grades reported online usually within 24 hrs and the teachers have their own webpage for updates on class. The online grade's allowed me peace of mind that he was actually taking this responsibility seriously and submitting all work on time. Even on an occasion where my son forgot to turn in his work, his teacher was very kind and let him submit it late. He did subtract points for lateness which was not only expected but reinforced my son's understanding of the need for submitting work on time. They both took the time to work with my son as an individual to improve his education and not as just another number in a class.

This school isn’t even open anymore. After the principal left with two weeks left in the school year, this school was replaced with LM Elementary, which has 4th & 5th grade.