The Astoria Plan in Midpoint Meadows by Veridian Homes
Madison, WI 53719

Great! It’s our first year here. It took some time for our kids to adjust but are now fliurishing.

I have found the teachers to be very professional. I am impressed with the effort put forth by the entire district to make things better. The struggle that all schools have is the maturity level of the students. It is difficult to provide an effective lesson plan to a class when one or more students are being disruptive. When I was in high school, there were several students that were going to drop out as soon as they could (when they turned 16). But before then, they were always pushing the boundaries. We need to come up with another plan for the kids that don't want to be in high school.

I'm writing this as a parent with a kid at the school, for all prospective families. My child has an IEP and needs significant support. Some support staff here (case managers, SEAs) are amazing. I'm not sure what we'd do without them, really. They are the glue that keeps things together over there. I don't know how they do it, they handle so many different types of kids with special needs with empathy and love and guidance. I'd say about half of the teachers follow the IEP, and are communicative and helpful and truly do want all kids to succeed, incuding special needs ones. My kid has grown and learned and gotten self-confidence with them, we are so grateful. They are really incredible people, those good teachers. I have to wonder how long they will be at BRMS, I'm not sure how supportive the admin is to them.The other half of teachers won't follow anything on the IEP, leaving my child without support, frustrated, lost, and worse. They are too busy with overachieving students, and mine doesn't matter. They won't help, or reply to parent emails, or support alternative learning. One refused to send paper copies of assignments when we couldn't access digital ones. Eventually she sent paper copies with no instructions, after we got our case manager involved. Another decided that helping my kid was too much trouble, and marked all assignments as excused, rather than help us! The administration. Oof. As nice as they are, the help we get feels more about them protecting their status quo than helping all kids succeed. They don't address bullying in a good way. They rely on suspensions as teaching methods (which doesn't work, science backs this up). They try to be so PC that some kids get screwed, and others are allowed to bully freely. Our kid was attacked and severely wounded, and admin didn't want to follow up with the attackers! Us parents had to insist. Admin said it was too hard because the attackers were Latino and they needed an interpreter. Really? My family is biracial but "light enough" so we stand no chance for justice. I hate to say this, but bullies that are not white are rarely disciplined, and they know it so they escalate. This is pervasive in the Verona school district, I could say the same about elementary schools.Overall, I'd say BRMS is a mixed bag, like most public schools. Lower your expectations, be grateful for the good people, don't let admin and lazy teachers get away with bad things.