Dallas Plan in Willow Estates by Maronda Homes
Irwin, PA 15642

Disappointing. This school is overloaded with students - typical class sizes of 27 students. Some teachers still care, others seem burned out, intolerant and frustrated with the kids. There are posters lining the hallways about cherishing individuality and zero tolerance toward bullying, but that message doesn't go past the posters. Individuality is not accepted, and seems to be frustrating to the overloaded teachers. Verbal bullying seems to be fairly common. When brought to the teacher and administration's attention, they attack the one being bullied as too sensitive and a provocateur. We had great experiences at Norwin Elementary Schools, but the Intermediate School is mediocre at best.

If your child is a white student that plays a sport, then you'll be just fine. If they are anything outside of that, buckle up. I went to this school and stayed in the district because it is a safe district overall. However, I thought the bullying was bad back then - phew! There was an incident that honestly could have been assault charges and I did not receive a single call from the school. I had to find out when my child got off the bus in full blown tears. The teachers were notified and the principal was notified but never received a call. When I addressed this with him he told me he was "busy today". Too busy to notify a parent that their child was assaulted in school in front of multiple students!? My son is not the only example of extreme bullying. Just watch a Youtube clip on how those school board meetings go. They are the biggest bullies of them all - NO JOKE. Something needs to change and people need to get back to worrying about the mental and physical well being of these kids. It is truly sad. We don't want raised taxes and a new football field... we want our kids to feel safe and not be in tears because not a single adult does anything to take them seriously. They cut a lot of the counselors, though. That'll do it. NOT ALL ARE WELCOME HERE - Even the school board told us that. Look up "All are welcome here Norwin". GOODLUCK.

Great curriculum and tons of activities. Lots of AP courses and college credit opportunities. Elective courses are very good. The law class even takes the kids to an actual court room during a trial! Just awesome.

All Norwin elementary schools have a lottery system set up where you have to “win” full day kindergarten. Some of the kids (I think I remember a 30% statistic) receive half day kindergarten. They make this choice based on which kids get highest the scores on their entry test. Basically, if you’ve sent your kid to a good preschool, get ready to pay for another year of half days. That’s bad enough on it’s own, but because they can’t bus the half day kindergarteners in the middle of the day, all of kindergarten is only allowed one way transportation. You have to pick your kid up from school every day at 3:25pm. The car line takes approximately 20 minutes to sit through. And this isn’t a one time event. Every kid who goes into kindergarten must be picked up, so if you have multiple small kids who are entering kindergarten several years apart, you’ll have to pick them all up each year you have a child enrolled in Kindergarten. It’s prevented me from going back to work for a year longer than I thought I’d have to wait, and I’m not sure what I’ll do when my son goes to Kindergarten. We’re trying to move out of the school district. If you think you’re going to change it, Kindergarten is not compulsory in PA, and bussing is considered a privilege. I’ve already looked up my rights. I don’t have any recourse beyond warning other parents.