1407 Hamlin Valley Dr
Houston, TX 77090

This schools is THE WORST middle school to send your kids to.Recently someone close to me has faced bullying at this school and has been suspended many times for defending himself. Another thing is that staff target certain students and hand out punishments for trivial things. The students at this school are HIGHLY disrespectful and curse and call eachother racial slurs ALL day. It’s gotten so bad to the point kids can feel very uncomfortable and unsafe around other kids to the point of walking out of classrooms because of the arguments amongst students which instead of punishment for the 2 arguing they can get suspended just for leaving an uncomfortable space. Also the students are very rude and kids commonly go home crying or reporting bullies only for nothing to get done about it. Also the school caters more to Hispanic and other lighter skinned people which is VERY apparent from the amount of young black girls being dress coded for wearing nearly identical outfits to those of European origins. Another that makes wells middle A VERY uncomfortable poorly educated school is the dress coding of YOUNG minors especially when it comes to the black students and when the staffing is majorly non black it’s even more obvious. Also non black students DO NOT get in trouble for saying racial slurs (n word) out loud whereas black students can face punishment and even suspensions if they say anything to defend themselves. Lastly this school is TERRIBLE at communicating and doesn’t return calls, talk to parents and some of the more uneducated staff even avoid talking to parents by pretending to be on calls when people report they are actually sitting in a lunch room doing nothing.( from an actual situation where a staff kept saying they were in a meeting and then students came and said they were in the lunchroom doing nothing) which is absolutely ridiculous.

Ive been a parent to multiple students at Ponderosa Elementary for roughly 4-5 years now.Not to say it was the best to school to Begin with, but the recent change are atrocious. Now the New Kindergarten teacher is extremely great, she has my little 1 reading in KG! But other than that, its as if the other teachers don't take their job seriously, at times it seems like a complete joke. Everything from little kids fighting on a daily basis... to little elementary school kids being caught Vaping....Where are the teachers? On top of that the School majority amount Group Punishment...for an entire grade level... For example...if 1 3rd child talks at the wrong time...All 3rd grade children are punished. Pure Laziness!Along with the fact that it seems the Teachers are absolutely overwhelmed, this website 1 teacher per 14 students? absolute joke, try more like 24-30 students per teacher. That's why Group Punishment is favored... other than individually taking time to address the students... they have too many to address... They where short staff on Bus Drivers... so they hired a bunch of Temp's... who would literally drop children off miles from their bus stop, simply at the wrong address...Ignore the child when they tell you its the wrong stop, tell them to walk. Happening to 1 child 1 time. Ok, Mistakes are understandable..But multiple children being dropped at the wrong location....multiple times... also being forcfully held on a bus due to ignorant Bus Driver. Safe to say the School is Circling the Gutter if not already in it, Luckily enough its definitely my last year with this School.

I went to school here from 1998-2002. It was a good school. Alot has changed since then, mostly the influx of disadvantaged and low income families to the area, which is a tough challenge. Katrina brought alot of the new students to the area where many have come from difficult circumstances. I wish the school all the best, there are certainly many areas to work on.