1663 Jefferson Ave SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49507

I used to work at this school, and it was the worst experience of my life. There is no leadership at this school. The principal wrote unprofessional emails and doesn't have an understanding of confidentiality!!! There is no behavior plan for student's negative behavior. Students can basically do whatever they want and have no real consequences. I would literally send students to the office for physical altercations, and the office staff would simply send them back. I couldn't believe how bad behavior was swept under the rug. The office staff/principal basically promoted an 'unsafe' learning environment because of how bad behavior was dealt with. Also, the parents that send their children to this school are completely passive and uninvolved when it comes to their child's learning and behavior.When I worked here, I would have anxiety once I walked through the doors of this school. If a teacher was sick/out, there would always be no substitutes, so basically, all of those students in that class would be liquidated to other classrooms adding fuel to an already problematic classroom. (That happened a lot too!! I would say weekly) In addition, whenever a special's teacher was sick/out, the teacher would never get their planning time. The general education teacher would just have to deal with the students during their planning time WITHOUT NOTICE. No one in the office would inform the teaching staff that the special's teacher was out either. In addition, there was absolutely no support for special education services either. The Sped teacher would come around 1x a week for like 30 minutes. I was completely in shock that students who needed services were not receiving proper services. (At a typical school, students who needed special education services would see the Special Education teacher a minimum of 3x per week. This by no means was fault of the special education teacher as there was only 1 teacher for the whole school!! She was servicing students in all grades (K-8 grade). If you are a parent and care about your child's education, not only would I not recommend Dickinson Elementary School, but I would steer clear from the GRPS district entirely. If you are a teacher looking for a job, RUN. You are NOT going to feel supported working at the school. You will leave this school exhausted. I was constantly putting fires out in my classroom and had no time to actually teach. The whole situation is entirely sad, as these students deserve more.