513 Drexel Ave
Decatur, GA 30030

I have been highly impressed with the quality of education that my son has received in his fifth grade class. Homework has been a little rigorous but that has paid off substantially in an increase in his skillset beyond what we could have expected. It is a safe and high achieving environment and I am quite pleased.

I’ve been very pleased with the middle school so far. The structure with 4 teams (at least for 6th grade), is conducive to fostering friendships and relationships in a very large school. I love that the kids get daily foreign language classes, and the specials classes are engaging and stimulating. The school has a variety of clubs, and some sports teams that are accessible, although I’d like to see more (eg a JV and Varsity soccer team).

This entire district is imploding on itself due to intense pressure from the community to enable students' self-destructive, out of control behavior. None of the parents want any structure for their kids, so the kids all just run wild. Bullying, fighting, drug use, sex, violence towards teachers, threats, and intimidation - it all gets rewarded by administration with chips or cookies and preferred activities like computer games and skipping class. Decatur schools are a swirling vortex of volatile hormonal madness. Admin are powerless to do anything, so they just sweep everything under the rug and pretend it's okay. Teachers and administrators who attempt to hold students to any expectations get attacked and persecuted. The few students in each class who want to learn get labeled and targeted by bullies. Bullies and their uneducated loud mouthed parents run the schools and the only education anyone is receiving is "how to use manipulation to get out of anything." We sold our house and moved to get out and I'm so glad we did.

I had planned to homeschool my boys because I couldn't imagine a school system that would nurture them as individuals even existed anymore. I was wrong. Although I was at first very apprehensive about putting my now-Kindergartener into a traditional school environment, Westchester quickly exceeded my every expectation. Even though it's only been reopened for two years after having been closed 10, it is a close-knit community and all the right things are emphasized in terms of values, from kindness and empathy to critical thinking and perseverance. This goes for all types of learners -- they seem to very much respect the individual child and their needs and don't expect to manufacture cookie cutter kids created from cookie cutter teaching. Additionally, as this is an EL school (expeditionary learning), the kids learn from real world experiences and examples as much as possible, rather than being asked to use rote memorization with no context. My child's teacher, Mrs. Mansfield, is particularly passionate about nature and the outdoors, and ensures that they spend as much time learning as possible while in natural surroundings, including subjects like writing, which they sometimes do in the outdoor classroom when weather permits. As for the staff, from the top down, everyone with whom I've had any kind of contact as been helpful and genuinely interested in my child's wellbeing. Ms Lofstrand is an outstanding administrator and I don't know how we got so lucky as to have her, but I can't imagine a better principal. From their amazing speech language pathologist, to their music teacher to "Miss Susie" at the front desk, my kiddo is surrounded by people who genuinely care, and as a parent, it's hard to ask for more than that. It does feel like a family, and I'm truly excited for my youngest to start there in 2017.