5232 Forest Brook Pkwy
Marietta, GA 30068

Mount Bethel Elementary is not at all what it appears from its stats and rankings. If your child is an average learner, he or she will thrive here just fine. If your child is on either end of the learning spectrum, MBES is a failure to the child, parents and larger community they inhabit. I have one child that is gifted and finds MBES extremely boring and unchallenging - he finds the school just teaches you to take tests and not actually LEARN and retain anything. There has been such teacher turnover at this school that for the past 3 years my son has had a new to school/county teacher. Thankfully he is independent and has been able to manage. However, this is not what you want you for your child - is to "manage" and survive instead of thriving.My other child has struggled in her classroom and I have had to advocate to find answers because the school was not giving me any..and instead trying to box her into being a "social, inattentive, distracted" child. We did private evals and assessments to get answers and we are now on an endless journey to find her support thru the system. The administrators will send you forms lazily filled out and just running through the motions and transactions of the system without any real care or concern for the child or parent. You as the parent have to fight like hell to get them to listen and give resources even when there are LEGAL implications and disabilities involved. Through this process, I have learned the education system is broken like so many other things in our society. This school that we moved for is also just in it all for optics (look at our Turf! look at all the money our foundation raises! look at our PTA!) and statistics - it's all just for Instagram likes and stories - but no real substance when you as a parent need it. I simply told the school I do not want my child to lose the spark she has today because she's in the wrong environment and not getting the support she needs - that simple ask is too much for a school like MBES. I repeat - if your child is on either end of the learning spectrum, MBES is a failure to the child, parents and larger community they inhabit.

Very competitive school. Most teachers are great (although, there are exceptions). They do an excellent job preparing kids for college. From my experience, administration is very attentive and supportive. I am very happy we sent both of our girls to Waton High. My older is now a freshmen in Honors college in UGA, while her sister is a sophomore in Walton

The needs of kids with mental health special needs is abhorrent