5550 MARDIS Place E
Jacksonville, FL 32205

It's really a heartbreak to send your kid to this place -- this is what we experienced in the one year we attended: numerous fights; bathrooms often closed; movement in the building so restricted during lunch that some kids couldn't really always get lunch; security guards made kids shake out their binders onto the floor in the hallway; an English teacher showed a highly inaccurate movie inspired by Beowulf instead of having kids read it (and the teacher oblivious that the film is way off); another teacher told kids that hurricanes in the Americas are created by the souls of enslaved people; my son would send me cell phone videos during class of multiple students just sleeping on their desks while the teacher was doing nothing. This place extinguished my son's interest in school. The name is being changed (which is great), but I hope the rest of the place can be improved for the general students. At the open house, all the principal talked about were the special tracks like early high school and the engineering program, which might not be so bad -- but what about the majority of the kids? We discovered that few of the more appealing course offerings were actually available.

Be cuz it is it’s at that school and kids coming home heart

My son went to this school last year. It was a last minute thing when he didn’t get approved for another school. From the very beginning I had an issue with an unprofessional teacher who made my sons 4th grade year miserable, she was very unkind and my sons grades dropped so low for the first time in his life. Now my son is at a new school this year and is top of his class already. It shows the school was the issue not my son. Even though his teacher made me and him feel like it was him. Also bullying is horrible here.

My children come home telling me how long it takes to log in to the computer. If we are moving to this new advance technology world why is it that the lowest performing schools have the WORST, oldest, & slowest computers & system? They have a wonderful Team Up program that help my children do their homework and offer enrichment activities that they only get once a week during the regular school hours. The director and lead teacher are great. My children love them.