7968 Austrian Pine Cir, Manlius, NY 13104

This school does some things very well. The teachers are fantastic, and there are excellent extracurricular opportunities, particularly music and art. However, the school came nowhere close to meeting our children's needs. The curriculum and administration are inflexible and very unfriendly (either through ignorance or intentionally, hard to tell) towards kids with high academic ability. All classes are grouped heterogeneously, meaning the strongest students are divided among different classes; effectively limiting their chances to interact with academic peers. There are only 2 honors courses (not counting foreign lang), both in eighth grade; algebra is considered honors, but half the students take it and the pace/depth are consistent with regular classes, honors in name only, too much repetition and review. For humanities, all students are grouped together, again with very slow pace and low expectations. My kids were not challenged, and started high school years behind some of their peers in other districts (particularly in math) due to the inflexible policies (no acceleration, etc). The school has very high stand. test scores, but this is partly due to the no-acceleration policy.

I agree with another person's comments about Jonna Johnson. She is a really good principal and has a very difficult task of trying to please a lot of different stakeholders while ensuring that children of all diverse backgrounds and learning levels are obtaining the best education they can receive in this day in age. She is also constantly trying to find better ways of engaging with all of the stakeholders, notably the parents and teachers. This is what you need with an elementary school principal. I really can't imagine what any given day is like for her given what she has to juggle. She is also lucky to have a good staff to support her and the children.