8564 Benbow Merrill Rd
Oak Ridge, NC 27310

School is super dumpy (high school too)...they ask the community$$ to fix up the trailers (moldy & gross). They need to level this school!! Starting with the front office staff, who are rude to students AND parents AND they are even rude to the teachers. Not sure where all of this displaced authority came from for the front office staff to behave this way. Autistic kids are bulled relentlessly and then when they defend themselves, they are sent to the office instead of the bully. Barely any tax $ makes it way to this school. Poor school safety measures (other than a Sheriff stationed between the 2 schools). Nothing state of the art about this school---POOR technology, grounds are a mess. Most teachers do not go the extra mile for students struggling unless you approach them multiple times (even then you'll be lucky if they follow through)---just too many to a classroom.

Girls basketball coach needs to be replaced. No girls want to go out because she down grades them. Just ask (the girls) There absence policy is ridiculous In someways for example, if I you are out with surgery, You must make up extra hours in the classroom. This should be counted as one absent not five or ten absents. When possible, you should be allowed to make-up online. Pay more attention to what teachers really do. some great teachers some really bad teachers. Stop allowing vaping.

I pulled my children from this school and do not recommend it unless you couldn’t care less about what they are actually learning. The classrooms are crowded, having too many students per classroom. The teachers and faculty are ONLY concerned about test scores for “End of Year Grades” (EOG’s). If teachers don’t get high test scores at end-of-year…they are not asked back! The PTO was awful, extremely unwelcoming to new families, no interest in new parent involvement…you need to be fake, stuck up, pretentious, and a gossip queen to join. No thank you. Recesses are few and far between, especially if there is even a chance it might sprinkle outside or get below 50 degrees…the teachers are lazy and don’t want to go outside. They huddle in groups and children get bullied. The district closes the schools in Guilford County with a chance of snow or hard rain, missing several days of school during the school year and the students go to school until almost the end of June to make up days. The car rider line is INSANE. You have to park at 7:15 in the line, a 30 minute wait until they start the line moving for K-5. This isn’t bc of Covid…it is normal. They need to allow students to come into the school at different times by gradesK-2, 3-4, then 4-5, and multi grade families last. We have done this at other schools and it was extremely efficient because of teacher involvement. Not sure why these suggestions go unheard. Many parents complain. You have to get into the car rider line at 1:00 and wait an hour until they let out or your child will get in the huge cluster outside of unorganized chaos, unattended and bullied. Fights break out and the teachers say “they didn’t see it”, so there are no consequences for behavior. One of my children was bullied so badly that I had to get outside professional counseling to help. The school counselor was a joke. The Principal and Vice Principal in particular could not have cared less. As long as their test scores were good, they weren’t interested. I would rather homeschool than send my children back there. Terrible.