2208 W Kelly Creek Dr
Meridian, ID 83642

A deeply disappointing experience at Chaparral Elementary SY 2023-2024.I truly regret not withdrawing my son from this school sooner. He previously attended A Step Ahead Preschool, where he thrived—he was excited to go every day and approached learning with enthusiasm and confidence. Unfortunately, that all changed after enrolling at Chaparral.From the start, we noticed a significant decline in his enthusiasm for school. He became withdrawn and less confident when faced with new learning tasks. The most distressing incident, however, was when my wife picked him up from school and discovered he had been left in soiled clothing after an accident. Our son had peed his pants—a first for him, ever—and despite asking his teacher for a change of clothes, he was left in the same state for the rest of the school day. This level of neglect is inexcusable.When we raised the issue with the principal, she acknowledged that the situation was unacceptable and called it a "red flag." We then arranged a meeting with her and the teacher, but the meeting itself only further highlighted the school's lack of professionalism. The teacher arrived late, and we were told we had only 15 minutes to speak. Rather than addressing our concerns, the conversation was steered toward complaints about our child. They completely disregarded the fact that, just the day before, we had to pick him up early after the school nurse informed us he had been injured when another child picked him up and dropped him—resulting in him hitting his head on the floor.The leadership at this school is seriously lacking. The principal does not appear to be a neutral, empathetic, or effective advocate for students or their families. While I want to believe that there are good teachers at Chaparral, the one assigned to our son showed a troubling lack of care and basic responsibility.I hope our experience serves as a cautionary tale for other parents. We want our children to feel safe, supported, and seen—and sadly, Chaparral failed on all counts.

Above average. I LOVE this school and so do my kids!

It was a bad experience at SMS with teachers and leaders.

The teachers at this school are horrendous and the school only cares about students passing and not the students actual learning. I have struggled severely in multiple classes, due to teachers not teaching well and not putting out information on teams when they were supposed to. It’s currently the last week in the semester to submit work and one of my teachers still has not graded a test from 2 weeks ago. We currently only have 1 day left to retake that test but that teacher has still yet to put the grade in. The faculty does not care about mental health either. The history/government department is outrageous and I’ve never had a positive experience with any of those teachers, they also don’t give any slack to students with severe health problems. Most of the teachers are brand new as well, causing them to not have any good experience with teaching. For college applications, the advisors started talking to the seniors about this mid first semester of senior year; when most schools start the discussion of this topic junior year. I would not recommend this school to upcoming students.

The principal and much of the staff are great, and the school’s approach allows kids to learn in an academic setting without overloading them, meaning they can still enjoy their childhood. They also implement some fun experiences into the school year. I would personally rate it an 8/10 for academics. The coursework has been a bit easy for my kids at times, but that’s just required me talking to their teachers about finding ways to challenge them. Overall, we’re very happy at this school.