N McDermott, Meridian, ID 83646

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 He became withdrawn and less confident when faced with new learning tasks.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.

Our two daughters were transferred from Chaparral Elementary in the rezoning last year. Our first year at Ponderosa we saw a fairly seamless transference in IEP goals and implementation. I love our teachers and so I say this more as a light criticism of our school district and our State: our teachers are over worked, underpaid, and the number of children to teacher ratio is insane. Based off what little resources these schools have, I'm continually impressed by teacher and staff knowledge of disabilities and their tools and their willingness to apply advice and tools provided by outside counsel and parents. Idaho, please make education a priority. Please. That said, there is a serious bullying problem at this school. My daughter's have come home in tears, with skinned knees, and bruised arms. An email to staff resulted in nothing. No response, either. My daughters both have ASD. It's been horrible. One daughter had a complete mental break down resulting in therapy. DO NOT go to this school if you have kids with disabilities or they are introverted. Fights happen in the school yard. It's a zoo. I believe, based on the positive experiences I've had with the IEP teams at this school, that staff simply don't have the resources to deal with the bullying. We are switching schools this year.