Pine Plain
Gaston, SC 29053

Before anyone decides to post a grammatical message and criticize someone else s penmanship, maybe one should review their own mistakes, and get someone to edit their misspelled comments. With that said..... Students do as well as their parents encourage them to. When a child becomes 14 years old (high school age), their ability to distinguish the right path, the quality and value of the life that they potential would like to make for themselves, that should have been instilled in their upbringing (home.) Teachers teach, enhance, and teach additional skills. Teachers are not God, though some do change minds of a repetitive pattern of dysfunctional lifestyles and skills that were taught, or even perhaps never implanted at home. It disturbs me how we want to point the finger at the teachers, the district, and never ourselves for the choices that we have made and the values we have taught our children. The Calhoun County School district has been rewarded,and recognized for its excellence and achievements. Please lift that up by posting positive comments, instead of what wrong with YOUR child. Support your children and the school district and do not contribute to the problem.

Post pandemic, the school does not provide a welcoming environment to parents. Some teachers seem more concerned with pushing their personal agendas than with teaching the curriculum.Communication is very, very poor. (Announcements of events often come home on the day of the event or sometimes after it is over.) Emails, letters, and phone calls to some teachers do not get answered (or returned.)While there are a few caring and kind teachers who devote their life and time to the education of the children, unfortunately they are severely outnumbered. (We have experienced a parent-teacher conference held by a teacher’s aid. The teacher walked into the session, declared she did not know our child (who had been in her class for several months at that point), and then left again. District transportation is incredibly unreliable. Bus drivers frequently change routes. Pick-up and drop-off times also change (without any notice.) Buses break down regularly. Phones do not get answered after dismissal, so when a bus breaks down (unless a child has access to their own phone), parents are left wondering where their children are (sometimes for hours.) There is a lot that needs improvement and the area has an amazing community of people willing to contribute. Unfortunately, those in the position to make decisions do not appear to welcome change, contributions or community/parental involvement.