Arrowhead

Showed obvious signs of neglect while attending this school when I was younger. School never ever even asked about home life, took me to the councilor or reported it. Had a teacher in 2nd grade that was extremely rude to kids, and after that year wouldn’t even look at me. Also in 2nd grade, a boy in my class would hit on himself when stressed/ got things wrong, sometimes extremely hard and teachers would say “don’t do that” before going back to whatever they were doing. Once i ended up dislocating my knee during a P.E. Activity. Got to sit in a chair for about 5-10 minutes before being forced back into P.E., despite still being in pain. My guardian didn’t even get a text about the inquiry… Hopefully this school has changed since then, but for now I still wouldn’t put my trust in it.

We are a Jewish family that was repatriating and looking for a new Jewish day school and synagogue. We were hopeful but found the experience to be disappointing and quite hurtful. We have twin boys that were entering 5th grade and they were behind on their Hebrew language skills. We were assured it would not cause an issue. Our most pressing concern relates to the reading of the Torah in class presentation, during which our sons were separated from their peers and seated apart from their classmates. Their Hebrew teacher said that their participation with the group was "not appropriate," yet this arrangement visibly singled them out in front of other families and set them up to be branded as “not worthy” by their peers to participate. This is completely unacceptable on every level. We had a couple of parents text us at work while this was happening in real time to tell us. They felt awful for the boys and felt it was done with poor judgment. I want to emphasize that our children have historically formed strong friendships in diverse settings across the globe, maintaining weekly contact with those peers to this day. They have very good social skills and adapt well. Their Hebrew teacher mentioned in a conversation we had personally how most of the class has been together since first grade and that it must be hard for the boys. The honest, straightforward answer is no—that has never been an issue for our kids when it comes to fitting in or finding acceptance until now. I think that was a poor assumption on her part.We are disappointed that the situation was handled through physical separation rather than through an inclusive approach that might have fostered peer mentoring and relationship-building. We are deeply concerned that this dynamic modeled exclusion rather than integration at the expense of our boys. Fully Jewish boys I might add.. I found assignment and grading communication to be very poor. There is not much diversified enrichment. At this time, we do not feel the school embodies the social, moral, academic, or religious example we were seeking. We did find Ms. Mary Wright to be the one outstanding teacher for there. However, one teacher can not carry the weight of the school. Attitudes are fostered from top down… many changes are in order.