Swanson Heights

It’s a great school but there are incidents that occur such as the recent arrest of Mareno Smith who was a fourth grade teacher.

I really didn't like my experience! The school doesn't have good communication between school and parents.My daughter has ADHD, her teaching was horrible, and the feedback was never specific. And they decided to take action in the last week of school. I was surprised and disappointed.I once read that if your child's performance is average to excellent, Murdock is a great school, but if they're average to poor, it's terrible. And I experienced that firsthand.

Went I attended years ago, the teachers were rude and unwilling to hear out students prior to a confrontation turning sour. They wanted to avoid issues until after those small issues became mountains. Example: I remember trying to speak to my teacher about getting bullied into buying another student lunch extras and God awful teacher would say "this needs to wait until after lunch" like no this needs to be handled at the time of reporting and no teacher should be allowed to delay reporting.

I've had two children at Nicholson over the past 4 years (one of which is now at McCleskey MS). We moved from a larger elementary school (Mountain View) and having both a larger and smaller school experience, I can 100% without hesitation recommend Nicholson. The students are extremely well supported, the teachers are communicative, and the school goes out of their way to ensure families are connected. The school is much smaller than many nearby elementary schools, and even though I never thought that would be something I cared about, I now firmly believe in the smaller, familial environment that Nicholson provides compared to the colder "you're just a number" environment we had before. Everyone at Nicholson knows my kids names and even asks about my son even though he's moved on to Middle School. The teachers truly care about our kids. They also take safety very, very seriously. The doors are always locked and now require ID to get into the building. Even though they know my face by now (4 years of volunteering and coming in/out of the buidling for lunches with my kids), they still stop me and ask me to sign in and provide ID. I appreciate their dedication to ensuring everyone in the building has a reason for being there. The musical theatre program that Ms. Stephan (the music teacher) leads is top notch. Through the program, PSB Creative, the students learn invaluable teamworking skills and how to work towards a goal as a team. I can't emphasize enough how lucky we are to have found this program and this school. I cannot imagine a better environment for my kids to be in.