Linwood

We have two children attending Taft, currently. They are so excited to go to school everyday and are happy upon their arrival home each afternoon. Their happiness and eagerness to learn comes from having teachers who are cheerful, engaging and provide lessons that my children take pride in showing their completed products - whether it be homework or an art project. I am happy to send them off each day to Taft and have confidence that they are safe and the staff are taking good care of my children while providing them with an enriching environment to learn.

The community needs to know what is happening behind the scenes in our schools. As the recently departed Facilities Manager, I am sounding the alarm:Taxpayer Waste: I reported the theft of $20,000 in district equipment, but leadership ignored it and refused to file police reports.Safety Hazards: The Middle School auditorium is being used despite a collapsing ceiling and structural decay. It is a major liability.Unlicensed Work: The district consistently uses unlicensed labor for dangerous electrical projects, putting our kids at risk of fire and injury.Zero Oversight: When I tried to implement safety checklists and SOPs, I was told, “We don’t like checklists around here.”Our tax dollars are being wasted, and our children are being placed in unsafe buildings. It is time for the School Committee to demand a full audit of the administration and maintenance departments.

I used to go here as a student. The place is less than great, thats for sure. I came from another Catholic school in my hometown, and when I transfered to OLV, I was anxious and genuinely hated it there. One of my teachers pointed out how I went to the previously mentioned and now closed school in my hometown. She used it to point out that my handwriting was a little messier, had more spacing in between words and other things. She also did this to other students, as if we were lesser than for not going to OLV since we were in preschool. The next of my two years at that school was worse. We had way too much homework to deal with, and if we felt negative emotions and started crying, we got compared to kindergarteners. We were forced to become mature at 8-9 years old. Not to mention, our teacher was more of a frightening authoritarian figure than an actual teacher. There were also bullies and the teachers were great...is what I would say if they actually did anything about it. The victims were the ones getting in trouble and being seen as just another kid, while the bullies were seen as role models and constantly won awards. In terms of learning, it was not enriching or fun at all. The only project I can remember having was in music class. It was really just completing tasks from a workbook and if you didn't understand the first time, oh well. Everyone forgets things that they learned over the summer, but you are at least familiar with how things work. This school though? It felt more like just trying to survive the day than learn something new. I would never recommend this school.

Our children all went there and got a great education and had great teachers!

Administration from the top down are disrespectful, bad at communicating with staff and families, and care more about preventing lawsuits and having positive public opinions than they do about student well being. They openly show favor towards students who have parents with high incomes. They are out of compliance with several IEPs are a consistent basis due to being short staffed but do not make any real efforts to address staffing issues (i.e. better benefits, better pay, better treatment).