Coles Corner

My experience as been pleasant. I do participate in the PTA and volunteer at the school as much as I can. I truly love the Grand Parents programs. Principal Gastons and her team are doing an amazing job

My daughter has attended Melwood from kindergarten - 2nd grade and I must say that the experience as a parent sending my daughter to school for her first years, has been a nightmare. This is the worst school and I would not recommend to absolutely anybody. They are completely unorganized, there are extremely too many students to 1 teacher, & the cleanliness of the school is just sad. Teachers are overwhelmed, they hate their jobs, the interactions I’ve had with teachers and staff are absolutely baffling. The only person with professionalism in this school is the new principal. The administrators have put my daughter on the bus 3x and she had a yellow tag attached to her backpack her entire duration at Melwood that states she’s a car rider. However I had to find my daughter and pressure them to find her at dismissal several times because they had no idea where my child was. Each time she was on a BUS ! One time about to pull off and go God knows where ! At the time she was 6 years old and completely unaware of where we live, bus stops/routes/ etc. and the school was completely careless. One incident within the last year is her teachers being completely overwhelmed that they failed to send out requested paperwork, homework, or even invitations to award ceremonies. My daughter received honor roll 3x last year and one teacher failed to send out the personal invitation so we missed the awards ceremony for my daughter. She was very disappointed to not see me there. While my daughter was in this class, she would sometimes forget her backpack or homework in her cubby. Her teacher would not remind her and treat her like she’s in middle school. He told me i need to come pick the homework up everyday, bc he essentially doesn’t have time to make sure his student has her homework before leaving the classroom. lol I removed my child from that teachers class and they put her in the 2nd grade directors class. Which was an even worse nightmare. She was just as overwhelmed and also failed to tell us about the awards ceremony. Each parent is supposed to receive an invitation to come to the ceremony for their child and we didn’t get them. The teacher told me that I can watch my daughter on zoom. Just unprofessional and unfortunate these are the teachers responsible for our kids. Choose a better school. This isn’t it.

This is the first year my child attended school and I’m so happy Waldon was our first experience. pre-k is going to be amazing!

The New leadership ( Pastor Mitchell) does not communicate with parents well and doesn't understand the academic funamental in education that the students need to be able to move forward in life. My child has been at the school since the 3rd grade and now under new ownership Pastor Mitchell the school has gone down in the lasted two year from bad to worse specially now that the school main focus is the basketball and football team. Note 80% of the team is failing all or most of their classes. The team students get in trouble daily to more than once a day with no infractions as outlined in the hand book. The school is not worth paying for when all the bad kids are recruited and pay no intuition.

Sadly, this school used to be a wonderful community where students and families felt welcomed and loved; now, with the new administration, there is no longer any feeling of welcome or support. It has turned into a place where bullying, fighting and disrespect abound and the new principal simply doesn't care. She and her assistant principal have created such a toxic atmosphere that faculty, staff and students are leaving in droves. The students are so far behind academically because the teachers' first priority is not teaching and nurturing students, its looking over their shoulder to see what the principal is going to dock them for next. The assistant principal has told the students that they are too bad to take on a field trip and the principal has shown in multiple ways that this is only a job for her, not a calling in any way. At the end of her first year, almost 14 teachers and staff members either left or were forced to leave, not because of poor performance, but because she wanted to fill the building with "her" people. That has gone poorly and the students are suffering. The middle school has gone through three math teachers and three science teachers in one year, and their academics are suffering. There is an elementary teacher who gives the students spelling lists with multiple misspelled words routinely and another one who didn't give her class a single spelling list or test all year. It is very sad the changes that this new administration has brought and also sad to see the downfall of this once wonderful school.