Kew Gardens Hills

Bad school don’t send you kids here

165 is a school that is motivated to give the best of everything to our students. I've been in the building close to ten years now and based on my experiences with colleagues the staff is full of great teachers who really care about the emotional and educational well-being of each student. We're led by admin who really care. I can't tell you the number of times that admin and staff have cried and cared about the safety and emotional well-being of a child that no one outside the building would have seen unless they were there. 165 is a family and we're always looking to get better.

I am a middle school student at Paul Klapper and I've been going to this school since Pre-K and it's only getting worse. As someone who has seen everything that goes on first hand, I could tell you right now - never bring your child here. Let's begin with lunch, students do whatever they want: throw food, scream, run around, stand on tables/chairs, and get no consequences. I speak on behalf of many other students when I say many of us have gotten food poisoning from the school food. They never have enough food to feed the whole school either. The last period of lunch begins at 12:05 and by that time there is little to no lunch left and all they have is cold pb&j sandwiches. There was a time in the cafeteria where a student sent many people to the hospital and got little to no consequences. A student has also threatened a shooting. Still comes in everyday like it never happened. Paul Klapper doesn't know how to give appropriate consequences. The teachers at this school claim that their goal is to prepare students for high school/college, but never assign any homework. Students got used to never doing homework and get anxious when teachers actually assign it. Half the class doesn't even do it. Some teachers don't even know what they are talking about when they teach and often need students help. Some teachers have such heavy accents that you can't even understand what they're talking about. Some teachers are extremely disrespectful to students and when brought to counselors, nothing changes. Our school has an advisory class but it's very often just a free period and students often learn nothing about social emotional learning. Now let's talk about the gymnasium. There are three gym teachers and none can control the grades and get them to quiet down. They just stand there and laugh amongst themselves for half the period. The gym is dirty and unorganized. They make you sit on dusty floors that look like they never get cleaned. Every school should have world languages such as at least Spanish - Paul Klapper only has Mandarin and it's mandatory. Students who already speak Mandarin learn the same things as the rest of the students instead of getting more complex assignments. When we are told to take a school survey, the teachers ask of us to "not make the school look bad", but it is what it is. Don't bring your child here if you want them to be in a good learning environment - which is far from Paul Klapper.

This school does use what I consider advanced learning curriculums, however, this schools environment is not that great. A lot of the students here will not make your child feel safe or comfortable/confident and some of teachers are similar. The extracurricular activities/talents are not very organized. The food here is predominantly gross frozen food. I don’t think children (youngest age 5) should be consuming this, neither should the middle schooler considering some kids only option is this nasty food. From what I hear around me, most kids do not like going here and always wish to go to another school instead. From my perspective/opinion, a lot of the staff and teachers don’t communicate well or are unorganized. I’m not trying to bash this school because I go here, so I’m trying to be completely honest, but if had to go back in time, I would NOT go to this school. The smart kids and advanced curriculums don’t make up for the environment…. I don’t recommend

Terrible school dont send your kids there