323 Old Virginia Ave
Lexington, KY 40504

Schools send out fees through their bookkeeping department which has nothing to do with a student's performance in a classroom. I check my student’s grades about once a week since academic success is a priority in our household. They clearly understand that they are solely responsible for the grades they earn which is based on their effort. They know their grades are a reflection of how hard they work and that their only job is to learn so they would have to answer to me if anything was less than expected.

In the summers of 2022 and 2023 Morton Middle School in Lexington, Kentucky lost more than 30 teachers who resigned, retired, or transferred to other schools. School leadership is, sadly, non-existent, and many teachers left because they were unhappy with the confusing demands placed on them by a rather disorganized principal or because principal directives were inconsistent or constantly changing. In 2023 most of the custodians also resigned. The students at Morton are fine, but without consequences, behavior has became a problem. It became clear that discipline became a major stumbling block. Some faculty members would say the behavior is out of control. Deadlines for students to submit work were taken away in 2022, and this caused many vulnerable students to stop doing any work outside of school. Failures increased. As of 2023, there is no full-time librarian so checking out books has become a chore. A Spanish position was cut this year resulting in bigger foreign language classes. Previously, Morton put most students in foreign language classes which seemed to signal a high expectation for students to participate in a global society. Also, several students have left Morton for private schools due to the new chaotic atmosphere at school, lower standards, and lack of deadlines for submitting written work. The active and pro– teacherPTSA is currently headed by a realtor who clearly knows staff is unhappy, but seems to accept the new changes. Finally, there have been incidents of retaliation taken against faculty members who speak up about working conditions at Morton. The school especially needs to recruit more Latino teachers so that Latino students have positive role models. When teachers are unhappy at any school, students suffer. This is the current situation. Interestingly, at Beaumont Middle and Hayes Middle, students are more likely to deal with a well-run school, higher expectations, and happier teachers. For this reason, I no longer recommend Morton Middle School.

Picadome has been so wonderful for my two daughters. All the teachers we have interacted with seem to be truly invested in the education of the children and promote them to become lifelong learners. I am so thankful to be apart of this wonderful learning community. There are many family events throughout the year along with a spring carnival that we always look forward to! I can't speak highly enough of this amazing school!