Denman (James) Middle School

After a horrible experience at another school for Kindergarten, we decided to move our child to Monroe for 1st grade. It has been a wild success.Our son went from regularly thinking of himself as a troublemaker and describing himself as stupid at his old school to performing well above grade level academically (in reading and math) and socially integrating within one semester to his new environment. He's even started to take on a mentorship role with some of his classmates with their schoolwork. What he really needed wasn't a more rigorous disciplinary regime, but an environment that encouraged his creativity and curiosity, a place where his energy is treated as more of an asset than a problem. It's been a great experience so far.Note: this is a review for a multiracial, already-bilingual child in the Spanish immersion program.

This school is honestly horrible, My daughter has been going to SFC since kindergarten, it was an amazing school at first but this new principale has changes on everything and the lunch lady likes to put her hands on my daughter and other students. The security guard is very disrespectful with students, I am working on moving my daughter to a better school, she gets bullied and comes home really upset and sometimes even crying, because the teachers give her a hard time, or because the students at this school bully her. I am so done with this school honestly I am moving my daughter out of the school and she will not be back. Please for the sake of your childs well being, dont put them in this school. And not only that but this school is extremley understaffed. The math teacher for middle schoolers is the history teacher, she doesnt know what shes doing and I want to provide my daughter a great education, so therefore I am taking her out of SFC. If you want your child to have a good education, please please I beg of you, dont bring them to sfc. This is the last place I want my daughter to be.

Kindergarten: We started at Sunnyside in 2020 when my child was in kindergarten. It's been amazing to see how the community has rebounded since the COVID days. Our kindergarten experience was as good as you could expect for a Zoom kindergarten year -- I was so impressed at how well our kinder teacher was able to engage the kids over video, and I've seen first-hand how amazing they are in person. They take the time to help the new kinders adjust to not only Sunnyside, but the school environment. The kinder students enter the yard through a different entrance for the first 6 weeks of the year to help them adjust to the school, which seems like it really helps make the transition less overwhelming for our youngest students.Educators: We've been very happy with our teachers between K and 4th grade (currently in 4th). The staff has an average tenure of ~8 years, so when new teachers come in, there's already a strong foundation with the other educators in the grade-level team, which I think really helps with a smooth transition into the staff.IEP process: My child had an IEP for our first three years at Sunnyside. We had a good experience with the IEP process, and felt goals and progress were reported on as expected.Learning: Being one of the youngest in the class, and adding Zoom kindergarten on top of that, our child was very behind in reading in kinder and first grade. We were really happy with the support of the teachers and staff -- we obviously helped out at home too, but I really attribute the complete turnaround to Sunnyside's educators. My child is now reading above grade level thanks to the support they received.Community: The community was adjusting to post-COVID for our first few years at Sunnyside, but it really feels like each year the PTA is able to do more, and hold on to what is important to the Sunnyside community of today. You do tend to see the same 20-30 parents volunteering, but I think families who want to be involved are always welcomed in whatever capacity they can contribute.

I dont recommend this school for my child. She would constantly come home crying saying the teachers wouldnt be fair to her. She has also told me that the teacher targets her and picks on her for no reason. And this school is constantly asking for money.

St. Finn Barr has been an amazing choice for my family. The school staff work hard to provide a safe, supportive, rigorous learning environment. My kids are happy to come to school every day.