North Side Elementary School

The school has a room for improvement in its efficiency, effectiveness, and communication. We almost always find out of school events within a few days prior, if not a day prior to the events. What should be a five minute inquiry with the front office turns out to thirty minutes with no resolution. I believe most of the teachers are trying their best, but the inefficiency of the system keeps weighing them down.

I'm a parent of a Walker Wildcat, and I volunteer in the school's Media Center, and we love this school. The teachers and staff are involved, and the school is one of First Lady Michelle Obama's Turnaround Arts Schools. The Magnet program offers a wonderful, FREE (because it's public school) performing arts program that my child looks forward to every day. The school is in a poor area, so we don't get much in the way of property taxes, but everyone is dedicated and working toward improvement. Instead of looking at a "1" rating and looking elsewhere, I'd encourage parents to come be part of the solution and help make Walker the best school in Broward County. For what it's worth, we researched other schools nearby, too. One in particular, a top-performing school in the area, also has a lot of rich, privileged students, and boy, the ones in my kid's after school martial arts class sure were entitled little people. Not exactly the peer group we were looking for, despite its high Great Schools rating.

I received a child that attends this school, first of all the surrounding area is the hood. Second of all the front service staff acts like they hate their job and they speak to the children as if they are worthless. I went there today and not only did the lady at the front desk NOT check my identification to pick up a child but she did not even get up from the comfort of her desk to tend to children across the room, she simply kept yelling at them. Additionally my research shows this is an F school, yikes!! I knew something wasn't right when the kindergarten teacher told me during a conference that the child is doing well although the child is barely reading and it's the end of the year. Standards here are extremely low, cant wait for the child to attend a different school next year.

We love the principal, assistant principal, teacher s and office staff. We happy with VSY

4 BECAUSE HALF OF MY FAMILY MEMBERS FINISH SCHOOL AND THEY STARTED AT THURGOOD

This school is awesome. The staff is very knowledgeable and pleasant.

The school has been so good to my daughter! She received speech therapy since PK3 exceeding our expectations, she has made great friends and loves to go to school everyday. It feels like everybody is family, they are very welcoming and the teachers are top notch very communicative and caring. They work on individualizing education for your child's needs to make them thrive academically and socially. It is not easy to get in but if you do you’ll have no regrets ever. It’s a wonderful, safe and intellectually stimulating learning environment in the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale.