The Gordon School of Beth David Congregation

My experience with this school has been deeply disappointing and concerning. Instead of being a supportive and nurturing educational environment, the school has become a place where many children—especially those with academic difficulties—are made to feel overwhelmed, insecure, and discouraged rather than supported and helped.There is a noticeable lack of empathy and patience among a large portion of the teaching staff. Several teachers display poor attitudes, little understanding, and a harsh approach that intimidates students and negatively impacts their self-esteem. Rather than motivating children to grow and learn, they are made to feel incapable and constantly pressured.This culture appears to stem from the school’s leadership. Beginning with the principal Barbara Martin, the school’s methodology seems to support a rigid and emotionally insensitive approach, where academic pressure outweighs students’ emotional well-being and individual needs.Additionally, there is clear evidence of favoritism. Certain students—particularly children of teachers or school staff—receive preferential treatment, leadership roles, and opportunities that are not equally available to other students. This creates an unfair, exclusionary, and discouraging environment for the rest of the student body.The overall school climate is negative and unhealthy: poor communication with families, lack of emotional support, minimal inclusivity, and an absence of genuine concern for students’ mental and emotional health. As a parent, it is extremely troubling to witness how this environment damages children’s confidence and their relationship with learning.I would not recommend this school to families seeking a safe, equitable, and compassionate educational environment for their children.

This school showed promise when I first enrolled my daughter in second grade. I am appreciative that we worked collaboratively in ensuring that my daughter caught up to reading at with intervention, after school tutoring, and I would also tutor her myself on Saturdays at the library. However, as she continued to be in school and as I enrolled my son in Pre-k certain events arose that my family values and that of the administration in the schools did not align. My daughter was being harassed by boys near the bathroom and no adult was around. My son was being hit continuously by a little girl and no one adult would say anything. I noticed and mentioned something to the teacher and administration, what they did was put my son in a room and badgered him until he said what they wanted him to say. The principal would gossip about parents about other parents and would resort to lies and slander in order to keep her enrollment, teachers would also collaborate with the lies and slander. Administration is unprofessional and unethical, when confronted they do not see any error in their behavior they actually escalate to screaming at parents. The after care staff scream at the children, when this is brought up to administration they just lash out at the kids later on. All of the dates and meetings for end of year celebration for fifth graders was always held under lock and key, parents were informed until the last minute when any input would not be accepted. They also reject any psychologist diagnosis to avoid the paperwork that comes with a 504 plan or ESE. I also noticed that the teachers lied in meetings when confronted about homework amount given to students. The award ceremony I agree with a statement another parent made about being told your child is at the top of the class only to be awarded little to no merit on core classes. The favoritism during the award ceremony was apparent to the students that would be going to the middle school next year. Also, there was very little availability for parent involvement as all PTA meetings are in the morning and could not be over zoom. After all of this, the audacity that the administration had to ask me to leave my son, I was firm in my decision to transfer them to another school. So glad to have switched my kids out of this school. I'm hopeful that switching them to charter schools would be a better experience with like-minded values of a different administration.

We are finally out of this school and I write this with mixed emotion. Teachers, for the most part, were really good, aside from a few. Major gaslighting by admin. They do not handle bullying effectively at all. Some of the teachers kids are the bully so they try to sweep it under the rug. They attack the victim if bullying instead of handling said bully. Bullying is out if control here. They like to use witnesses so if bully has friends, they gang up on the victim. If you are not good at languages, run. They dont teach foundation and verb subject conjugation. If you value mental health, run. If you want your kid to be happy and thriving, probably should look elsewhere because this school emphasizes insane amounts of homework, valuing FAST test scores and not letting kids do sports and be kids. While I made some of the best friends here as did my child, and had some fantastic teachers, it was a very difficult time here and was not a good fit. Counselors arent the best and they dont know what they are doing regarding testing accommodations. I feel the school rating isnt accurate and is severely inflated.

Our family has been part of Gordon for several years, and what has stood out most is how deeply the teachers and staff know each child. Gordon has a special sense of community — families show up for one another, and children feel seen, supported, and cared for.We have also experienced strong partnership from the school academically. When our daughter needed extra support, her teachers and administrators worked closely with us, checked in often, and helped her make meaningful progress while building her confidence.What makes Gordon special is the combination of warmth, strong values, and a school community that truly wants each child to succeed.

Terrible principal. So many people have left because of her. It’s so sad what this school has become.