Chisholm Elementary School

Students here often worry about being bullied, the school is underfunded, and a lot of the courses (including Honors and AP courses) have no change in difficulty comparing to normal classes. Teachers rarely offer support. When it comes to bullying, staff just looks away.

Terrible. No one there cares about your child, and when your child is mis treated, you end up being the "crazy parent" and your child gets treated badly.

My two children attended Discovery Academy for 3 years. I was very impressed with the project based elementary curriculum and the compassionate primary teachers. My oldest was able to foster his love of debate and bill writing, as well as coding, computer aided design and computer game writing. My youngest only entered into this the last year of our attendance. Two of the elementary teachers had been at the school for decades and had a refined their curriculum to a T. Through my younger son’s experience at Discovery Academy I was able to meet many passionate and skilled teachers, although turnover appeared to be a problem. No one stayed more than 2 years and a few left mid year. We were grateful for their time with him as well. The office manager Linda is a gem of a woman and has a wonderfully compassionate yet structured approach with discipline and handling conflicts. I have nothing but respect for her. That is where my affection for Discovery Academy ends. Administration and ownership is problematic. Prior to 2021, the owner was clearly absentee, and the principal, a family member, actually even lived out of state for a good portion of the school year. When the decision was made to appoint a new math teacher as replacement principal I was hopeful but knew classroom management and creating a connection with students was not her forté. Ms. Heather, the new principal, was not available to communicate other than email and often would not even respond or ask the office manager to speak to me. Several of the classmates in my oldest’s classroom were going through rough family issues and were suicidal. Ms. Heather had little or no compassion for personal situations. She even went so far to bully my youngest’s teacher in front of the children. My son told me about it and was very upset when his favorite teacher left mid school day because of the interaction with the power hungry principal. After a year of trying to keep my children with as few life changes as possible, I made the difficult decision to remove them from Discovery Academy mid school year. Luckily they are doing well elsewhere. I am hoping the new owners see what affected my family and others so poorly and take steps in the children’s interest.

My family loves this school. The teachers are wonderful. They care about their students emotional well-being as well as their education. The facility is clean, safe, and a perfect place for learning.

Not at all accommodating to students with mental health disorders, actively discriminates to those with anxiety, depression, mood disorders, etc. All they want is neurotypical white students. Do not recommend if your child is struggling mental health wise because they will refuse to accommodate and even try to unenroll them.

Our two grandchildren started at Knights Christian Academy in the Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) program a couple years ago. We have watched them blossom over this time and experience a quality Christian based education that is free of the many social distractions that trouble so many public schools. At KCA the facility and staff are all caring, dedicated educators, Christians and mentors for all the students who attend. Although a small school by some measures, we would not want our grandchildren to go anywhere else. Knights Christian Academy, New Smyrna Beach, holds my highest recommendation as a simply OUTSTANDING SCHOOL.