Pickens County Middle School

I have had 3 children at this school over the years and have mixed feelings about it. I fell like they do try to help the kids that are struggling to some degree, but there is a real lack of interest in the gifted program. It is pretty much non-existent. My gifted child met once a month in 5th grade and played games. That is NOT a gifted program! That child also felt like they were behind the kids from the other elementary schools when they got to the gifted program and honors classes in middle school. I had one child that was struggling and rather than make accommodations for the child, they said they didn t have the time for that with the demands of the other kids. This child has always scored average or above on all standardized testing, but they wanted to lower the level of work they were getting. It also appears sometimes that if you are not from a certain neighborhood, then you really do not have a voice. I use to love this school, but I feel like the quality of the learning and the willingness of the teachers has gone down over the last 5 years.

My child is a student at Harmony Elementary School. Most of the staff and teachers I've encountered are rude, unfriendly, and miserable. The principal is terrible. The curriculum is so incredibly below par, that my child who is now in 2nd grade is still doing classwork he did in Kindergarten at his previous school. There is no homework or challenging classwork. The focus at this school is to cater to economically and/or academically disadvantaged children, which is fine, but it is at the expense of children who are not economically and/or academically disadvantaged. In other words, at HES all children have to be the same on every level. In the long run, this liberal ideology will do more harm than good for these children. I normally don't leave reviews, but my husband and I used the Great Schools website to do our research on Pickens County Schools & HES. If we'd known what we do now about Harmony Elementary School we would have never purchased our home in this school district. To ensure our children receive a successful education, we'll be putting our new home on the market next Spring and leaving Pickens County.