Carman Adventist School

I can't believe this school get 5 star my daughter attended there she was a very good child .I noticed her behavior has changed completely she becomes very disrespected to us where is she get that ? There are some great people and Teacher there but ,not all. her teacher doesn't really care .I regret enrolled her there .

I cannot recommend West Side Elementary enough! We have had the best experience there since 2015 as my 4 children have attended and one is still there. It is a wonderful school with excellent teachers who are caring and well trained. The principal and leadership staff are dynamic and know each child by name and make them feel seen. The gifted program is so fun and there are multiple counselors who visit the classrooms monthly and can be seen by appointment. There are plenty of clubs and activities for children to take part in. As a parent there are also multiple ways to volunteer and get to know others at the school. On a public forum it is easy to complain but there is a reason why so many families want to move to be in this district. I feel very grateful for our time at West Side and can say that my children have had a fabulous preparation for middle and high school.

I would recommend any & all parents trust their kids education & life experience at this school. Honestly, I'm stunned it's only a "4" on Great Schools at the time of this writing.

My child has been going to the school since kindergarten. I think in any school the first 2 years are pretty easy since they're just learning about school, everything went great there. But once the years progressed, and he had a little bit more struggling to learn, the teachers became more less patient with him.And didn't really have the tools they needed to deal with adhd student. The school safety, I don't know what's wrong these kids making threats to the whole school or to certain kids like my child. It's sad because it's just an elementary school and kids are already threatening to kill one another. And actually having a weapon like scissors on them after making a threat. I am just so glad that this school year is almost over and my kid will be moving soon.I will not be sending them to the middle school with all these bad kids. I really think this school has gone down since years prior. I will say some teachers are great.But there's some teachers who have zero patience for a high ADHD student.

The school has punished my child for reporting a physical threat made by another child. This heavy handed level of enforcement to groom children not to report harm is unacceptable. Its poor decisoning by the very inexperienced Principal. We are filing legal action.

Our experience at this school has been extremely disappointing, and the primary issue has been ineffective leadership—particularly at the middle school head and head of school level. Communication from administration has been a consistent problem. In our experience, emails to the middle school leadership often go unanswered, making it very difficult to address even basic concerns. On multiple occasions, the only way to get a response has been to go to the school in person without an appointment. Even then, concerns have felt dismissed rather than taken seriously.This lack of responsiveness and follow-through creates frustration for families and does not reflect the level of partnership you would expect from a school.More broadly, there appears to be a lack of accountability at the top. Instead of addressing ongoing concerns, leadership seems to reinforce the current approach, despite clear issues with communication and responsiveness.We have also observed signs of low staff morale and turnover, which further raises concerns about the overall school environment and leadership effectiveness.While there are teachers who care deeply about students, strong leadership is essential to support both faculty and families—and that is currently lacking. More and more of the strong teachers are moving on to better schools. The ones that are left are ones that seem to receive the most complaints from students and teachers. Based on our experience, I would not recommend this school to other families unless there are meaningful improvements in communication, accountability, and leadership.

On the surface, this school appears warm and nurturing. However, what happens behind closed doors has become too concerning to stay silent about.Since May alone, dozens of teachers (40+) have quit. Staff are leaving because of unfair treatment, lack of support, and concerns that management ignores serious issues, even when they are reported through the proper channels. Many employees brought evidence to HR, and nothing was done to protect staff or children.During my time there, I personally witnessed:• Unsafe practices involving children that were not taken seriously when reported• Teachers being pressured to come to work sick• Staff being forced to bring their sick children into the building• Parents not being notified when exposure to illness happened• Extreme understaffing with little to no administrative help• Children not receiving the care or attention they deserved because teachers were stretched beyond capacityAdditionally, I observed clear differences in how employees were treated, especially between Black staff and white staff. Some employees received special support, leniency, or benefits, while others doing the same job were denied basic fairness or respect. Many teachers tried to speak up and instead of improvement, they were ignored, dismissed, or treated differently afterward. This created a hostile and stressful environment that pushed great teachers away.Most of us stayed as long as we could because we loved the children. We tried to advocate, we tried to make change, we tried to protect the kids and keep a healthy workplace. But when leadership refuses to listen, teachers become exhausted and children are the ones who ultimately suffer.As someone who trusted this school with my own children and poured years of work into caring for others, it is painful to say this but based on everything I experienced, I do not recommend this center. Children deserve safe, ethical care, and teachers deserve respect, support, and fair treatment. No family should only see the “happy front” while the truth remains hidden.Many former staff will continue to speak up because transparency matters. Our only goal is for children to be genuinely cared for, not just marketed as a business.We tried to protect kids and hold the school accountable. We were ignored. Eventually, the only way to protect ourselves and warn parents was to leave and speak out.If a school won’t listen to teachers trying to protect children, families need to pay attention.