Tritt Elementary School

Mount Bethel has been a wonderful school for our daughter and I have been so impressed with the support and enrichment for her and the family!

Both my sons have attended this school, and my youngest is set to graduate. We have had a wonderful experience in every facet at Shallowford Falls. The Special Ed dept is overseen and facilitated to meet students where they are. The team mentality on IEP teams is such a heartwarming feeling and reduces the stress of advocating. The volunteers who assist SF are amazing--from the PTA, Foundation, Super Dads, the library restockers, and everyone in between. Teachers are attune to students' social and emotional well-being and issues are dealt with fairly and compassionately. My sons are Black, and finding a school where they are accepted has been monumental. In regards to a previous review regarding the discrimination during AM carpool, we have never witnessed or experienced what the original poster claims. Each morning, what we do see, are teachers assisting to unload the cars of Special Need students. We are currently in our 8th year at this school, and in all those years, the only cars who we have witnessed where teachers open doors and help unload the kids are those cars with Special Needs students who pull all the way to the front. This is our 8th year, and each and every day, that is what we see. Teachers are trained to not open doors or assist any students except those who are disabled. I'm disheartened the previous poster finds this "comical" and it shows their own lack of inclusion and acceptance. If we could go back and time and do elementary school again, we would pick Shallowford Falls in a heartbeat. It has been instrumental in providing a safe and inclusive environment where our children have been able to grow into the humans they are now and ultimately ready for middle school. The passion of the teachers is untouchable and this example starts with the admin team. Shallowford Falls = 10 out of 10 stars.

We initially chose High Meadows amongst a list of the top private schools in the area based on the outdoor/activity component and the IB curriculum. Our child has been at HMS since Pre-K and stayed through 1st grade. There are many parts of the HMS experience we find so unique; we love the play based learning philosophy, the hour of play time at lunch, the beauty of the 42 acre campus with unique buildings, barnyard time with the animals, a "no phones" policy, the community gatherings, a strong music program - there are so many reasons it should be the best school experience money can buy. But, we found it's the most critical parts of a community that are completely missing for our child and our family. Despite being an extremely gregarious family who have lived in other countries/multiple US cities, we did not make any true friends at this school in our multiple years there. This is a very small school, so you may be lucky and get a great group of kids/families like our neighbors, but there is also the chance you may end up like us...it has been the most unfriendly group of kids/parents we've experienced absolutely anywhere. It's hard to get a take on that from trying out the 'Mornings on the Meadow' or even from feedback from other families as we've found connection with families many years above and below our grade but absolutely NONE within it. We have found most of the teachers seem great, but it doesn't make up for the kids your child will interact with and their parents. There was a 75% percentage of boys in our Kindergarten class and most of the boys are "red-shirted" in the Southern standard. Outdoor time in Kindergarten was experienced as "teachers are always screaming at the boys for bad behavior". While the head of school is inspiring, the elementary school principal did not present any leadership skills to handle problems amongst children. Be prepared to receive CONSTANT and overwhelming amounts of communication from the school about absolute nonsense and non-stop requests for donations, but when you have a true issue and need to reach out, there will be radio silence from everyone.

This school has exceeded all expectations since we enrolled our 3-year-old. It has a fantastic culture and we see how rapidly our son is advancing. Unprovoked, he's told us many times how much he loves his school, and thanked us for moving him the Wood Acres. What 3-year-old says that?