St Laurence Elementary School

Principal sits in his office and does not help when needed. I have observed that Mr. Corcoran has his favorites in staff and students, it definitely shows. My child was getting bullied at Harriet Gifford and Mr. Corcoran would just sit in his office and do nothing. Comment he said about one of the staff who would call for help was we didn't hire this teacher to use all of our additional staff.

My experience with this school is terrible. The princicpal is not very understanding and has no compassionate to help students instead, he focuses on the school system and the troublemakers. the way the principal operate the school is extremely poor.

Both of my children lived with their father in Elgin IL. I started court proceedings early in the year of 2014. During court proceedings Lowrie was extremely unprofessional but the problems began far before that. My son was testing at a pre-K to kindergarten level going in to the 3rd grade. Upon my questioning why that was happening I was offered no explanation as well as no solutions. I forced my ex husband to call for a meeting in hopes to possibly get the IEP started. Lowrie proceeded to tell us that they couldn't just get him on IEP however, they would start the process. I was supposed to get a call from the school social worker one week later, she didn't call till 2 mo later. While in this meeting a Mrs Martin looked at my ex while he was rolling his eyes at me and stated "I know, its okay" meaning that me asking about my son and showing concern was somehow inappropriate. I told the principal, she showed no concern at all and showed unprofessionalism worse than her staff. This school is filthy, understaffed, staff is not equipped to handle the economic downslide, honestly there is nothing good about this school. This is all I had room for but keep your kids out of this school!

Our experience differs greatly from the previous reviews. Our child is finishing up 5th grade at Washington and is in the dual language program. They started before COVID and had mostly distance learning for 1st grade. Kindergarten was kind of rough, I think because some families did not have a diagnosis/supports in place via preschool. The school handled working with all of the students well, it just took time. What we value about Washington is that we trust them to educate our child and keep them safe. It's a community school which feels like a community. They have proven to us each year that this is their goal. Our child is doing well academically and socially at Washington. I'm particularly impressed with the math skills they and the neighbor children have. I've learned about how they learn to work in teams and support each other. I think that's great for their overall skill building with concepts and people.I recommend the u-46 preschool program for setting up students for services and easing the transition to school.

The staff is very nice, but drop off and pick up is difficult and in a very busy area. The school could use a good cleaning, it is not the cleanest.

We are so thrilled to be part of St Mary school community. Having experience with most of the public schools on both sides of Elgin, I can confidently recommend St. Mary School. Our two children are thriving academically, emotionally, and spiritually.

I had two children graduate from St. John's, and two more children attending. My children that graduated were well ahead of their high school peers, and because of the curriculum at St. John's, I felt my children had better memorization skills and study skills. We have been at St. John's for over 10 years and I have been impressed with the staff, not only do they care about their educational journey, but they have also been there for them on a spiritual and individual level. One of my children wished to go to an academy in U-46, and their teacher was extremely helpful walking them through the process and helping them achieve their goal.

They do not take accountability for their weaknesses. EA staff tends to pacify parents for a limited time with solution's to problems but never fully fix it. They charge tuition and give false promises. If you dont donate to the school, your child will fall through the cracks. Seeing my grandchildren suffer in social, mental, academically had been a challenge. The builidings are old and run down. They dont follow 100% protocol for Covid. Their staff changes recently have not been positive. Teachers are not passionate about their students. No one really cares as long as tuition is coming in.