Franklin Elementary School

My niece attends this school in the kindergarten section. Her teacher is good with her—that much is true, and that is what matters. However, the staff members who greet family members and parents have less-than-ideal attitudes; my experiences there on the occasions I visited were very negative.

St. Augustine School Andover scores low on all the dimensions of learning, teaching, emotional support and special education assessed by this web site. If you are going to have to deal with cliques, bullying and favoritism, you may as well save your $7k and go to a public school where you can get that for free. This school touts special education however, you are not going to get accommodations or an IEP. There is very subjective grading and once a student is labeled they will not get out of it. Most of the teachers are poor communicators and take a disheveled approach to the use of technology assigning homework through multiple platforms that young students must check up on nightly (google classroom, a proprietary web site and paper). I went to grad school and professors did not do that to us. The faculty and staff also post grades on work weeks late so it is very difficult to forecast a problem and work to address it with your student.

Our experience at St. Michael was deeply disappointing. While the school promotes itself as a values-based Catholic community, in practice it falls far short both morally and academically.Bullying is rampant and largely ignored. Students are allowed to physically hit and push others without real consequences. Despite claiming to have cameras for safety, the administration often claims they “weren’t working” when incidents are reported.The school counselor’s approach is particularly concerning, openly telling students they are the reason they have no friends an incredibly damaging message to vulnerable children. Leadership fails to intervene appropriately, allowing a toxic environment to continue.Additionally, although St. Michael is a Catholic school, it has made decisions regarding same-gender relationships that many families felt were not consistent with the religious foundation they promised when we enrolled. These shifts were made without transparency or meaningful dialogue with the parent community.Nepotism runs rampant affecting both staffing and how issues are addressed and the educational standards are subpar compared to other private and public schools in the area.We ultimately made the decision to leave and could not, in good faith, recommend St. Michael to any family looking for a safe, supportive, and academically strong environment for their child.