Leland Middle

I am speaking from our individualized experience and specifically on the topic of children who require support needs. If your child does not require support needs, you can "get by" on their educational programing. We have had several issues that are even outside of their lack of knowledge/compassion/involvement for children that require support needs. Our experience at Belville Elementary has been challenging, particularly regarding support services and student safety. While the general curriculum may be sufficient for children without additional needs, the school demonstrated a lack of understanding and involvement for children requiring support (e.g., language used "he/she isn't low enough on the spectrum to qualify for that"). Despite a formal ASD and SPD diagnosis, staff dismissed our request for on-site services without assessment (e.g., IEP). We did request an IEP immediately, but the other issues (listed below) just made us realize that it is not worth it to fight it and to ultimately discontinue our child's educational journey there. Additionally and most importantly, safety concerns arose when our child was being bullied and then was ultimately disciplined for defending herself, while more concerning behavior from other students was minimized (e.g., the statement, "boys will be boys" was allegedly mentioned by the principal when I was speaking to another parent about a different issue). These safety concerns is what ultimately led us to seek alternative education. While some families may have a different experience, we found the environment lacking in support, structure, and responsiveness.I am rating this school at 2 stars because my child loves their teacher and the teacher seems to be separated from the political climate of the administration.

The few teachers my children have had are and were amazing. Some have left due to the terrible change in leadership. The board and current people running it (the pastor and his wife of the church it is affiliated with) are very deceitful, devious, and disturbingly uncommunicative. Unfortunately, it seems as though their vision and mission are not of the best interest of the children or their community. They had such a beautiful school and program. But they have completely lost touch with the point of having a Christian school for our community members to send their children. Their behaviors and decisions should make them shameful. When teachers or caregivers are mistreated and taken for granted is when children get hurt. Displacement is a psychological defense mechanism in which a person redirects a negative emotion from its original source to a less threatening recipient. Or the pure stress of poor management can make them lethargic, less focused, and irritable. This is what you see in childcare. Do not trust the Christian portion of this school’s name. It does it a disservice and the board and interim directors should be vastly disappointed in themselves. Their actions and behaviors reflect nothing of what Christ was like or how he is to be portrayed.