Oberlin Middle School

Our experience with this school is that there is very little warmth or joy here. Kids are expected to immediately start functioning as adults on day one in 6th grade. There is no “transition”. Lockers are not allowed, bathroom breaks not allowed between classes (kids must raise their hand and go during class), assigned seats at lunch, 15 minutes for lunch. Because of this rigid system our kids have found very little time to be able make new friends or even speak with their old friends from elementary. Some teachers give inordinate amounts of busy work for homework. When bringing these issues to the principal we are met with an attitude that it’s our problem. She is ex military. There are a few great teachers, so it’s not every single staff member, but the overall feeling is one of rigidity and lack of trust in the kids or space to relax into enjoying school. Our well-behaved kids are very unhappy there.

This school is bad .The teacher are very disrespectful to the kids and the teacher where spectating me all the time and was say I did stuff and I did not do it . They don’t care about you emotionally until you say something life changing .There are doors open all of the school there are kid that are say inappropriate thing to people of color there are harsher punishment to people of color.They make family think it is a good school and it not

All 3 of my kids have attended here and we have been very pleased with the teachers as they really care about the kids and the school. We have been extremely impressed by the Band, Robotics and Science Olympiad programs!

The administration is unprofessional and lacks communicating skills. You leave messages to reach out to your childs teacher about there grade and no one calls back. You ask the receptionist who can you speak to since no one returns your call and her response is, I don't know. Not one teacher communicates with a parent. If the child is failing, they do not realize they fail as a teacher as well. It's very disturbing to have to deal with this behavior coming from your childs school. What happened to the best interest of the child because this behavior clearly is the opposite. Communication plays a big role and the staff in the school definitely lacks it.

This school is driven by the haves and the have nots. There is a constant plea for money. Before school even started there was a newsletter sent out that was about 7 pages long, over half were asking for money in some way. One of the ways the school asks for money is to make a straight up donation. I know of no other school in the Wake system that does this. With certain donations you get a sticker for your car for the "Blue Jacket Club" and your name on the wall in the gym. There are students that can't afford lunch and it's necessary to have families names posted on a wall because they donated over $1,000? I kid you not, this is an amount. There is no mention of where this money goes. I am all for a Fundraiser maybe twice a year, but donations as if it were a college or a private school is unfair. Not only are the student cliquey, the parents are just as bad. The ITB families make the others feel bad for not being like them. When picking up Fall Fundraiser items, the PTA ladies were rude, barely spoke to me and definetely never thanked me for supporting the school. I am giving the school 2 stars only because my student has so far had great teachers she likes and challenge her.