Helen Cordero Primary School

My child was bullied and the administration did not respond in an appropriate manner. The CPS asked me to work with APD since the injury was quite extensive. I do not recommend this school due to the sheer amount of bullying that I have observed. I won't touch on the other issues such as the educational factor or the bad parking...

The parking is terrible, cars are lined up on the street and in odd corners of the parking lot. Both streets that the school is on become congested during drop off and pick up. I heard that the reason for the to small parking lot was to get people to walk. I walk my kids everyday but this sucks when weather is bad. I have never felt comfortable with how the school conducts the picking up of the kids after school, it is chaotic and I'm often worried about my kids safety during this time as parents and kids are mingling and running all about the place. I have only felt safe when my kids were in preschool and kinder because then you can pick up the kids at their class rooms. I have reported my concerns to the office multiple times only to be blown off and told that it wont change and that they are handling it the best way possible. During registration the staff wont give you the documents you need to fill out until you have stood in a line that wraps all through the office building and then produce your residency papers as if we would waste our time and their paper only to reveal that we didn't live in the area. This takes such a ridiculous amount of time that I left and came back on a "non registration" day. The front desk staff, particularly the lady at the front most desk where one reports tardys and what not is all around very rude and treats parents like they are an inconvenience when they have a need or complaint. The other people in the office are also rude and rough to work with. The principle has blown me off about many issues concerning my child's safety, even when it related to bullying. I also hear teachers and staff members yelling at kids and my own kids report to me that the teachers yell. Some things I have liked was the pre-k teaching and teachers and I like the offer of after school clubs however I ended up taking my kids out of them after my son got lost going to his club on his own since the kids are not escorted by an adult after school to their clubs but are expected to take themselves to them. I like that the school tries to get parents involved by having many activities at the school but the assault of rudeness and negative attitudes of the office staff often make it seem like they rather you didn't come no matter how polite you are. If you can take your child to a different school then don't hesitate. The A ranking is misleading.

I am a new staff member at HCPS. I am impressed at how respectful the staff is to each other. I am sure this reflects to the children.

I am so sick of the administrative staff yelling at us like we are children but then went respect back. I only have my child in this school because at this point I have not other choice. You have to walk your child to the back of the school to get them to class every morning which can take up to 10 minutes to walk there due to lack of parking and if you take a short cut you get yelled at like a child. For me to register my two youngest it took over 3 hours because they only allow two parents in at a time, then on meet the teacher day my daughter was not even registered for any class yet. So I had to wait in like for over 30 minutes to talk to the principal who put my child in a overly full class. My daughter got attached to the teacher and then they moved her to a different class. And she is still not fully in their system. Safety is what they preach but you can walk right on campus without even worrying about staff stopping you. I think it would be more common sense to only allow parents in from the front of the school where the office is and not the back. Only thing I like is my daughters teachers.Avoid this school as much as possible until they get a better administrative staff

This school is horrible. My daughter went to this school her first grade year and she had two teachers that year. The first teacher up and left they had a substitute for a month. They lost my daughter three times at this school pointing her to the wrong daycare vans and sending her to thee after school program.The principal herself sent my daughter off on the bus without calling me. I would never put her or any of my other kids there if it was my last option.