Thomas Jefferson School

Very good, I went here and so does my daughter.

I cannot speak to grades K-5, but can say that the Pre-K program is absolutely awful. My daughter came home filthy every day, her clothes ripped and stained. New shoes covered in black scuffs, all of this after playing INSIDE the classroom. The carpets haven’t been cleaned in god knows how long, you can tell from looking at them.You are not allowed to pack your child a lunch, but they will serve them frozen uncrustables (pb&j) and things your child may refuse if they’re picky like mine.My daughter was miserable, heartbreaking to a parent as a first time school experience for their child. Other children would hit and bully my child (over her SNEAKERS, at 4 years old) and the teachers never once let me know or seemed to do anything about it. I never got updates on my daughter, was never told if she was hurt in class, zero communication with the “teacher”, who was disorganized and out of touch with the parents.The day I enrolled my daughter in a different school, I could not WAIT to pick her up from that awful classroom. Compared to her school now, Horace Man’s pre-k program is akin to a poorly ran, filthy daycare. It seemed nice during orientation, boy were we wrong.Her artwork has gone from scribbles to beautiful drawings, her math skills are amazing for a child her age, and she’s learning Spanish & sign at her new school. I give zero credit to Horace Man’s pre-k program, it feels like months wasted where she could’ve been receiving a real education.

I have nothing but great things to say about MacArthur! Our experience has been positive-I know my children are receiving a terrific education! Parent involvement is encouraged, teachers Are professional, knowledgeable & show true concern and care for students and Mrs. McIver, the principal sets the tone for the building. It is one based on mutual respect and high expectations for all.

Believe the data. This is a failing school district in a persistently failing community in a failing region of NY (including Binghamton, Vestal and all of Broome County-what a cesspool). I pulled my children from West and enrolled them in a public school in a thriving community. What a learning curve. Went from A's & 100's with no effort to having to work very hard to catch up to the children enrolled in the reasonable school district from the start. Don't believe the defenders. No, this is not about the ethnicity of the children. In fact, all the children started school with the capacity for high levels of achievement. But they were enrolled in a school in the wrong region for achievement. This is not about poverty rates. The children in Binghamton School district from households with educated employed parents do worse on all indices than those living in poverty in the district my children were transferred to. Outcomes are also telling. Sometimes differences between school districts show many years later. But now my kids and their friends are mostly out of school so it is possible to look at differences in opportunities afforded people that graduated from different school districts. Whereas the children my kids met in their new district nearly all attended (or now attend) well rated 4 year national colleges/universities, now have exciting careers, and are thriving, their friends from Broome County went to local colleges if they attended college at all and most eventually settled into Broome County in a region saddled with a failing economy, few job options and downward mobility. In other words, they've settled into their parents community despite it being a failing community devoid of opportunity. People who exert effort to get their kids out of a failing region and their kids are probably different from those that don't in many different ways. Bottom line is that those graduating from schools in Broome County have nowhere near the opportunities available to kids in prosperous thriving communities. Don't delude yourself into thinking anything different. It's not just the poverty level. Those living in poverty elsewhere do better than the well-off children in Broome County. It is the attitude. It is being surrounded by failure, depression and other depresson-inducing aspects of the region. Get your kids out of there!

I am a current BHS sophomore. I’ve dealt with multiple incidents where school staff did not intervene. Recently I talked to my school social worker about how I’ve been dealing with a student calling me slurs (one used towards gay people) along with telling me to end my own life (I have a string of mental health issues) and my school social worker did not do anything to tell admin or help me. The situation has snowballed to now me getting kicked out of the school musical (because someone lied saying how I missed rehearsals on purpose when i just get sick a lot) and being harassed by a senior via Snapchat. I feel like I can not adequately speak up to admin about how I’m treated by my peers due to what I see as lack of care in the school. I don’t feel safe there, I don’t feel welcome. There has been so many threats at the school, people vape, smoke weed and one time someone brought in a knife. In addition there’s also so many fights. The bathroom (a common human function, and a NEED for survival) are locked off with a gate and a bathroom monitor because a few years ago someone set the bathroom ablaze. Human needs should not be impossible to access. In addition the school nurses are also rude and don’t seem like they actually wanna help kids (if you don’t wanna work around kids DONT WORK AT A SCHOOL!) Overall my 2 years at BHS has been very unpleasant and traumatic. I’ve been in the BCSD for 11 years, I endured a lot of trauma from my 11 years in the BCSD. From a student, please don’t send your kiddo here.

Our daughter went to St Johns from first thru the six grade. Many times her classes were at least a year ahead of the same classes her friends going to public school were taking. Class sizes were small, often half the size of public schools, enabling teachers to give more individual attention to each student, The work was rigorous but not overwhelming, and the atmosphere was a lot nicer than I remember public school ever being. And most importantly I believe going to St Johns helped lay the foundation for our daughters future educational endeavors by giving her not just a top notch education but by giving her all the great memories that came with those first school years. The talent contests, the poetry recital contests, the field trips and so much more. It was a great school.