St Pius X

The best elementary school in the district. Best teachers, best staff and best principle.

I am beyond disappointed with Menands School. The level of disorganization and lack of accountability here is unbelievable. Communication with parents is practically nonexistent—important updates are either sent last minute or not at all. The staff acts dismissive instead of supportive, and concerns are brushed off instead of addressed.The administration seems completely out of touch with what students actually need. Discipline is inconsistent, favoritism is obvious, and the environment feels more toxic than educational. Kids should feel safe, respected, and encouraged at school, but instead, it feels like they’re just being pushed through the system. Menands school has failed to address multiple issues related to bullying sexual harassment. Menands School has gone so far downhill it’s shocking. What used to be a decent, community-focused school has completely downgraded in every way. The quality of education has slipped, the staff seems overwhelmed and uninterested, and the administration is more concerned with appearances than actually solving problems. I do not recommend this school.

St Pius X in School is great place for only rich kids. Their principal is rude to women but nice to men. He has a big ego. In the morning when one drops kids off, they don't have enough stuff to supervise the drop off situation and it's a complete mess every morning.The principal yells at parents if they don't get in the right lane. He is very unprofessional and rude especially to women.On the positive, their math, Spanish, science, music and other teachers are super great! My kid is getting great education even though school is very political. My family is well off but if you are not, then you don't belong here in this school, and your kids won't make any friends and won't be happy.

I had concerns my son wasn’t reading at grade level. I was dismissed at his conferences and told he was doing fine. We decided to pull our children from the school after we felt our concerns were being dismissed. Day one at his public school he was identified as a child who needed immediate academic intervention. After 2 months of reading support his teacher told us he was never taught how to read correctly. Never taught how to decode words. I am so upset I didn’t trust my gut instant and fight harder for my son. Instead he spent many days looked over because he’s a good student and the attention was spent on the kids whose parents intervene daily at pick up or drop off or the students who had break downs daily. My other child was leaning math 2 years above his grade level. When I questioned this, I was dismissed. He was graded on a “curve” and never earned below a 90 to keep parents happy. He spent 2 years retaining nothing in math and never learning the skills needed in middle school. He quickly learned in his new school that teachers do not grade on a curve to keep parents happy. The grade he earned is the grade he received. He was also subjected to a student who would disrupt class daily and because the student’s mother paid full tuition he was never dealt with and his behaviors disrupted the education for many students. Hearing that my son was never taught the skills to successfully learn how to read is sad. But I’m glad we have moved on and his current school is helping him. Think twice before you invest money into this education.