Woodford Academy

The teachers are wonderful and do so much for the kids. My kids are excited to go to school everyday. They do alot of hands on projects and go on lots of field trips. They are even taking their 6th grade students to Canada!

The majority of the teachers at the school are nice and want to help you. However the current art teacher at the school is extremely bad. She’s known to be rude to both students and parents. Lots of times kids get in trouble in her class for no reason as she will turn the simplest mistake into a ginormous issue. The principal is not all that good and often will not contact parents about different events until the day before. The kids often get punished unfairly. Often times whenever several kids in the class are not behaving what they do is taken time off of recess from the WHOLE class instead of punishing just the ones who are misbehaving. Also kids who usually do very bad things at schools don’t get properly punished. While kids who make simple mistakes get punished all the time others who misbehave constantly while the principal states that kids who misbehave after testing is done will be expelled and even though we had 2 kids at the end of the year who should have been expelled nothing ever happened to them. Another thing is that the art teacher will never let kids use the bathroom. One time a 6th grader even got in trouble because he asked to go to the bathroom. She ended up getting an attitude with him and mentioned that she already told him yesterday when he asked to go Overall while I loved the school and most of the teachers it’s sad to see it having a lackluster principal who sometimes we don’t see for days at a time and such a bad art teacher.

We love this school. Both of my children have autism and need a lot of assistance. The staff at Amity have not only bent over backwards to assist our children they are thriving. My older son is now almost caught up to his peers and my youngest is going from nonverbal to speaking. They have sensory room and a motor room. Amity is doing amazing work and they should definitely have a higher score than they have. Deer park is a small community but people are close and they care about each other. My son’s teachers go the extra mile with incentives to learn and to be honest I could not get them a better education anywhere else.

Who is this school for? Families in which mothers/fathers take an active/positive part in raising their children.If you are reading this review then I assume you are a grownup who takes your job seriously (discipline, setting limits, educating, and all that good stuff, for physical and intellectual and spiritual development of your children). If I am correct, and you are that kind of person, then you will find a great source of support in St. Cecilia Elementary School!!! Mike Goedde the principal is one of the good ones, for sure! He understands what children need in order to truly thrive, and he is absolutely committed to his mission. St. Cecilia as a parish has a heart of gold; it's a beautifully faithful community, really centered around God. Who might want to pass on this school? Those mothers/fathers who are not open to the teachings of the Catholic church.Students get a period of religious education every single school day, plus they attend Mass once/week. I think sometimes problems come up when parents consider themselves "tolerant" rather than open. Feelings of hostility or defensiveness have a tendency to surface, on the part of those "tolerant" parents, when cultural differences arise.

SUMMARY - This school is NOT for minorities or a diverse population - the principal, counselor nor 1st grade teacher handle diversity appropriately.1 PRO - Secretary and 2 of the recess helpers/aids were a joy!4 CONS - 1) School principal and the school counselor have shown us to not know how to interact with African American parents/students. Principal confused me with another black parent & then tried to apologize saying we both had on similar tops. Profusely she apologized knowing she was confusing 2 minority parents by our color. Counselor has unfortunately treated us rudely in her talk and interactions with us.2) School/parents are very clique-ish, especially apart from minorities. For 3 years I've been involved & volunteering. I volunteered for recess duty for months & suddenly was dropped off so that the scheduler’s friends could have "their" preferred days.3) 1st grade teacher (had our 3rd grader & now our 1st grader), did not treat our minority children with respect. Our 1st grade daughter has African American hair that enamors the other children. Her hair accessory fell out & another child had it. The 1st grade teacher threw it in the trash at her own admission because it was a distraction to another child. Why not save it for the parent instead of destroying personal property?4) Principal never replied to my e-mail regarding a mishandled situation of a computer screening, taking 1 child's word against ours. Our African American child was interrogated and his computer was screened 3 times. Our child was found to be WRONGLY accused. There was no punishment for the child who falsely accused. 5) There were bullying incidents on our child with with 2 separate children. However, all teachers that our son interacted with told me how mannerable, polite and helpful he always is. However they did NOT appropriately deal with the bullies who harassed him.WE TRIED FOR 3 YEARS TO HOPE FOR IMPROVEMENT. The school failed in this effort to treat our children fairly. As things have gotten worse they show to not provide a secure environment for our children.