Arkoma Junior High School

Very informative, enlightening and encouraging for students, parents and teachers. The need for learning material is high. Our state fails to fund schools properly.

Ballman is an amazing school!! The principal and teachers always put students first! Go Ballman Bears!

They are great with the children and have made so much more progress with our daughter the Beard Elementary school. They are a fantastic group of Educators and the Children there are so polite as well. I would suggest anyone in there area to put their child in the school. Thank You Carnell The Blodgetts

A pretty good school over all, even though I had a bad experience with 2 teachers.

To the Principal and School Administration:I should not be responsible for teaching my child at home the very material she was supposed to learn at school. I have months of documentation—including texts, phone calls, and messages via the Band App—showing her teacher repeatedly telling me to cover key academic content at home because it was not taught in the classroom.This teacher had only eight students. Let me repeat that—eight. There is absolutely no excuse for this level of neglect. I brought these concerns to the school multiple times, yet nothing changed. Instead of acknowledging the issue, the teacher and administration circled the wagons to defend one another.Teaching is a responsibility, not a title. With seven hours a day and only eight students, there should have been ample time for instruction and individualized support. Instead, I’ve seen last-minute cramming for standardized tests just to push students through to the next grade. It’s heartbreaking. Our children deserve more than that.This is not just a rant—it’s a genuine concern from a parent who isn’t interested in playing small-town politics. I care about real change, because our kids, including mine, deserve better.And to the principal: Was this the right platform to say it on? Because all other ones have been ignored.

Please take note that this school had good reviews prior to the change in the head of school around 2015. It was a great community for many many years before then. After that change everything changed. “The Montessori school of Fort Smith is over crowded, staff is under trained and overwhelmed. The school is not accredited by any Montessori society nor regulated by any educational entity. Administration is careless, money driven and unresponsive. This school has gone from a community of caring people, to an exclusive club for the wealthy. Sad.”“05/09/2016 There is money being donated without proper IRS documentation, fundraiser prizes are not distributed as advertised, monies raised for one thing then are being allocated elsewhere, and the staff are required to sign non-disclosure agreements regarding everything, including payroll information. This organization has not filed anything with the State of Arkansas since incorporation in 1989, not even to update the current mailing address. The members of the board are unknown to the public, as are the dates, times and locations of their meetings, so getting to attend one is impossible. The chief executive listed is the gatekeeper for all, including the agendas for the meetings. Any information relating to this 501(c)(3) that are supposed to be made FREELY available by law to the public is not so available, even from the state of incorporation and operation.”Michelle2267 via greatnonprofits.org