Charleston Development Academy

My oldest child started Memminger in CD-4 and will be graduating from this wonderful school this month. My youngest also started in pre-k, but moved to Buist for 3rd grade--which is not a move I would've opted for except we preferred Buist to our in-district middle school. All that to say, with Memminger becoming a Buist feeder school, the school demographics have shifted dramatically in this time--not necessarily for the better of the community and public, if you ask me, but I digress. What has been the same since we started, is the absolutely amazing, warm, inclusive culture at Memminger--thanks to truly amazing teachers, staff and administrators. This is a place where teachers seem happy and engaged, and everyone knows your child's name, whether they've had them in class or not. Dottie Brown was an amazing principle, and Cheryl Wash has been an exceptional vice and interim principal (who every bit deserved the full-time role, as I'm sure the vast majority of parents and educators would agree, but again, I digress). What you see on scorecards never gives a full picture. If I had used them to guide my decision about where to send my children, rather than my intuition, after visiting the school and getting to know the amazing educators and atmosphere (special shout out to Ms. Inabinet)I may not have sent my children to this wonderful gem of a school. My children both tested as gifted and have high 90th percentiles in iReady thanks in no small part to the excellent education provided by this school and the very dedicated educators. As a parent, I will miss this place tremendously--and I imagine the same is true of my kids.

This school is horrible they neglect the kids and if your kid is struggling bad they still just pass them to the next grade. Teachers have favoritism with the kids. The kid’s behaviors are out of control, and the principal don’t have a lot of communication with the kids and teachers.

They are very rude with kids and the teachers don’t do anything when a kid is being bullied

My daughter has been at JSM for three years, starting in 3K. We could not be happier, and I highly recommend it! She was reading at age 4 due to her phenomenal teacher. She loves going to school every day. The parent community here is special-engaged, uncompetitive, and dedicated to helping all kids receive an excellent education.

Honestly it sucks but we have to do a lot of stuff with our family. Some teachers don't use fair grading.