Forest North Elementary School

LOE has excellent teachers, however their administrative team (the principal and assistant principal) are terrible. They expect the teachers to handle all discipline issues and will not support them when it needs to be escalated. Due to this, the teachers have to spend so much time handling the children who are misbehaving at the children who want to learn expense. They protect the children who are rude and non-compliant. The principal actually stated to me, "I don't believe in punishment...look at the recidivism rate of prisoners". They do not have spelling (this is intentional as they don't want to limit the words children use during free writing) and they do not grade their free writing for grammar or punctuation. Phonics and diagraming of sentences is not taught. Classic literature is not introduced, however, your 5th grader will read an article regarding a transgender girl that you won't be made aware of unless your child tells you after the fact. If you want to meet in person, sorry, that will not happen either. It is diverse (which is wonderful), but is losing amazing families and teachers in droves.

Very poor communication skills at this school. The administrative team is a mess. Depending on who you talk to the rules change. They don’t adhere to IED/ 504 guidelines with meetings and setting things up. You have to hound them. There is zero communication on how your student is doing other than the report card, that we didn’t know were sent out! It was in an obscure weekly principal memo. For fundraising however separate emails were sent out! This school is all about the comfort and ease for the staff and teachers and making money. Parents are completely in the dark about their kids’ education.

Read all of the reviews from the last two years and you’ll get a still accurate idea of the deficits and problems plaguing this school. Not only did more than 50% of teachers and staff leave last year, but there will be a large exodus this year, as well. The administration is apparently trying to cover this up by not posting job openings to the diocese website, and not communicating the changes that will affect students yet again, next year.

Attend this school only if:- You want to pay for an environment that is not welcoming or loving (the opposite of Christ-like)- You want to be stuck with a tuition bill if you find that it is not a good fit for your child. (That's like taking a gamble on ~$16,000, other private schools do not force you to pay for the rest of the year's tuition if you leave)- You do not believe children should be children (Kids cannot talk for a large portion of lunch, hours of homework,)- You enjoy homeschooling your child in the evening for a couple of hours (why am I paying someone to teach my child if I have to teach them myself?)Please look elsewhere when looking at private Christian schools. I should have listened to the advice from fellow parents who told me not to enroll my child here. The school is not driven by good intentions but rather by money. One of the biggest reasons we choose a private school for our child is because public schools treat every child like a number. This school is WORSE than a public school. Public schools get funded by having a child in attendance. Hill Country gets funded even if you unenroll your child from the school. Their tuition policy is to collect the rest of the year's tuition even if you unenroll. Therefore, they do not need to or care to provide an environment that allows all children to succeed. They get paid whether your child is there or not. Private school student-to-teacher ratios are usually better than public school ratios. Look again, the ratios in many of the classes are higher. Furthermore, the education level they provide is purely based on memorization. These children are programmed to memorize a history timeline. They can tell you an event and the date it happened but they couldn't tell you what the event was about. They have the children memorizing large bible verses (which I support) except that the children can not tell you what the verse even means! Knowing the meaning of something is much more important than just memorizing some words. Best of luck in your private school search, you can mark this one off the list.

The faculty and staff go above and beyond to create a nurturing and enriching learning environment. From the moment I walk in, I've been impressed by the dedication and passion of the teachers. They truly care about each student's success and work tirelessly to ensure a well-rounded education.