Paradigm Development Center

I watched my straight A, kind hearted student decline for two years at this school. When I first enrolled her in first grade, she was happy and eager to learn. I had to pull her out by 3rd grade. There is a severe lack of diversity among the staff. Trust me if you have black children DO NOT enroll them in this school! You can feel the unwelcoming vibe as soon as you walk in. When I picked my 6 year old up from her very first day there in first grade, she asked me as soon as she got in the car, “ mommy am I black? Now where would a six year old get that from? I watched her confidence slowly decline, and by 3rd grade I had had enough. Please don’t make the same mistake I did. Now she’s thriving and back to straight A’s at Canyon Pointe Elementary. Totally different culture and vibe at this school and more diversity amongst the staff. Trust me it matters.

Our son is quiet and respectful and multiple occasions the principal and staff accused him of things during lunch just because he was there eating lunch with others who no behaved. When we asked about if they had proof our son was involved they said no and offered no apology for accusing him without solid evidence. He is also a minority so we feel he was being picked on for not being the right skin color for the area. Very saddening. Do better. We would still recommend the school because besides the false allegations our son excelled in class and enjoyed his time there but please treat all ethnicities the same as you treat the majority, it’ll make people fee safer to move here and send their kids to a school that aren’t racist towards innocent children.

As a parent of a former student at Matzke Elementary, I feel compelled to share our experience. During my daughter’s time at the school, she endured repeated instances of bullying that caused her distress. Despite bringing these concerns forward, I was disappointed by what felt like a lack of meaningful intervention or resolution from the teachers and staff. As a parent, it is deeply concerning about a child’s well being are not addressed with the urgency, empathy, and care they deserve. While I remain grateful for the genuine friendships my daughter’s amazing friends who provided her with much-needed support during a very difficult time I believe it is important for the school community to reflect on how student concerns are handled. Every child deserves to feel safe, heard, and protected in their learning environment.

This school released both my children off their campus to strangers! The principal nor the AP took any accountability for this incident. No meeting, email or apology was ever given to ensure this wouldn’t happen again. Instead they put a newly printed dismissal procedure in my children’s folder. Which this procedure was never followed. This wasn’t miscommunication. It was a breach of my children’s safety that should have never happened.

I visited the school to discuss with the teacher solely to try and figure out the sudden loss of interest my daughter has in her classroom. I was curious to know if she (the teacher) had noticed anything unusual in her classroom that could have made my daughter feel uncomfortable.However, instead of feeling concerned what could be bothering my daughter in class. The teacher attacked me verbally and began to raise her voice. I immediately assumed she had said something to my daughter, and she felt guilty. This is why she’s raising her voice to me. My heart raced, and I felt like I was about to faint. I felt trapped as the assistant principal sat there, silent and smugly waiting for me to retaliate. Now, why would I do something like that? It would only worsen the situation. I was trying to help my daughter, not worsen the matter!Initially, the teacher informed me that the substitute teacher had told her that my daughter was talking excessively. I found this to be entirely false.Later, she contradicted herself, which confirmed my theory. She stated that my daughter was always quiet and rarely raised her hand.This revelation came after her lengthy explanation of various issues affecting her life, including surgery, a family death, assisting a child with an accident. and another issue that morning.Feeling utterly defeated, I wondered what else I could do to help my child feel better in this classroom. She then started providing a self-character reference as if the meeting was about her. (My guess is that these words were meant to the assistant principal sitting next to her because I couldn’t understand why they were being said to me. I went there to discuss my daughter, not her.)It was evident that I was making no progress in this parent-teacher conference. I left feeling completely uncomfortable with the teacher. She was on the defensive when I asked why my daughter had suddenly lost interest in her class. I can only imagine her response when the children do have questions, especially considering all the personal issues she’s dealing with.Yes, I was quite uneasy about leaving. My daughter will be sitting in her classroom shortly after I leave and every day until school ends. Needless to say, I will be worried every day as I drop her off at school. We’ll just have to continue praying throughout the day that my daughter is okay. That was the most unusual parent-teacher conference I’ve ever attended.