Brandon Elementary School

Negative number and way below standards big time

All staff in the special education department are very rude & were not very welcoming to substitute teachers. Now i understand why they say no subs ever come out there. The staff were rough with the kids. You all have lost help. Im never coming back to this school. - Emily Smith

Day two only at this school, and this just keeps getting worse. We were called into the school TWICE today, and now my boys can't even ride the bus home. Someone from the school also bangs on our door everyday with uniforms (we do indeed have a doorbell)--even though I told her we would buy our own already (and actually HAVE). I am feeling very invaded and stressed out right now, and I don't know what to do about any of it. As I said this is only day two, but if what my husband and I have already experienced is any indication, this is one school parents should avoid.

Having raised 6 of my older children in other states with mixed results in the various school systems, my wife and I approached the entry of our youngest daughter Into Kindergarten at Trout Primary with a great deal of trepidation, as we were relatively new to Texas. We were especially concerned because our daughter is autistic. We were pleasantly surprised when we met the new principal. She was friendly, engaged and very supportive. In meeting our daughter's teacher, we were further impressed and relieved. It's now a year later and our daughter has experienced a great year at Trout Primary. Now we are even more impressed. We have met and gotten to know many of the staff and teachers. We have found them to be friendly, supportive and very professional. Best of all, our daughter has been accepted by her peers and has progressed tremendously in her learning and skills. We can't say enough good things about this school and it's staff, especially her teacher, Ms. Miller. Our daughter is now looking forward to the beginning of the new school year, having graduated to first grade.We don't know how Trout Primary was before, but we do know that under the leadership of Principle Henderson, it is a terrific learning environment. We would recommend this school to anyone that is fortunate enough to live in this district.

My child attended this school for two years. On our initial tour I was NOT impressed. The environment is cold and unwelcoming and the facility is sorely outdated and feels like a dungeon. However, I had several people rave that the faith based curriculum was fantastic so we decided to overlook the small detail of the environment and give it a shot. The first year he had a fantastic teacher. Her love and care were obvious and created a safe, fun, and welcoming environment. We had no issues at all. He learned a ton and was always excited to go. At the end of that year the Head of School changed and immediately a shift was noticed. I contemplated not sending him back the second year as it was obvious the school's culture was shifting. Despite my better judgement we sent him back. From the start it was clear we'd made a big mistake. His teacher was wildly unprofessional, the "curriculum" was nothing more than the same basic "worksheets" (dot stamping pages) done every day with no attempt at creativity. I made multiple requests to the teacher to have my child do more challenging work as he is quite gifted and she assured me multiple times she would do it but never did. I also offered to send materials myself which she declined. Communication was a joke and the classroom looked like a dumping ground for all the old supplied from years past. My child was so bored he would beg me not to go. In addition to this, as the year progressed the teacher got more and more lazy and any sort of behavior management went out the window - resulting in my child being (minorly) harmed by other children multiple times. Each time the teacher was "unaware" anything had occurred. In a classroom of only 12 children I'm not sure how someone can miss so much - unless they just simply do not care to pay attention. Despite discussing this with the teacher on a weekly basis nothing changed and no further attention was given. On the last occurrence we decided to pull him out for the remainder of the year. Upon notifying the school and requesting a call back from the "Head of Schools" ZERO care or concern was shown and I never received a call back to discuss the issue. Additionally, when we notified them that we'd be coming to pick up his things- a lot of the supplies, art work he'd created, and other things we'd sent (i.e. family photos for the board, etc) were not returned to us. It appeared they literally just threw part of his stuff into a bag with no care for the rest.

My son has attended St. Patrick Catholic School since PreK-3, and is now entering into 2nd grade. We absolutely love this school. Their truly is a sense of family here, and my child is loved and nurtured. We love the daily Religion classes, and the well-structured routine. The faculty at this school will pray for your family when needed. This is a super special place!