Smith STEM Academy

Awful school, one of the worst to deal with. Terrible office staff, very rude and unprofessional. Fails to accommodate special needs kids, the main goal is to get them out of any extra help the student needs. Teacher said and I quote "If the student fails, then they fails" when asked about assistance and then offered no exta help very early in the school year. They make everything as difficult as possible for parents

So I would to publish a review for my old elementary school, Shields. I used to attend them years ago, don't get me wrong it was a great school. But the fact of the matter is that I've had to wait for almost a week to hear back from someone in regards to seeing if someone could help me obtain my old yearbooks. And guess what, they said that they didn't have them. Excuse me, but how professional is that?! A proper, well done school should have all student files even dating back in the early 2000s! What kind kind of school doesn't keep their students old records and yearbooks??! Do those students not matter??!

some staff needs retraining as well as the parent liaison. she has not respect for parents and tends to loose dr notes. my son is special and has appointments oviously he is going to be missing class something that these ppl dont seem to understand even with documentation. i was threaten with being courted and getting cps on me for no reason other than appointments and having a ill child. plz keep copy of appointments and dr notes for your records. i noticed some errors on my sons absent list. my son is in the special ed department and the teacher mrs. covington has no respect for adults and sure makes you worry about how your kids are being treated when there is no one observing them. she has made several comments that are unethical for a professional especially one working with special needs kids. other parents have also been witnessed or experienced this. i recommend to make copies and keep documentation of conversations when dealing with this school. it is no wonder they have such a low score with the Texas Education Agency. such a shame for the few good teachers and staff there.

Lots of teacher turnover, especially for crucial grade levels like K-2. Teacher & administration communication is lacking. These days Class Dojo is utilized as an effective way to talk to parents. FACTS is another program to keep up with your students grades. You won’t find either at this school. They don’t do baseline testing. How do you know if your child is progressing throughout the year? You don’t. Safety wise- parents are given a code to enter the gate. The cons to this are that anyone could share this information and who knows who could be walking through those gates with access to YOUR child. Parents give their codes to their kids. There is no one to greet your child at the school in the morning. It’s very doom and gloom walking in. Good luck meeting with admin before 8:00 am. No one in the office gets there until right at 8. There are no opportunities to volunteer. No field trips. No grant writing to better the school. They are dismissive and uninterested in any of that. The reply you will get is “we are doing the best we can”, or “we rely on private donations”. Yet, they are uninterested in anything that COULD help them. There is no true library, there is no computer class/time, no art class, no sports. From my understanding, VCS raised money to build a gym, yet can’t furnish it with sports equipment. There are better schools than VCS, especially if you are paying for it. Remember, you are paying for this. For a little bit more money, there are better options.