Chain Lake Elementary School

Dedicated teachers and beautiful newer building in a convenient location

Before my kids were born, I was looking at schools and knew this was the school they had to go to, and the intra-district transfer forms were worth filling out every year to re-enroll my kids. Then we moved far away and had to go to a new school and wow what a hit. My kids hate their new school and bullying and issues the girls have had is not something they had at Salem Woods. Salem Woods is a stellar school! With state-of-the-art learning which allows kids to easily understand the teacher and be part of the learning experience and this school with open arms allows parent and family involvement. I was lucky enough over the couple of years (pre-covid) to be able to help in the classrooms and watch these incredible teachers working with the kids, and the kids had so much love and respect for their teachers. And it was so amazing to watch them grow in every way. The way they do carpool was so quick and easy. The staff new the kids by name and the cars-you pull up in another car, you are going to have one of the staff walking up to your car to make sure everything is okay. I felt like my kids were in a safe place when I could not be there with them. The lunch menu is out of this world! Talk about options. The food here is healthy and things my kids would not eat for me they would eat them here. You could see the menu and the actual food. Far cry from what school lunches used to be. Ms. Eli is a PE rock star who is always motivating her students to go further and have fun doing it. I could see the transition of my kid's health and physical fitness with her regiment. All the amazing teachers and staff you will fall in love with. Mrs. Ervin is such a supportive counselor who goes out of her way to comfort, support, encourage and grow children with educational books, puppets, and break through conversation. Be part of the PTA which is full of education, laughter, and ways to encourage children's educational growth and fun experiences. And to top it off they have things for the kids to look forward to, like popcorn Friday, reading contests with the whole Monroe school district, cake decorating and pumpkin contests, the list is endless, and everyone is encouraged and included to participate. This school is a gem. Would I recommend this school, yes, in a heartbeat. Heck I am considering doing the hour+ drive each way just so they can go to this school.

Great teachers and principal. The building is clean and well cared for. Children seem to understand building rules and expectations. Parents are engaged as volunteers throughout the school day. Office staff is friendly and helpful. Teachers respond quickly to student needs. Class sizes are large. Curriculum is mostly new. The halls are cheerful and display student work.

We were extremely dissatisfied with our experience at this school and communications with both the school administrator as well as the PK teacher. Our THREE year old experienced an extremely stress inducing and strict environment at this school. The administrator instead of communicating that this school may not be a good fit for my child went on a campaign to place the blame on my THREE year old saying we need occupational therapy, speech therapy, special Ed and even going so far as recommending we hire a teacher to help their teacher in the classroom. We spent a lot of money on specialists only to find out our child is 100% normal and was subjected to a strict and stressful environment where she was being singled out and made to feel like she did not belong. We met other parents whose children were subjected to the same treatment. I recommend looking elsewhere if your child loves being active and group activities as the classroom is very regimented and children are discouraged from sharing works. I was fooled by the waitlist to thinking this was a good school but it is far from that.

The school observes too many non-standard holidays which doesn't match with working schedule of parents.