Birney Elementary School

The few months that my child has been here has been awful. Unless you have a “easy child”. They will be quick to make your child an enigma. They will not offer support or try to work with you. Yet if you decide to un enroll they will just about catapult the papers at you to sign. I’ve just never met a classroom of teachers who hated their job so much. Yet thought teaching pre schoolers would be “easy”. I truly hope this principal decides to take her job seriously and do something about this. Instead of using the excuse that head start is a separate program. Thankfully this is our last week here, and my child is thrilled to leave.

I have now had kids in this school for the last 8 years. There have been alot of ups and downs. The first principle was fantastic. He was loud, assertive, and brought joy to every student that crossed his path. When he retired we were left with a meek, rarely outspoken priciple who rarely reached out to parents or intereacted with kids. Over time she had gotten better about talking with the kids but her meek nature still persists. The front office has litterally the kindest woman i have ever met. Dont ever change Diana. Every last teacher has been fantastic with my two daughters. The non-educational staff are fantastic role moddles and are a pleasure to be around. Covid was a bit of a challenge for the online stuff but my daughter's teacher did a fantastic job maintaining order and teaching her students what needed to be taught. I have watched the old school get torn down and built back up. This school is a hidden jem for sure.As for the Special Ed ranking i have no experience with it so i cant properly evaluate it.As for Safety i ranked it as a 4/5. because even though they added a security system for the school it very much could use an officer pressent daily. in my 8 years the school has had 15-20 shooter scares(1 not so much a scare and 5 of them were post school security upgrade) and 3 deranged drug users wandering onto the school grounds after climing the school fences. we have only had one "parent on parent" physical incident.the only gripes i have for this school is its waste system seems to vent poo stank right in front of the main door to the left and none of the staff seem to know why that is. As well the parking area for parents is tiny. there is about 24 spots 6 disabled spots and 2 Ev spots. the parking area is also tied directly into the pick-up loop. this loop also stretches out of the school for about 2 full blocks shared between 3 directions. if you arent super early to get in line your going to be late picking up your kids. this makes me just park on the street and just walk up like quite a few other parents. there is so much wasted space on crapy quality dirt grass that could have had the loop be more of a "U" shape or even have the loop go out the back side of the school.

I'll make this quick. My child was punched by another child and the only reason I found out about it is because I noticed the marks on my child. The school was not going to tell me this happened. When I confronted the school they first tried to blame my child for the reason they got hit. Then when that fell through. They admitted that they knew this other child was a problem, that they thought they had them under control and that they were not going to punish them because their life was already difficult enough. The only help they would offer was to watch the problem child closer and to make sure all teachers were to keep a better eye on them..

The staff, teachers, and principal at this school are fantastic. They have an awesome curriculum for social-emotional development and care about their students deeply. Kids can earn their "self-manager" badge by practicing their ROAR (Respect others, Offer kindness, Always be safe, Responsible Lions!). My kiddo attended K-1st grade here and loved his teachers. It's easy to communicate with whomever you need (teacher, nurse, principal, etc). The diversity of the school is fantastic. The P.E. class is so fun for the kids. Mr. Wood (PE teacher) is awesome (but again, all the teachers are!). The only concern we had for our kid was whether he was being challenged enough. He came home often saying the work was too easy (it wasn't always true) and we heard he was "fidgety" in class. Our gut told us he was bored and needing just a bit more academically. That said, I do generally recommend the school. They work hard to tailor to each student as they're able. For example, my kiddo was placed in a reading group with other kids around his higher reading level. They also support the students who are underperforming very well. They have a lot of lower-income students, which grants them access to more resources than other schools and they use those resources well. Depending on your needs, this could be a great choice for your kiddo!