Waller Road Elementary School

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.

My child is on an IEP. I'm used to advocating for his needs and being disappointed with his educational experience. However, this past year at Fawcett was really my son's best year. He was excited about school and liked all of his teachers. I felt he was getting his needs met and was pleasantly surprised by the special education staff. The only complaint I have, is there was some bullying and unresolved issues with name calling and berating. Also COVID cut our year short but the teachers did a solid job with online instruction.

My son attended here for half of his 2nd grade school year then I pulled him after he had been bullied for over a week and the staff did not tell me. I informed them of what was happening but my son was too scared to be honest to the counselor. His teacher was kind and put in a lot of effort with him but the lack of awareness and parent communication from the rest of the staff left my son at risk of physical harm.