Macarthur Elementary School

Love this school. We moved to the area 3 years ago and hesitated with sending out daughter here; we were already transporting one kid to Jackson. Glad we decided to keep enroll our daughter here.

This school is so great. The teachers have all been kind and communicate with me regularly. The additional staff I have interacted with are all kind and take time to know the students too. The principal has even gotten her dog trained as a therapy animal! The program is IB, so the children start learning Spanish as soon as they start school. Every year with the combined efforts of the teachers/administration and parents supporting the students, the test scores are going up. They make sure to keep families involved too. There are many opportunities to go to the school to have activity days with the children (tie dying shirts, concerts, and joining in for PE are some I've been to). They have two show choir teams and every extracurricular class is enjoyed by my child. They also are able to do community things as well. When I first moved to the neighborhood I got a gift of a painted birdhouse from a kindergartner. And my son has gone to the elderly care home around the corner multiple times to bring art/flowers. I truly cannot say enough good things.

The school has/had amazing teachers. AMAZING. However, a new principal was placed at the school this year and the school is negatively impacted by this placement. Teachers are leaving, students are miserable, and parents have complained to the GRACE Superintendent who refuses to consider that this hire was a mistake. This school's teachers are 5/5. Leadership is 1/5 at best.

Overall it sucked. The academic and Biblical teaching great. But doing in what they preach? No. They do not enforce rules for certain people because their families pay more money. Even one of the staff members said this to my face. She was honest. Which I liked. I had no problems with her personally. But the fact that is the truth is crazy. Also there have been several families who have left due to bullying from the students and the administrator doing nothing about it. Very sad that they preach kindness and do not enforce that amongst students. Also the teachers are hit or miss some really sweet and I enjoyed. Some should never have gotten a doctorate or a teaching license. Kids. Some good apples. But the ones who are allowed to do whatever they want and act ugly speak louder than the good ones. Which is highly unfortunate because the school looks good on paper but sucks. The administrator is a micromanager on things that do not matter. He focuses on the parking lot rather than cracking down on the bullying issues and problems that are actually relevant.