Basilica School of St Mary Parents

[Anonymous]

Class sizes way too big. But they keep increasing it to make more $$$$. Before you know it, it’ll be 30 kids per class.

And way too much time is wasted on assemblies, multiple religious events, etc. They need to refocus on pure academics.

[Anonymous]

Way too many BS “half days.” They’re a total waste of time and disruptive to working parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Class sizes way too big. But they keep increasing it to make more $$$$. Before you know it, it’ll be 30 kids per class.

And way too much time is wasted on assemblies, multiple religious events, etc. They need to refocus on pure academics.

If you want pure academics why are you sending your kid to a Catholic school? It's not just private school lite with cheaper tuition, it's a religious school of course there are going to be religious events.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Class sizes way too big. But they keep increasing it to make more $$$$. Before you know it, it’ll be 30 kids per class.

And way too much time is wasted on assemblies, multiple religious events, etc. They need to refocus on pure academics.

The class size I do agree is large, but the multiple religious events are a part of the reason people send their kids there.

[Anonymous]

Agree my kid spends more time in religion classes/assembly than math class. Science class is nonexistent.

It’s sad when we started 9 years ago it was a dream but that was 3 principals ago. Current administration has zero idea on what’s important to kids or school community. I cannot speak to why teacher are leaving but I know some are on visas so maybe it’s a one year visa. We are on to bigger things but recommend people to look hard at what they are teaching (math and reading curriculum) and how much time spent in assemblies vs classrooms.

[Anonymous]

The assemblies and other non-academic fluff is just a stealth way to reduce the workload on teachers, who apparently want more and more time off (via all the half days, etc.) and more and more pay.

It’s basically a daycare; we supplement the minimal academics at home using IXL, etc.

Also, they NEVER request formal feedback from parents or survey families on what can be done better.

[Anonymous]

BSSM is not the same as it was pre-covid. The teacher turnover is significant and new teachers aren’t receiving the mentoring needed to be successful. The kids are not meeting grade level expectations.

We are pulling our child for next year for another school as we don’t want their education to continue to suffer.

[Anonymous]

There seems to be a problem with staff and faculty turnover. Good people keep leaving.

[Anonymous]

This was our first choice, but we were waitlisted and signed a contract elsewhere before getting off the waitlist. I'm starting to think that may have been a good thing. Thanks for all the feedback!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There seems to be a problem with staff and faculty turnover. Good people keep leaving.

There are only a couple openings: https://www.smsva.org/about-sms/employment

It's not great that a teacher left in the middle of the year, but many schools are facing similar issues.