Anyone at Sligo Creek Elementary but not in the immersion program?

[Anonymous]

There are a few threads asking about Sligo Creek ES, but then they dissolve into arguing about the immersion program and don't offer much information. Does anyone actually have a child at the school and not in the immersion program who can offer any insight on it?

We're considering a house in that area and have two young kids who would go to Sligo Creek ES in 2-3 years. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I'm a non-immersion SCES parent. The school has good and bad. It's changing dramatically in the next couple of years b/c of a boundary change, so it's hard to say what it will be like when your kids are ready for elementary.

Many kids do very well in the school. The bad is really the principal. We've had many good teachers there as well as good classmates. We've also had so-so teachers. That's to be expected at any school, public or private. The music and PE teachers are the stars of the school. (3rd graders write, direct, perform, etc. their own opera ... a project that's all run by the energetic music teacher).

The difficulty right now is that county budget cuts have trimmed the math and science strengths of the school so that they are pretty much non-existent.

The neighborhoods that feed into SCES are terrific. People are really friendly and we're close-in. We love being able to walk to dtown SS. Kids in the neighborhood attend many different schools -- Spanish & French immersion programs, neighborhood schools, TP schools and privates.

[Anonymous]

Original poster here - thanks for the response 10:12! Glad to hear that you sound at least relatively happy. I've read about the big boundary change - basically that some of the TP kids are going to a different school? How is that likely to change things? Does anyone have any opinions on how the school might change because of it? Just from reading, it doesn't sound like a huge deal, but maybe I'm missing something? Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

Also, what's so bad about the principal? Is she leaving any time soon or is the school "stuck" with her?

[Anonymous]

10:12 here: The biggest issue is that the school is losing so many kids that some grades will be down to one classroom per grade. That makes it very difficult to differentiate learning. The school has traditionally had multiple math levels going in each grade taught by the different teachers in the grade. With fewer teachers, these options are becoming harder to staff yet they are very important for the students.

I believe others have posted in other threads about the principal. She's not the kind of woman who will actually listen to you as your child's parent. (She will pretend to, though.) She's got the attitude that she knows better than parents. She moves teachers around to different grades without them necessarily wanting to and she's driven some good teachers out of the school.

I had to do a lot of advocating for what one of my sons needed. She once called me in to talk about "your son." I naturally asked which one, as I have more than one son, and she seemed affronted that she actually had to use his name. And then she proceeded to discount all my questions, which were later validated by his teacher. All in all, she's a difficult woman.

I've also heard some horror stories about how she hasn't written up behavior issues or other incidents because she wants things in the school to stay in the school and she doesn't want to report things to the county and have them reflect on the school.

Unfortunately, every year she tells parents she's not going anywhere. She doesn't seem to realize just how many parents want her to go ... somewhere ... anywhere but here.

[Anonymous]

Thanks again for the additional information. This does concern me since I have a son who may have minor special needs, and of course, the principal sounds awful. Guess we'll have to think about this a bit more...