Widewater Elementary

My Son is leaving this school after over 5 years to go to Parkside Elementary in Fredericksburg. After calling Widewater Elementary I was told by Mrs. White that it's against their school policy to transfer my child's Birth Certificate Copy to his new school. I said, ok. May I please pick it up from there. She replied by saying that is also against the school policy and told me to go to the DMV to get another copy which by the way has a 60 day wait time to get an appointment. When I asked to speak to the Principal I was told she is in a Staff Meeting. It's funny when there is always an issue with this school that there is a Staff Meeting. What a joke!

My daughter is currently going into the second grade and we have had an amazing experience so far. The principal and vice principal are very attentive and very quick to respond to parent concerns. I feel I have a say so in my daughter's education and decision making. I was very concerned about sending my daughter to this school due to lower scores and some poor reviews, but on the advice of some of my friends who have children that attend this school and are early education specialists themselves, I am very glad I did!!! My daughter is excelling in school and absolutely loves it! The PTO is very active and I find that to be a very important aspect in the schools. When the parents are involved, the children succeed.

I have 3 children going to this school and i regret ever moving here to have them goto this school. First they have a smile program for children who need extra help after school. My son absolutely loves the smile program. So I asked him what does he do there and the answer was "I do my homework then play". I asked do the teachers help you or anything answer was "only sometimes". Asked again what do you do after you finish your homework answer was "they let us play". They don't check over there homework to make sure they understand, they don't ask questions or anything. My son may possibly not pass or possibly a some school. Another issue was one of the students threatened to KILL my son in the 4th grade. What did the teacher do NOTHING. Principal wasn't notified, the teacher knew of this but decided not to say something about it brushing it off. We thought it was a big deal and brought it up to the principal and after making a big DEAL about it the parent was notified. Also they have misplaced 2 of my child on the wrong bus and my child told them that wasn't the right bus but put them on there anyways. This didn't happen once or twice but THREE TIMES to both my kids. They are below the standards academically and if I can make the decision again I would of have stayed in dumfries and let my kid go to mary williams elementary school which was hands down better than widewater. Much better structure, teachers, curriculum, pretty much everything was better at mary williams. AVOID WIDEWATER only way you can actions done sometimes is to directly speak with the superintendents in which we have done in more than 1 occasion.

This school has a very poor special education program and policy. I have a special needs son that qualified for services immediately in other districts, however, Widewater has fought me tooth and nail over every single issue they could possibly fight over. Other parents have also told me that the curriculum is totally inadequate. Kindergartners still learning letters, colors and shapes (rather than any sort of reading skills), and much of the school caters to minorities with English as a second language, and this puts other children at a disadvantage.