Manuel De Vargas Elementary

I went there for fifth grade and my brother went there for all six years of elementary school. Sadly, I would have to say that the school overall did not provide nor foster a loving learning environment for either of us. The majority of our teachers were not supportive and were very disorganized, though this does not apply to ALL teachers, as I believe there were some who actually were very helpful and caring, allowing us to really enjoy learning new material. However, out of the seven teachers that me and my brother had, only one cared about her students and her class was the only one that we felt we actually loved learning new material in. In addition, there were many times where if there was conflict between the students, the teachers would often jump to pointing fingers and placing blame on innocent students instead of getting the story straight first, making us students feel things were unfair and affecting our social skills and love for school. The office administration staff is okay, though there were some secretaries in the front office that would often disrespect students, often talking to us with a "I'm better than you because of my title and position" voice, not having any form of self-respect and dignity to allow students to grow. Ms. Tanya Robertson especially did not have any form of communication to students, and would address us in a disdained tone, but then change her voice to a respectful one when any parents were nearby, making us students feel lowly and not allowing any of us to feel any confidence when growing up. The lunch ladies and yard duties there were also not very nice, too selfish and addressing students in a dismissive and irritated tone as well. Many times yard duties wouldn't even bother to actually keep an eye on students, just busy talking to one another and dismissing us students whenever we needed help. They would often be quick to place blame on students as well when there was conflict, placing blame on innocent students instead of getting the story straight first. The lunch quality at De Vargas is also very bad, and there were many times where the milk from the lunch line would be expired. All this created a sort of back-stabbing social environment for the students, and led to many animosity between classmates and did not provide a supportive community at De Vargas elementary at all. Thus, I sadly have to say De Vargas did not provide a loving learning environment at all, and, if possible, going to another school that would help give children a better stable foundation would be better for the students and their future. I hope that there will be changes to De Vargas to help provide a community for students and parents alike.