Celebration School

This is one of those sick schools where nothing will improve until they get a new principal. Since coming, she has stopped parents from being able to eat lunch with their kids and stopped parents from being able to volunteer in the school building. When I asked for a tour before we enrolled I was refused. What are they hiding? I have not even seen the inside of the school where my daughter goes every day. The principal is an elementary school teacher with an online masters degree, not a big thinker. Instead of finding out why the kids aren't happy and making changes, she just doles out more punishments. The latest one is to have kids sit in alphabetical order at lunchtime. This is the only time they can see their friends since middle school has no recess. So now they can't see their friends at all, especially since seating is assigned on the bus as well. Another problem is with the kids' physical needs. Lunchtime is at 2:09pm which is too late. The principal says they can snack during the three minutes they walk to class. But this is not a proper meal, and not healthy in the slightest. My daughter feels sick from this and rarely eats dinner or lunch anymore because her appetite has been disrupted. I know I would feel sick if I snacked all day and then ate lunch at 2pm. Despite many emails and my daughter meeting with the counselor many times, the issues have not been resolved at all. Many parents have told me the same thing- that nothing changes even if you make a huge effort to gather parents and try to discuss the problems with the administration. Parents don't write reviews online because of their home values. They did complain by the hundreds in the past on Celebration Parents of School Aged Children facebook, but now the administrator gets a call from the school if that happens, so if you mention the school she will take down your post. One lady mentioned that her son became underweight from the school lunch policy, and as I was writing a reply her post was removed. My daughter cries every day, morning and night, since starting three weeks ago, and there is no solution in sight. Half of her teacher yell at the kids too, and there is bullying because the kids are so unhappy. I am so sad that we moved to Celebration, and the strange thing is that we moved especially because we thought it would be a great school.

I would not recommend this school to anyone! This school lets the teachers teach what they want! This is a total joke! THEY WILL ONLY TEACH THE STUDENT ON WHAT THE FCAT TESTING IS FOR THAT CURRENT YEAR!! They don't send ANY papers home, they don't grade anything in a timely manner and they don't care about parental involvement at all! The Middle school, however, is wonderful, as the counselor really listens to you. All of the 8th grade teachers have it together, as well. On the flip side, the elementary counselor doesn't do what she says and she should have retired about 20 years ago! No joke! Don't let the "A" rating fool you! It may be an "A" in Florida, but because they're still in the bottom of the nation, it would be an "F" anywhere else. This is our third and final year of utter frustration here!! By the way, my kids scored high on all of the FCAT tests (PERFECT on some), but that's only because we supplement their daily work (because they complain DAILY of learning nothing at school)! This is really an honest message to the concerned parent. We had read a few bad comments about the school before moving here, but we blew them off. Heed these words, as I'm trying to forewarn you!