Pinellas Academy Of Math And Science

My child attended middle school at this school. Extremely high teacher turnover at this school. The Dean of Students quit half way through the year too! At the beginning of the year they didn't have teachers for music, spanish, or PE. They still don't have a full time spanish teacher and several other teachers have quit throughout the year. Students are not given a choice of electives and classes are not assigned based on academic strengths or weakness. If your kid is great in one subject like English, but is horrible at math, you can bet that child will end up in all advanced classes and struggle the entire year in math or in all standard classes and be bored in English. I don't know why they can't put kids in advanced classes for the subjects where they excel and normal paced classes for the subjects they need a little help in. At the informational meeting, we were excited to finally find a school that my daughter might fit in. They said they don't assign tons of homework . Homework is actually assigned every night, weekends and over holiday breaks. They promised a top of the line science lab, a computer lab, lots of educational field trips and a curriculum that doesn't focus on FSA prep or scores. They have a computer lab, but the kids hardly ever get to use it. Only one field trip was offered this year and it cost over $200. All this school cares about is the damn FSA! Students are placed in classes based on their FSA scores instead of their report cards. A child should not be placed in any class based solely on one test score! School lunches cost more at this school than at any other school in the county at $3.25. The meals are not great and the kids don't get a choice of what to eat..they are stuck with the one menu item for the day. Breakfast is free at the county public schools and other charter schools, but this school charges $2.50. The only good thing I can really say about this school is that they do have a few excellent teachers that seem to really care about the students. It's a shame that several other great teachers had to leave throughout the year and all they could tell parents about why they left is that they had different educational views than the administration. Stop driving all the good teachers away! This school is planning to add more students next year. They really need to get their priorities straight, fix the class schedules and hire more teachers before they add any more students....but they won't, because charter schools are FOR PROFIT!

I'm not sure where these reviews or statistics have come from ? They don't resemble the school my children attend. I love this school. , and I have two very different types of children. One who is gifted and the other who is very bright but needs reading intervention. They both are excelling and its a very nurturing environment. The curriculum is more classical especially in Math. The kids learn cursive, and Science is in every subject. Most of all they are having fun !

First, let me state that my child is a middle school student at this school, so my review will be based on the middle school part of this charter school. With that being said, please parents if you have a middle schooler and are considering enrolling them here DON'T DO IT!!!! No electives, no library, teachers quitting mid-year, minimal communication. Our family went to the original informational meeting for this school almost 4 years ago at Highland Rec, so we have been with them since the beginning. We were excited, they promised the Earth and the Moon, Ipads for every student to use at school, a top of the line science lab, lots of educational field trips, great teachers...blah blah blah....What we got was NO Ipads, I've never seen a science lab at the school ever, no functioning library, teachers come and go, no electives what so ever. Educational field trips maybe 2 a year, and this included places like The Science Center in St. Pete, which is fine, but really not geared toward middle school aged children. Last year my child had band for the first semester and then the band teacher quit over Christmas break, and that was the end of band and he wasn't my child's only teacher to quit at that time either, the algebra teacher and science teacher both quit. I believe they now have ONE art teacher and ONE music teacher for the whole school, and that's K-8, at one time they were splitting their time between Pinellas Academy and another of this company's charter schools in Tampa .One other thing,is you have to pay for everything, a lock for your student's locker ( you can't bring your own), they make you pay for an agenda which the middle school kids don't even use. Mediocore testing scores don't make up for everything this school is missing. Please parents check other options before sending your child here.

This is the worst school ever. Administration lacks proper credentials and experience. My child never went to the school library in 2 years. They boasted technology such as ipods and computer labs, and science labs. My child never used the ipods and never went to the science lab. My child did go to the computer lab, but only for testing. The principal and AP are cannot even spell or use grammar properly. Reading the monthly newsletters were painful. There is no communication at this school and if there was it misspelled or didn't make sense. The school has had nearly 80% of the staff quit. That is a huge sign that something is not right when teachers will quit mid year. There FCAT scores are in the toilet. Especially the math. The principal was the math coach up until just a few weeks before testing. Like I said...The administration has no experience and has no idea what they are doing. I have no idea who would hire a person to be a principal that does not even hold a master's degree or have leadership experience. This is their 3rd principal in 2 years. Students & staff are leaving in droves. DO NOT enroll your child in this school. You will not be happy here.