Farwell Elementary School

I am a mother who has raised 3 children in Lewiston public school system and just removed my youngest from Farwell Elementary because of a plethora of issues. I am grateful my older students didn’t have the as unacceptable of an elementary education as my youngest recieved here. As a 2nd grader, my daughter was not learning many fundamentals she needed to meet standards. I know a lot of parents blame common core but that is really secondary in this equation. The problem we found was if criteria wasn’t covered on testing, it wasn’t taught or introduced to her at all. No English. No spelling (told to look it up in a dictionary) She has no knowledge whatsoever of our solar system or space. None. She had no idea who George Washington was.. or Abraham Lincoln. STEM “is another name for science” was for making slime and recycled paper, robots but absolutely no idea what the universe was. The atmosphere is incredibly hostile towards parents - you are either agreeable or you are the “problem”. If there is a request for communication from your students teacher you can expect to be ignored and if you bring this to the principal, Amanda Winslow, you can also expect to be blamed for the lack of communication. You don’t have reasonable access to this school (or any in LPS - PTO is nothing but a cheering squad or fundraising mechanism) Your child can be beat up right on the playground (recess is a very minimal here) and faculty never seems to witness the repeated assaults. They don’t see because they aren’t watching them - at all. They’re too busy having personal conversations and keeping backs turned to students who are running amok. And, by assault, I mean several boys to one. The leadership enables the poor behavior an neglegant staff. Amanda Winslow is cold and she is more likely to admonish you as a parent than her educators for their horrendous results. These scores are often blamed on “poverty” or “ELL” but that is merely an attempt to deflect and refute any accountability. After 7 years, I see through these excuses and have removed my youngest. This school (and LPS) scores low because they can’t take responsibility for their poor choices and educators. They score low because they protect and enable their staff even when they should show them the door. They hire anyone and have low standards, hence the low scores. And they have a huge ego with absolutely nothing to show for it except groupies that feed their constant need for praise. Most parents have absolutely no idea how horrible their scores are or even realize what their children aren’t being taught, it’s not like they notify you and say we rank nearly last in the state, it’s easy to blame the state or common core but the reality is Farwell isn’t even trying to remedy their rankings, and the fewer parents that know this, the better for them.