St James Evangelical Lutheran

03/03/09

A warm and welcoming church. Sunday service is great. I do have problems with the school.

by mannie74f at Citysearch

I am a parent of a child that attends St. James School and Church. My family also attends Sunday service. Our Pastor is a very warm man whose wife is just as warm and friendly. They both do a wonderful job serving the Church as well as the community in my own opinion. The school on the other hand needs improvements. My son has attended first, second, and now third grade at St. James and after this school year's experience my husband and I seriously might consider pulling him out. The school has tried to make changes for the past two years in which they have hired some new teachers to improve the curriculum as well as help with student retention. The new teachers are not that much of an improvement. This year my son's test scores have gone down, something I was shocked to see since he really enjoys his teacher this year. When I noticed his teacher arriving late several times I began asking other parents if they noticed a different with their child and several said yes, their child's grades have slipped a bit. Although the learning environment is to be interactive and creative, my son says he hardly opens a textbook. These things are the sorts of problems at St. James School in which the school continues to struggle with. They hire average teachers and in return they do not foster their growth. My son's teacher was to be completing her master's degree that I found to be untrue. His pervious years teachers were ill-equipped to be teaching at a private school. They were too inexperienced and had little classroom direction. This was all to be changed. I can't say I am satisfied with the changes. I just do not feel our paid tuition at this school is worth it.

I would recommend talking with other parents first before enrolling your child at the school. I do have to give them credit for addressing the parents in how they were going to make ?great? changes. The changes, however, have failed.