Cardinal Montessori School

We disenrolled our child after witnessing disgusting conditions at this school. it is an old building, sure, but there is no excuse for the bathrooms being out of basic sanitation supplies, like soap and paper towels (esp with children!). The toilets were often full of urine (whether they were broken or just left that way, who knows?). The playground's mulch was not deep enough to provide impact protection, as well. When I dared to express a negative opinion about the school on the largest review site available, my review was drowned out by dozens of solcited positive reviews, and subsequently removed, I con only assume at the request of CMS. If the school's reputation is so manufactured, it cannot be that good to begin with, can it? 

As far as education goes, my son started the school as an emerging reader, capable of writing all of his letters and numbers. He left the school only stronger in math, and writing nearly all of his letters and numbers backward. His teacher showed up to his final conference without a report card, and I was never given one, until I asked for a copy when we left. 

The school has a reputation for a sense of community and a feeling that everyone is like family. This may be true, I suppose, if you aren't the new folk in town. We spent half a school year there before we escaped, not a single family spoke to us until the last day of school...that's right, the LAST day of school. Not in the parking lot, not in the hallway, nothing. We got obligatory "good morning" nods, and an occassional "hello," but nothing outside of that. Nothing. We even went to the annual fundraiser at a pizza place, hoping to make friends. No one even saw we were there, and when my son tried to engage children in his class, he was ignored. 

My son came home with bite marks, wearing the wrong clothes, sunburnt (despite having sunblock at the school), and with stories of being pushed, bullied and picked on, all under the "watchful" eye of the playground supervisors. 

If a school's administration is run this way, how closely are they monitoring the educational side of things? Sometimes, reputation isn't all it's cracked up to be. Look carefully before you send your chlld here. I suspect the reputation is both semi-manufactured, and based at least partially on a delusion that just because you are paying for something, it must be better than the free thing (aka public education). I don't speak for the area public schools, as we choose a different private school, but I do think that this private school does not meet the standards necessary for my child, and perhaps not for yours. it may be a perfect fit for some of those who rave about it, but it has some problems that no one seems to want to address outside of vehement attempts to quiet me down.