Southport Elementary School

My son has been at this school since Kindergarten and is now is 4th grade. His teachers have been excellent so far and the pricipal is wonderful. I love the staff and they really seem to care for all of the students. We are getting more parents involved, but will always welcome more. This school has really grown in the last few years.
--Submitted by a parent

This is our first year at the school and we really love it. Our child is happy and the teacher is amazing. There is a great community of parents teachers and administrators who are dedicated to helping our children grow and succeed. Involvement in the school is the key to any change. My only hope is that more parents get involved in the school and we will see amazing things happen.
--Submitted by a parent

This is in regard to the kindergarten teacher who use to be a 5th grade. NO where in the review did the parent give review of how the class was doing and how the teacher interact with kids and how he teaches. From what I've seen, his interaction is great with kindergartens.Also, a lot of teachers tend to change grades, till they see a grade that they are best suited for. For the most part, the kindergarten teachers have a good interaction with the kids. It's great for them to welcome parents to volunteer and help out, a good way to see how your child is doing in class. I think there's a mixture of good, structured teachers and really strict, no nonsense teachers. Admin could do better though, and some teachers and admin could improve in personality and being more patient. I've heard some teachers/admin yelling at the students, that is no way to encourage students to learn or inspire them to learn. The motto seems to be if a few kids are in trouble, blame the whole class.
--Submitted by a parent

My son is starting 2nd grade this fall and my younger son is going into kindergarten. I have been very pleased with Southport overall and feel very fortunate to have both my kids attending. The teachers are very caring and understanding and do an excellent job communicating with parents. Southport has made great strides in test scores and meeting the needs of all children. They have managed to keep their budget in check and class sizes down to no more than 20, and that says a lot given the current economic environment. The superintendant has made a huge commitment setting goals to make the district one of the best in the region and each year they are closer to that. My son absolutely loves his school and teachers and my youngest can't wait until school starts!
--Submitted by a parent

My son is currently in Kindergarten at Southport. His teacher is 5th grade math teacher who has no experience with teaching kids that young. I can't understand why he was allowed to teach kindergarten. The class size is 20 but there are no assistants. They expect 5 year olds to sit still for an hour and listen to boring lectures. I am not happy with this school and will be moving my son to another school for first grade.
--Submitted by a parent

My son has been at Southport since Kindergarten, and I've continuously been disappointed. I agree with the previous poster as the teachers do not seem happy at all, and there seems to be an inconsistency with what "benchmark" expectations are as well. I feel that the standards are set too high, and the district's expectations are unrealistic for each grade level. There is also a serious lack of art, science and history related subjects - how are we supposed to expect out children to think outside the box if a curriculum is so rigid and only set on Math, Reading and Language Arts? Where's the fun in learning for both student and teacher? My son will not be returning to Southport next year because we've moved, but I do hope the school improves. I'll miss alot of the really great parents there.
--Submitted by a parent

They have really good teachers. My grandchildren have went there since they first opened.

Unfortunately I have found in the last two years the wonderful teachers becoming dissatified and I believe it has nothing to do with the kids, parents, or principal, but with the District itself. They took art and science away from the younger grades. The conversion to K-8 built the grassy field out of the way and mostly unused because of the lack of visual supervision (totally disconnected from the playground). There is no student government. There is no more community feel or school spirit and very little parent participation, which I feel is because it is uninvited. Field trips were cut, the basic drill now is reading and writing and math. Get those high STAR scores, but don't think outside the box or have any fun learning. The plus is that the teachers and staff are still wonderful people they just don't seem very happy.
--Submitted by a parent

My child has been at Southport for 2 years (K & 1st) and he has had excellent teachers. Academically challenging and effective curriculum has his teacher considering advancing him to 2nd grade.
--Submitted by a parent

its a great school and all of the students work so hard on their work it a beautiful school also because it has a rose garden of peace and it is a very fun school and you learn a lot!!!
--Submitted by a student