Basalt Elementary School

This school has amazing teachers, staff and students! The teachers are knowledgable, excited about teaching, fun and enthusiastic. The staff has always been extremely helpful whenever I have a question or need assistance. HOWEVER the principal and the school board... apparently would like to change all these great features of the school. What kind of person YELLS at kindergardeners for being late? WHOSE FAULT IS IT THAT THEY ARE LATE? yell at the parents.. not the child!! What kind of person does not return phone calls, emails or messages left in person? Is that because we, as parents, are interruptions to your day?!?! Serioulsy bad principal... staff and teachers awesome!! The school is a 5 star!! But the principal does not even rate!
--Submitted by a parent

I feel the white children that can read and write and know how to add are the ones that are following behind because we cater to the Hispanics. We have more classes in "bilingual" a glorified ESL than we do have traditional classes.
--Submitted by a parent

What is going on in that school? Good staff and well behaved kids.Unfortunately the principals missleading has ruined a school with a great potencial and the worst thing is that the district seems not to care!!!!
--Submitted by a teacher

If nothing else, a great school should inspire excitement about learning. In this sense, Basalt Elementary failed miserably for my kindergartner. He dreaded school, only enjoying "computers, phy-ed, and Spanish"--not math, reading, writing, or anything else about the school--he had become listless! Agonized, and feeling patronized by the Principal, who literally winked at me in response to my concerns, I moved him to a nearby public charter school where the difference was extraordinary--he couldn't wait to go to school, came home daily bursting with excitement about science, math, reading--as well as phy-ed, Spanish, etc. (and scored in the 90th percentile in all subjects in this, his second year). It seems Basalt works for some of my friends' kids--maybe it depends on the teacher/classmates they get and whether that teacher works for their learning style. But if it doesn't work, there is little recourse--the school is large and impersonal and the Principal is overwhelmed. The best things I can say about it are the involvement of the Parent (PIE) group and the bilingual program for teaching Spanish to English-speakers.
--Submitted by a parent

NOT IMPRESSED! School starts in 5 days for our 5 year old & we are still waiting for our "Welcome Letter" inviting us to tour the school with our daughter this week. When the "admin" called last week to confirm the enrollment for our kindergartner I was asked more than once during our phone conversation if we still planned on attending this fall? This is after I already confirmed that we are. (The Deposit was paid in June ) I went on to tell her we have been waiting for the information from the school (we were promised it last June). I asked her where else would my daughter go to school we live in Basalt? She said "well its not law you send your kid to kindergarten" This is our first few dealings with the staff of this school and regretfully they have all been very disappointing & rude.
--Submitted by a parent

My son is in his third year at BES and I'm not thrilled with this school. While the bilingual program is a nice option, this is actually a bilingual school w/ everything in English & Spanish (ie. homework, notes, plays, etc.) which I don't care for. Turnaround for the teachers is ridiculous, some teachers are very strict & not friendly, the principal is always rude & never acknowledges any of the parents, not to mention how horrible the parking is. Some teachers are very friendly & very sweet but it's a crap shoot to get one. They do offer lots of programs with art, arting, science, music & their reading program is great. PIE is wonderful & the parents are the only ones making a difference at this school. I think if the principal & all teachers would embrace the parents this school would improve dramatically. communication is needed!
--Submitted by a parent

Nice bilingual program and teachers, unfortunately lots of them do not come back.
--Submitted by a parent

Can't imagine a better school. We LOVE the bilingual program for our English-speaking kids, PEAK, the staff, and the new school itself.
--Submitted by a parent

We have two children in the bilingual program at BES and couldn't be happier. Amazing teachers in a brand new school - we have no complaints. We feel our children have been appropriately challenged between learning Spanish and being involved in PEAK.
--Submitted by a parent

BES has a great staff, and very involved parents. Our brand new school is beautiful and offers state of the art technology. As with any school, there are challenges, however BES overall does a fantastic job.
--Submitted by J, a parent