North Beach Elementary School

I love North Beach Elelmentary. It has an amazing Principal (Dr. Alice Quarles). The staff is kind ,caring , and the teachers are amazing. We have the best PTA. The parent involovment is what makes this school what it is. We work together with the administration to help them with all that they need that is not provided by the budget because of government budget cuts in education. We also help children in need, our PTA organizes a go green clothes collection all year. We have a student recyling team . We are an IB school. All my kids have gone to this school and I am happy I still have 4 more years there as a parent and PTA member.
—Submitted by a parent

NBE is the absolute best!!! My son is going into 5th grade and I could not have dreamed of a better educational experience for him. We are the best of the best! Our teachers have been superb and our principal is strong and focused on making sure we meet all of our IB and personal goals as a community. We have an extremely active parents who work beautifully with our administration to create an optimal environment for our children to grow both academically and personally. We have tremendous parent volunteer support and our volunteer organizations such as PTA and Friends ensure that our children and teachers have all the resources they need for success. The NBE community is a community based on academic excellence and the core principles of kindness, ethics, and generosity. We are a proud NBE family and are grateful to have such a wonderful school helping us raise our son. Our superintendent of schools, Alberto Caravalho, who is fabulous and is a champion for our children, has consistently recognized our school, our principal and our PTA president for excellence. Here, at NBE, hard work and being a good person is indeed recognized and promoted!!! Thank you, NBE!!!
—Submitted by a parent

My 5th grader has been in the school for 4 yrs and my 2nd grader just completed his 1st yr. Both are gifted, and came to NBE from a nearby Montessori. The teachers have been kind, loving professionals who are always respectful to their students. The art & music teachers are terrific: come to an end of semester show & see for yourself! The PTA is very active, providing 150+ new computers in the last year, and SmartBoards in every class! This IB World School is incubating a bilingual Spanish program. Afterschool options include a very economical program plus broad array of "enrichments" athletics, arts & other classes. Friends of NBE volunteer parent group provides additional funding for extra staff in classrooms, computer, writing & science labs. Students have access to IXL math, BrainPop, Accelerated Reader & other software to enhance learning. PTA helps "Kids in Need" with free uniforms, books, school supplies & more. 5th graders create permanent "legacy" art installations on campus. Academics encouraged thru Student of the Month, Reading Incentives, etc. Fun community-building events throughout the year: spaghetti dinner, walkathons, fun fair & more. Best on the beach!
—Submitted by a parent

This school sucks! Everyone is gifted! Yeah right! Only few are truly gifted the rest paid for a label. The school only cares about test scores. The teachers scream and yell.
—Submitted by a parent

After hearing so many great things about this school and seeing it is a top 5% school in FL, we moved back to the area. My son has had the worst experience ever! Out of 8 kindergarten classes, 5 are "gifted." Seriously? Less than 10% of the general population is supposed to be gifted. Apparently in this school, you can buy your way into the gifted program by paying off a private psychologist to declare your child gifted and giving the school your scores. This completely ruins the gifted program for those kids who are truly gifted. Also, the politics in this school are as horrific as I have ever seen. If you are not on the PTA (which btw is made up of rich moms who don't work), the administration does not care about what concerns you have about your child. Dealing with the principal is a total nightmare. She has an elitist attitude when speaking to parents. And, while you sit in her office, she doesn't listen to you at all. Lastly, my son's teacher has been absolutely horrible. What's with the teachers in this school being yellers? My son does not want to go to school because he says his teacher is mean. We are looking for another school for next year.
—Submitted by a parent

Class of 2003, Graduated from FSU now working at a Real Estate Company. Class of 03 students have gone on to study at Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, MIT, Brown, etc. Awesome school

Studying at North Beach Elementary has been a very memorable experience for me. I loved my sweet teachers and classmates, the cafeteria food, Spanish class, and all our other activities. I believe that this school has helped me to develop in every milestone a child must achieve. I have also received various awards from this school when I was a kid. Now that I am in college, almost ready to finish my degree, I am looking forward to revisiting this school. <3

Just amazing no matter what! My family loved this school and I had my 3 children here and they are now in middle school at NMS and I love it! THANKS NBE!
—Submitted by a parent

My son is in Kindergarten and has a very kind and sweet teacher. Unfortunately, the focus in the school is very heavy on academics. Even in kindergarten they receive a ton of homework and have tests every week. I don't think they do much art. The principal wants the kids to be given homework on the weekend. They are in kindergarten, for pete's sake. Kids at this age learn best by being hands on, not doing worksheet after worksheet. But the administration here is very top down and teachers don't have much room to do their own curriculum. My guess is that since this is an A school there is a lot of pressure to maintain that. My son is already complaining that he doesn't want to go to school. I wish I could homeschool.
—Submitted by a parent

I have requested 5 times to meet with the prinipal and still have yet to receive a response or at the very least even an acknowledgement....
—Submitted by a parent

Teachers are the best, lunch food quality acceptable, everything in this schools is brilliant except for the parking and drop off location, and very rude drivers who drive and park their huge SUV's , even inside the faculty parking lot blocking staff parking spaces almost hit students when driving, i remember last year there was a security and this never happened, we need the security back for the safety of our children s in the morning and in the afternoon.
—Submitted by a parent

If it weren't for Dr. Quarles and her front office staff, this school would be 5 star. The students, parents, teachers and the Vice Principal (Mrs. Villar) are what makes this school great. However, Dr. Quarles is the most insincere, self interested and politically minded educator I have ever come across. She doesn't seem to like either the students or their parents (even though the parental involvement through Friends of North Beach supplies her with incredible support). She needs to have her wings clipped, as her arrogance and selfishness create an obstacle for all that is great at NBE. This school would be better without Dr. Quarles and with Mrs. Villar in charge.
—Submitted by a parent

Hard to understand why the principal is receiving four stars for leadership... This school had a fantastic communicator and inspiring principal. Upon his retirement DR Quarrels, who insists to be called that, DR, has been a disaster in every area that I can think of. She can not even look at students, or parents, in the eyes... Out of touch with reality, the student body and teachers needs. Only interested in test results to promote her and the school ratings. Parent involvement, and some teachers are the upside of this mediocre school. School lunch is full of unhealthy choices. Office staff is unhelpful and sometimes even rude. Mrs Villar, the vice principal, is trying her best to keep the "peace" and this school together. Before rating a principal please look at all the parents comments.
—Submitted by a parent

I have a son who started NBE this past year and was in Ms. Shaw's class. After two years of crying every morning before pre-k, I was scared a new school, new classmates, and a new teacher would be intimidating. However, it was quite the opposite. From the first day of school, my son was anxious to head to kindergarten. He loved "center time" and was reading by Christmas. But most importantly, he loved his teacher. Her classroom is warm and inviting. She greets each child every day with a smile and a hug. She plays their favorite music as they unpack and prepare for the day, and she ends each day with Circle of Kindness an opportunity for all of the children to hear something kind and positive about themselves. Ms. Shaw knows how to set the stage for a lifelong love of learning. Thank you NBE for such a beautiful teacher from the inside out, for a strong and committed PTA, for Friends of NBE, and for the dedicated administration who has made transferring to this school such a pleasure. My only request is that the cafeteria has better monitoring next year, especially for the little ones at lunch.
—Submitted by a parent

It is hard to rate a school because everyones experience is different. I personally have had a horrible experience with the teachers and the principal. There is no warmth and the kids are not allowed any self expression what so ever. Kids are treated with no respect and in return children do not respect the staff....common sense, right? Not for Mrs Quarrels (principal). Teachers my kids have had are yellers. My kids are straight A students and my son who had a terrible 5th grade year lost all interest in school. This year he attended MAC and excelled in every area. It is time to open our minds and educate ourselves about how to treat children, specially at North Beach. Hate to give bad news, but I do it when it is needed.
—Submitted by a parent

This is one of the best, if not the best, public elementary school in Miami Beach. The teachers are great, the principal is a strong leader and the parental involvement helps make this school well-above the ordinary.
—Submitted by a parent

NBE used to be a grate school. Currently, I have a third grader attending the school and my oldest child graduated three years ago. Important changes were made in the past two years with the gifted program and students no longer switch teachers in the middle of the day. The quality of education now is very questionable when I compare to what it used to be before the changes. I understand administration has the best intentions when implementing new operations but unfortunatelly they don't have the talent to realize that results for students and teachers are not positive. It is a shame. Great P.E., Music, Arts and PTA after school program. Have to congratulate second grade gifted teachers for the best spanish program. Wish they could run the school.
—Submitted by a parent

We are new to NBE and its a nightmare. Principal does not respond to numerous attempts to contact and meet with her. My kid tested gifted but was not placed in a gifted class, because "class size is too large", teachers seem unhappy and overwhelmed. Halls and classrooms are filthy. Bullying amongst boys is a big problem that is addressed in a heavy handed hysterical manner. Only one day a week do they have a very brief recess period which is often evoked. The principal does nothing to make the experience fun and inspired but rather relies on handing out certificates at every opportunity, and empty warm and fuzzy words. We cant wait to be out of there. Must say though parents are great and their involvement exceptional if not somewhat elitist.
—Submitted by a parent

This school was great!!! i moved to the area just for my kids to attend NBE. this year its a mess!!! my daughters KG teacher is always texting or on her cell. this teacher follows her colleagues lesson plans and has no idea what is ever going on. i spoke to the ADMIN and they dismissed by concerns. This school is only concern with donations!!! IF YOU DONATE LOTS OF $$$$, THAN your child gets special attention. The school claims to be an A school but we are really a B school
—Submitted by a parent

EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED IN QUALITY OF 5TH GRADE teaching, sorry i transferred child. NO PROGRESS REPORTS, GRADE ASSIGNMENT UNCLEAR. homework assigned but not collected or graded, etc.. very random grading- what happened to the mid semester progress reports-no one knows. TEACHERS SEEM VERY ANNOYED TO BE THERE.
—Submitted by a parent