Stephen Decatur Middle School

I read all comments and the first thing I can say is that my child is excelling at Stephen Decatur because I am an INVOLVED parent, It is my responsibility as a parent to make sure that my child goes to school for its intended purpose. The school my be somewhat shakey but I make sure that I maintain contact and that I make sure that my child does the homework, schoolwork, and is respectful to everyone. I sit with her and make sure that she understands her work. I cant do some of the math but I have a tutor for her and the teacher answers my questions through e-mails. Parents need to stop thtinking and complaining about the school and look at what you are sending to the school and if you are involved. I have been to the PTO meeting there is only a few parents there.
--Submitted by a parent

I am a student at sdms. I dont think it is particularly just the students or teachers. I think it is both of the two. I think it is the students because the decide to be disruptive, skip class, and not do their work. I also think that is is the teachers fault because most of them are to afraid to do anything about it. Some of the teachers shouldn't be teaching their because they curse at the students and the students react horribly to it. Instead of telling an adult they take matters into their own hands and they act out by cursing back.
--Submitted by a student

I really hate to concur but this school has been nothing but trouble for my child since she got there. The students have no respect and the teachers are afraid to get involved. Where does that leave our children? It most definitely needs revamping from the top down. I will continue to look at other alternatives before my child becomes a statistic.
--Submitted by a parent

This school is not the best school in price georges county but it is a good school. even though some students at this school complain about the fights and other students at this school it still is a academic school with good children
--Submitted by a student

I also will only give 2 stars. My children complain of the bathrooms not being clean and the kids running the school. I also had problems with the administrators not calling me back after several attempts. I am ready to pull my kids from there asap. This is the worst school they have ever attended. Sorry I moved to this area.
--Submitted by a parent

teachers are great and highly qualified. they were hired by the school system from other countries with individual knowledge to show. the only thing i observed is none-involvement of some parents from school meetings and activities. we parents should give extra time in school to monitor development of our kids so as not to point faults to people working hard for the welfare and beneficial to our children.
--Submitted by a parent

My daughter is pretty new at the school but so far I have had problems with my calls not being returned by administrators which I think it very important. It's hard to have parent teacher contact because they don't have voicemail or should I say voicemail isn't set up . Remember,as I stated earlier, even when I leave a messgae with someone in the office I never get a call back. The office staff are very nonchalant and sometimes not pleasant. I try to refrain from getting upset with them due to their unprofessionalism. So far, I will give the school 2 stars.
--Submitted by a parent

This school is doing the best it can. The principal is in his second year and inherited a lot of garbage. All of my children have wonderful teachers who are well qualified.
--Submitted by a parent

I've just removed my child from this school after only two months mainly for safety reasons. The principal has a nonchalant attitude towards parents. Many teachers are unprofessional. This school needs to be revamped starting with the administration! The disruptive children run this school and the principal has no control.
--Submitted by a parent

I currently attend Stephen Decatur, and my opioion is that it is not the parents, teachers, or schools fault of that matter why the school is bad. It's the kids because they it's there choice if they want to do well in school and it's there choice on how they act. I mean the only thing about Stephen Decatur that bothers me is the cleanliness of the school. If they had a better building planning then the school will be more apealing to look at. But anyway like I said its the childrens fault and sometimes the school boards fault why the school is doing so poorly. I say the school board (and parents) because they expect to much from these kids. This is just my opioion . Oh and I gave it 2 stars just to be nice...
--Submitted by a student