Linwood Monroe Arts Plus Lower

I have a kindergarten student at Linwood who also attended PreK at Monroe. I loved the staff at both buildings. My child came home happy every day and loves school. I am hoping that the school will continue to improve. I was worried when Linwood and Monroe merged a few years ago, but things seem to be going very well. At Monroe, I saw many older students being good leaders for the young kids. Our family is very happy and know we made a great choice. As far as the other reviews, our classes have been around 25. When we looked around all the top schools were between 2 and 30 even in the lower grades. It seems comparable to us.
—Submitted by a parent

I am also looking into other school options for my child. Since the merger of Monroe and Linwood(08/09 school year) - it seems that the 'arts' have completly taken over. my child did better at Monroe. She loves the art, drama, music, etc but could they throw in some science or even gym once in awhile??!! It is sad the amount of attention the 'bad' kids get- i agree w/the parent below, also the class sizes are ridiculous - no wonder the teachers are stressed! Could be worse, but could be a lot better!
—Submitted by a parent

I just recently pulled my son out of this school. Since he is a child that listens and minds the rules I don't believe that he was paid much attention to. His classroom was highly concentrated with children with huge behavioral issues and the teachers were stressed to the max. Great teachers but stressed terachers. It was very unfortunate and a horrible experience.
—Submitted by a parent

There are some really dedicated teachers at this school, and there are a few who need to review why they are teachers. As far as meeting curriculum goals, they do the job adequately, though my child fell through the cracks on both the gifted and LD ends of the spectrum. The arts are available, but sadly diminishing over the past five years. The arts specialists work hard to integrate curricular goals which seems to be largely detrimental to 'arts' and not necessarily helpful to 'curriculum'. Having arts avialable to all students is supposed to be a priority, and in that sense I don't understand why they also have competitive arts, and many of the same students 'chosen' to be in those groups (plays, dance groups, choirs that perform).
—Submitted by a parent

I am a sixth grade student here at linwood for the 04-05 school year, and has been here since kindergarten. The teachers gives each child attention they deserve, our specialists, (art, music, dance, and drama) are great and giveall the kids here a great experience. I would recommend this school to any parent that feels their child loves the performing arts! -Celia B.
—Submitted by Celia B., a student