Fire Prairie Middle School

There are several teachers that I have spoken with and substitute teachers...all have said they do not like teaching at Fire Prairie because the principal has a rude behavior towards parents, students and teachers. He uses foul language and berates teachers in front of the student and uses inappropriate bullying tactics. There have been several complaints to the Board of Education and the Superintendent, however, the Superintendent encourages this behavior and reprimands the teachers. I'm not sure what has gone wrong since last year, but this administration is ruining our schools, our children and the educational values at the district.
—Submitted by a parent

It has been my experience that some of the teachers are prejudicial and use foul language around the kids. The office staff is hot and cold, depending on the day. The principal is rude and condenscending towards parents who bring concerns. In fact, there are problems with the principal and the community, ie KC Royals and Jr Deputy program. Beware of this school!! Other schools (in re: teachers, administrators) in Fort Osage are much better to deal with.
—Submitted by a parent

Grading system unfair, teachers do not listen to parents concerns, principal uses foul language around the kids.
—Submitted by a parent

My children attended K-12 at Fort Osage and things were great. However, my oldest granddaughter is now at the high school and while the teaching is still great, the grading system that binds these teachers is not. One low score on a quiz or a test can ruin good scores on everything else--yes, one score. A good test score can cancel out several zeroes on daily work. What kind of work ethic is this? Also, even though the final grade is the same, by continuing the next term with the ending grade of the previous term, the psychological aspect is not motivating. This means that students may be starting with a B or C (or lower) and then need to work themselves up to the higher grade--instead of giving them the psychological boost of 'This is a fresh start.' It doesn't allow them to see what was earned each term either.
—Submitted by a parent

My child goes her and she loves Fire Prairie so I just wanted t osay thank you for that and teaching my child.
—Submitted by a parent

My child attended the Cler-Mont elementary school and I was more than pleased, but since he has started Middle School I haven't been very happy. Like the others here I think the Math program is poor. There is also a 'C' honor role which I find completely laughable. Since when do we reward 'average'?
—Submitted by a parent

The math program is this school district is not practical. It is not going to help kids in real life, which makes it pretty worthless. They don't even have math books. They have math binders, which they take notes in, so if a kid misses a day, they better hope someone will loan them their notes. The history classes leave a lot to be desired. They seem to pick and choose and never make any impression on a kid, which makes them pretty worthless too. I will be moving my kids from this district at the end of the school year.
—Submitted by a parent

I just wanted everyone to know that I grew up in this school district and now my children have been attending this school district for 6 years and although we are moving to a new school district, I just wanted to say that this is one of the best school districts in the metro area. The teachers and staff are so nice and helpful and you really get to know these people and I wouldn't change that for anything. I've gone to a couple of other school districts in my last years of school and this is still by far the best one that I've attended. Thank you!! A long time fan of FO School District!!
—Submitted by a parent

I recently pulled my child from this school because of the curriculum being implimented. The math series (Investigations and Connected Math) omits some very important math foundations. Our daughter continues to misuse the equal sign, because last year at Fire Prairie the equal sign was misused. The way Investigations does calculations, the numbers are not equal on both sides of the equal sign. In the real world this does not work. Mathematicians accross the nation are working to get these and similar math programs out of our public schools. This 'Math War' has been going on for 12 years, now it has reached Fort Osage. I urge all parents to investigate the curriculum. The teachers in the district are great, but they are not allowed to teach what they know the students need. Many teachers agree this math is not good for our kids.
—Submitted by a parent