John F. Kennedy #7

This information is not accurate. There is a teacher every day at 8am. The parents are not required to watch the children in the morning. That problem has been resolved. The bus drops off after 8 am, so the children are supervised.
--Submitted by Amy Shanahan, a teacher

School is extremely overcrowded, two grades have to be bussed to an annex. Teachers are relatively good, but the school is outdated, and DS 9, could only study Social Studies for half the year, because there weren't enough books for both classed, so they had to share. There are no teachers/principal there in the am for the early bus drop off, so kids are unsupervised so the parents are left to watch over them. This is extremely negligent and dangerous. I would do private school if we could afford it
--Submitted by a parent

Forgot to add my stars. Four out of five, until the physical limitations are corrected.
--Submitted by a parent

Kennedy is just fine. The students are generally 'good' kids. Student to teacher ratio is manageable. Teachers and administration are great, from what we've seen living within a stone's throw from the school, with a child in first grade. She has done very well. We are happy. That is not to say there is not room for improvement. The school is old and getting crowded. The gym and cafeteria are one and the same, and each too small for its purpose. The library is very small as well. The grounds for recess are the typical, knee-scraping, chin-breaking asphalt slab that 30 and 40 somethings grew up with. Plans and money are in the works to remodel and build additions. Adjacent property has already been purchased. From what we've seen of the plans, the new Kennedy facilities will remedy all that is lacking, and garner the school our five-star approval.
--Submitted by a parent

My son is 10, and he has attended catholic school for 6 yrs prior to attending JFK. I actually had to obtain a boundary exception in order for him to attend the school, but after all of the really great things that I have heard about the school, I definately felt that it was worth a try. I think that the academic structure is different from catholic school, but my husband and I are happy with our son's current studies. Culturally it was exteremely diferent from catholic schooling-not that his previous school was not diverse, but public school is a completely different element regardless. Although we do like Kennedy, and the principal and the teachers are really great for/with the kids, we are definately going to try to re-juggle our finances so that we can send him back to his original catholic school.
--Submitted by Erica, a parent