Maplewood Elementary School

My son is enrolled in the PreK program here. It is both his and my first experience in this department, as he is my oldest and he was never in any daycare programs. The transistion from home to school was seamless and we both fit right in! The teachers are amazing and we instantly felt comfortable. My son started off with a pretty solid foundation for preK, he knew his letters and his colors and shapes, but he has constantly improved in other areas like writing. Maplewood is a sweet little school and it's become our home away from home. :)
--Submitted by a parent

My son has had a great first year here. All of his teachers, including his homeroom, P.E., Art and Music teachers have been wonderful, engaged and active. The school has a sweet and safe feel with a lot of fun activities to engage families during and after school.
--Submitted by a parent

Great neighborhood school. All three of my kids went to school there and loved it.
--Submitted by a parent

I love the diversity and the great teachers!
--Submitted by a parent

Great teachers, great kids, great parents, great volunteers, great staff!
--Submitted by a parent

The teachers and staff are phenomenal. They love the kids and the kids love them right back. Always willing to go the extra. I love this school.
--Submitted by a parent

It's a community school where parents and teachers really care about the students and get involved on so many levels
--Submitted by a parent

Maplewood is more than a school. It's a community, and a conscientious one at that!
--Submitted by a parent

Maplewood is the school that time forgot--but totally in a good way. You walk into the halls and immediately feel at home. It's institutional, but in a completely retro 50s sort of way. Like if Mad Men took place in a school, Maplewood would be that school. Better yet, the community that has been created there feels like that as well. As schools should be, it's relatively small. All the teachers know all the kids and all the kids pretty much know one another. Most come directly from the surrounding neighborhood as do many of the teachers. I am in the halls and library frequently and have yet to see or hear any inappropriate speech or behavior. It's not that anything special is happening, but there does seem to be a level of respect for one another that I don't hear about from other schools. I love that my older child knows and plays with kids of all ages. My younger child is almost like a mascot and will feel right at home when it's his time to attend. Teacher quality is off the charts with many long-term, highly experienced teachers. (With Texas at a 3 year average retention rate for teachers, we feel particularly lucky there.) We even have school gardens that the kids plant, tend, harvest and eat during a few special cafeteria lunches. We feel incredibly lucky to be part of such a vibrant, caring, urban school.
--Submitted by a parent

My kids came from an 'exemplary' school in another nearby district. I will be the first to admit that I had extreme reservations about whether Maplewood would work for our family given it's TAKS results. I was really worried that I might be putting my children in a 'lower ranked' school. What we quickly realized was that these labels based on one test on one day of the year mean absolutely nothing! Maplewood has been a breath of fresh air for my family. It is a school that serves a very diverse population without leaving any segment of that population behind. The kids who are ahead are challenged, the kids who struggle are given the help they need. There is a wildlife habitat on site, gardens the kids tend and eat from, kids learn how the solar panels work for the school. After school classes in robotics, french, yoga, ballet folk,etc.
--Submitted by a parent