B H Macon Elementary School

My son attended this school for pre-k and first grade,he did not do very well, due to the teachers comparing notes about their students. Those teachers are no loner there. This 2008/2009 school year, both of my children attend this school, my son still struggles but my daughter is doing very good. What i do sugggest is tht these teacher pay closer attention to those studnts who are struggling, like my son. it took all 4th grades teachers until February to realize he was having trouble and considered him to take 'special resource' classes. I admit he did so much better with these classes. He grades improved and I'm xcited to see what hppens this year. I agree with some comments here, I attend some of the PTA meetings and can understnd the use of a spanish tranlator, but the 'english' speaking person used, speaks Spanish as a first lang.
--Submitted by a parent

A very closs knit community school. When you enter the building you feel you are welcome. Very friendly and great leadership. The principal is very supportive. The school is a great success due staff teamwork and great students. I really believe this is one of the best schools in Dallas.

I have two of my kids currently attending this school and they have exceled so much. I think if you feel the PTA meetings are being geared more towards Hispanics that's because the majority of the PTA board members are hispanic. No other parents seem to get involved.
--Submitted by a parent

My children was placed in this school in the middle of the year, which the change has been hard on them. My children are not adjusting well and my sons teacher is the only one that seems to be wanting to help. However, my daughters teacher i do not like so well. She scheduled a parent teachers conference and my daughter was in the class and the teacher could not fond anything nice to say about herand my daughter was crying buy the end of the meeting. I will be looking into hopefully getting them in to a new school next year where I will not have this problem. The princple on the other hand is really help and willing to help out if she thinks that se can fix the problem.
--Submitted by a parent

My son was in speech therapy maybe once weekly after I had already let the school know that he had seen a speech therapist and no longer needed one. This took him out of valuable class time to do' practically nothing 'as I was told by him. He then got behind in his work. The teachers do care, but I think a few go a little overboard on the language and need to hold their tempers more. I know they get frustrated, but I think there should be a class for teachers who lose their tempers and need to learn better discipline themselves. Otherwise they seem to really try to make sure the students, or mine, get the assignments done. I think that they, like most teachers, are more concerned with the test scores and how it will reflect on the school. This is not the fault of the teacher.
--Submitted by a parent

After reading about the comments from the other parents I can agree with all three. My son who has a speech impedement and daughter who has a learning disability was not given the best education they could have possibly been given. My children who have average intelligence were just made to feel like they were beneath children at this school. They are more geared in helping the 78% of hispanics children than any other culture. My son who did not pass only math was not offered tutoring or group or individualize assistance was told that he needed to be retained due to him not passing only math. This School is a constant battle, so I removed them and put them in a local charter school in which all accomadations can be met. This school is highly unrecommendable if you have children with disabilities, because they will fall through the cracks.
--Submitted by a staff

I have had a child in the special education program at this school for three years. I have not been particular satisfied that my child has received the 'best' from each teacher, but have been particularly impressed with two teachers who have gone above and beyond to make up for what others have not done. I agree with the previous comments that if you are a working parent, it is very difficult to know what is going on from day to day due to very little communication from teachers/ principal.
--Submitted by a parent

I'm a parent with one child attending this school. I'm a working parent and can not take some time off during the day to attend some of the Parent Involvement classes. I have asked if they can be offered the class in the evenings. I never get a reply back and or a letter with information about what the classes was about. Also when therer are programs about the children during the day, we never get information about them to make prior arrangements to go. I don't feel a sense of family atmosphere in this school. We do have those occasional teachers that care and are very good at what they do, but sometimes they get put a side and forget about them when the rough times come along. I have not once heard of the school recognizing one outstanding child, or a teacher for their hard work. PTA has started recognizing some students for 'Student of the Month' or for good grades. Other than that, I don't hear of any other recognition.
--Submitted by a parent

I love this school, but I have three comments: 1) The PTA meetings seem to be more geared to the Hispanic community - the parents that attend that do not understand Spanish feel left out of the meetings since the majority is done in Spanish there are other cultures at this school (Native American, African American..), but it seems that Hispanic is the only one that is concentrated on. There would be more in attendance if this were changed to make it more equal. 2) There are Parents that feel left out when they have students that are receiving awards and these are done in the morning time when Parents are not able to get off of work or they will lose their job. They have to miss out on these special times for their children. 3) when a child has a special needs problem and the parent is trying to work with the teachers to get the needs met, the teacher should also recognize this and help out as well instead of saying that the parent does not know what they are talking about and that the student does not have a problem, but reports it on the report cards that they do..Other then that this is a good school and the children seem to excel when they are with the right teachers, which this school has several of.