Leslie A Stemmons Elementary School

i have two children here and i really like the way the teachers teach and handle the kids. i do think they need more of a playground area for the kids, and they need to offer an after school program. Also, extra-curricular activities such as basketball would be great here.
--Submitted by a parent

The academic program at Stemmons is good. It interlocks the State based objectives and the District's Curriculum so that the State TAKS Test objectives are all met...the students are not just taught the test. The school provides before and after school tutoring for those who need extra help. The school is low in Parental Involvement. Parents refuse to be involved in the school. It is apparent that the Parents do not support the school, or are involved in their children's lives in the way the kids dress, behavior at school and the parent's lack of response or admittance that there is a behavior problem. PTA has a board, but only the President shows up or works it. President of PTA tries to raise money for the school, but has little help from any of the parents. The school has a small play yard for preschool, one slide for the older students.
--Submitted by JoAnn Piedmont, a teacher

Fantastic School! Majority of the teachers are highly qualified. They enjoy working with the students. The school provides before and after school tutoring programs for those who seek extra help. The building is well secured for safety. The low point is in the overall parent involvement. There is none to speak of. A handful of volunteers out of 950 students. PTA is a joke. no one attends except for the grade level who is performing, and the President. They have a board, but only the President works it. They try to have a fundraiser, but little support from the parents. If there were more support and involvement from parents, the school could really be something. Students misbehave, and are discourteous to the faculty. Administration does what little it can; but the parents refuse to do their part in correction. Extracurricular activites are great..Student council, Art Club, Choir, Baseball; could use a few more.
--Submitted by Paul Brimer, a parent

My daughter has been in Stemmons 2 year and I am very involved in what is going on in the community. Stemmons Will have a new look this year thanks to SBDM. We need more parents involvement and try to promote our PTA this year. The staff at Stemmons are working hard with our children and have several goals. I would like to invite all the parents to stand together to make our school a great experience this year. Irene Olivares
--Submitted by Irene Olivares, a parent

My experience with Leslie A. Stemmons was not as good as it could have been. My sons teacher was absolutely terrific. She was particulary good at communicating with me when there was reason for concern. My daughters teachers were good about half the time. This was dependent on what mood the teachers were in. The school in general needs to be renovated and possibly even gutted. It is located in the bowels of South Dallas and is occupied by extremly racially motivated students. There is a severe problem with racial slurring, graffiti, destruction of property and overall behavior. An example of this is there is no toilet paper in the bathrooms because the students find it amusing to overflow the toilets. There are new bullet holes in the windows on a weekly basis. The few decent children that do attend Leslie Stemmons are ridiculed and even physically abused by other students. There is absolutely no scheduled recess at this school in part due to school being a place to learn not to burn and also in part because the overall performance level is not high enough to dedicate any time to taking an outside break. I respect the office staff for putting up with all that they do. However, the facility and programs ran at this school need to be completely overhauled and behavior management needs to become top priority. Out of fear that my children would become what they were around, I moved my children out of Dallas and into a school district that has control over their students.