St. Thomas More Parish School

Not a good experience for our child at the school. The other parents comments regarding the cliques is an understatement. If your child did not start in the Kindergarten program they have a good chance of being ostracized and bullied. The behaviors that occur in the parking lot prior to school opening are abhorrent. I witnessed on several occasions boys grabbing girls in their private areas, boys placing smaller classmates in choke holds and various other types of bullying, all in clear view of parents and school staff. The school 's discipline policies are lax. If your child is bulled, they will not protect your child. The after school program mixes Jr High students with grade school students. On several occasions the recreation consisted of dodge ball, 7th and 8th graders targeting kindergarten and 1st grade students, all in clear view of the staff. The parental involvement is great, lots of dedicated people. Unfortunately this can't offset the lack of attention by the staff and unwillingness to address hostile, bullying behavior.
--Submitted by a parent

Pretty strong academically. Nice teachers, great parental involvement. This school does a excellent job with grammar and speech but seems to be lacking in the math department. The biggest downfall with this school is because they only have one class per grade level cliques form. If your child enters in pre k or k it is great but for children integrating from other schools it is awful. Plus the middle schoolers suffer from lack of socialization making them somewhat inept for integration into a large high school. The bright side is that they aren't subjected to the normal peer pressures to the extent their peers in larger schools are. A bright side about this school is it is a clean, secure facility. The downfall are the cliques. It really depends on your childs needs. This is not a good fit for everyone particularly shy children.
--Submitted by a parent

Consistently high test scores on WASL and Iowa. Great teachers. High parent involvement. Excellent teacher to parent communication. No one slips through the cracks here. Good technology(Smartboards in every classroom). Excellent writing and speech program. Check website for cool after-school activities. Perfect school for average to very bright kids. Maybe not the best for the super bright, but we kept ours enrolled because of the wonderful, caring community. Science was the weakest area, but is improving with much more 'hands-on' instruction and learning. The [kindergarten] teacher is wonderful and really listens to the kids, teaching and nurturing the whole child. The kids seem to be well prepared academically and have developed the self confidence to embrace the, admittedly, more rigorous first grade.
--Submitted by a parent

St Thomas More School strives for high academic standards. The kindergarten program is weak with 26 students and a mixed half day schedule for 3 days/week. Students leave with knowledge they would have had in quality preschool programs. The first grade teacher advances the students quickly and the students are able to catch up to other schools. The teacher is very strict and rigid. Approximately 1/3 of the students in her class get referrals for 'language processing differences'. The second grade classroom has had several teachers in the last three years. Third and fourth grade are top notch. Fifth - Eighth grades do well academically but suffer socially from lack of interaction, as there is only 1 class per grade.
--Submitted by a parent