Stonewall Jackson Middle School

WE are a great public school . The staff takes pride in their teaching and knows every child by first name .
—Submitted by a parent

My daughter attended here for the last two years and her siblings attended several years ago. Truthfully, the differance is night and day with SW seeing immeasurable improvment under the current administration. Mr, A, the prinipal is one of the finest education leaders I have ever known and will do anything for his children. Anything. The county can replicate this program amd do quite well. Great job and thank you, Mr A!
—Submitted by a parent

it is the best school ever we have good teachers good students
—Submitted by a student

SJMS is the best school in WV.We have a great principle and great teachers. They all want every last one of us to succeed. Even when we do act up sometimes. We are good kids and they know it every school have their ups and downs. We are smart and we are better than the other schools in sports. Mr. Aulenbacher is trying to make it an academic school
—Submitted by Patra Mitchell, a student

SJMS gets the short end of the stick. The school personnel/administration are great! There is a serious lack of parental involvement.
—Submitted by a parent

There is a major lack of communication between parents, teachers and administrators at SJMS. Each time that I have been in the school the halls are full of students with seemingly no place to be. The office is a madhouse. There is a total lack of organization. Students slip through the cracks all the time with no concern or notation from the faculty. The students are under a dire need for direction and structure which this school environment obviously lacks.
—Submitted by a parent

My daughter went there her 6th & 7th grade years. She was the first 6th grade class of the middle school change. I was apprehensive about sending here there, but ended up being pleasantly surprised. The school was immaculate every time I visited. Children were not aimlessly roaming the hallways. The video camera monitors were prominately displayed in the office and vice principals and coaches walked the hallways. No middle school is great. Every middle school has fights and drugs to some extent. My biggest concerns at Stonewall were the lack of quality teachers and lack of funding. Her english teacher, at the open house, said 'we was' in explaining what the children were learning. Stonewall is NOT a bad school (at least no worse than the others). Parents DO care there. But the media/city wants it to fail.
—Submitted by a parent

I appreciate the leadership at this school. I truly believe stonewalls teachers and administration are second to none.
—Submitted by Greg, a parent

This school is a good school believe it or not. My daughter goes there and I go to all of the school meetings. Their princepal has full intentions to make this school better and so far it is working. he is a great guy and wants to change the way people look at the school. As for the school it is good. it is like every other school but it is in the middle of the city and as long as it stays there it will get the medias full attention. Their is about 15 kids in each grade that ruin it for the whole school but it will change in the near future.
—Submitted by KASSIE, a parent

There is absolutely no organization at Stonewall; they are constantly changing the schedules around for different events. The students are 'pre-assigned' at least 3 times a week, and they have nothing to do, and occassionally, they are pre-assigned to a teacher who is pre-assigned, which means they have no place they are supposed to go. Most of the teachers don't teach the students, they just tell them to read something, and then sit down and play around on the computer, they don't teach! Stonewall does have a few very good teachers, such as Mrs. Morgan, the spanish teacher (not virtual spanish) Only one administrator, Mr. McNeil the eighth grade VP actually cares about the students.
—Submitted by a student

Too much inconsistency, rules not clearly defined or followed according to the policy handbook. very poor communication between the teachers and parents and teachers and students. Lack of opportunity to talk teachers about student progress i.e. no parent teacher conferences
—Submitted by a parent

I have never seen a school more out of control than Stonewall Jackson. Neither the parents or the staff are involved in the education or discipline of the students. Teachers miss work constantly, fights daily, ridiculous restrictions on disciplinary measures to try to rectify the situation. Serious lack of a challenge or a reason to even try.
—Submitted by a parent