Skinner Elementary School

Awful. Bullying is a huge problem. Curriculum is all over the place and each teacher just uses what they are given with no training or development.

My experience at this school in terms of academics has been great. In other areas, not so much. The school is definitely overcrowded and arrival/dismissal is a nightmare. There are 37 kids in my child's third grade classroom. There is next to no supervision and zero order to the way kids enter and exit the building. My child was a transfer student this year and at her previous school, teachers would not dismiss a child unless they saw a parent or guardian and there were teachers outside the building with each classroom before and after school. At Skinner, it is just a free-for-all. My child is in the STAR after school program which handles this all much better than the school as a whole, but it honestly scares me that children are allowed to just leave. Communication from the school leaders is often very delayed and inefficient. Do not expect to hear of important announcements on time. The leadership and communication for the school is incredibly frustrating and it does not appear that current leadership is capable of handling so many students.

My three year old received a slot in May 2015 a gladly accepted and placed my deposit. Unfortunately I never heard another word from them. I tried to email and call the principal several time and never received a call or email back. I was force to find a new school in September not an easy task. They are overcrowded and lack communication and transparency.

My son was accepted in the classical program. I took him out of his current school after receiving the ridiculous 24 hour notice that he was accepted and school had already started. We made the move and regretted it. Before school every morning, most of the kids congregate in the lunchroom. There is limited supervision, and it is very chaotic. His regular school day was fine, but his teacher was not very responsive to returning emails and made a point in the first class room meeting with parents to state she would not return emails with anything more than one sentence and not to expect a long winded reply from her. I went to the first PTO meeting, and found that the PTO group really didn’t want your opinion, they are perfectly happy with how things are handled already, such a waste of time. After school had finished, my son was signed up for the Chicago Park District program. There were a few times when he decided not to go and no one was the wiser. One two occasions I was told no one knew where my son was only to find he had either gone outside already or was walking the school investigating on his own. I felt the number of students was too overwhelming for the amount of supervisors at any given time. In my opinion, Skinner West is not worth all the hype.