John M Alexander Middle

My experience was horrible, it was the worst school and school year ever for me. I felt so intimidated daily and was counting down to the last day of school. Not for the excitement of summer but for the relief of getting away from the school forever. For me it felt like a prison, I was nervous to go every day. I never really felt welcomed there, I didn't feel like I could go to any of the teachers, even if some were nice. Feeling scared and dreading a day of school, not just because it's school and for work, but for the fact of not feeling safe everyday. I just wish somebody would have told me this before I started that school year that felt like a lifetime. I wish the feeling that I felt that year on no one and I hope that others had a better experience than I had at JM Alexander. It feels the only way to be okay at this school is to be liked and popular.

Overall, my experience has been less than acceptable. JMA has poorly written policies that are not followed up on. JMA uses "day sheets" to monitor and reward students for their hard work. I am not opposed to this idea, however, they unfairly enforce it. At the end of each month, JMA students can have free time if they do not have negative remarks on their day sheet. However, my son had several missing assignments, yet not ONE teacher negatively marked his day sheet. When I brought this up to the administration, instead of enforcing the policy, they changed the rule to "missing formal grades". Fine, but he had missing formal grades as well and JMA continued to reward him with JMA days. I am the type of parent who expects excellence from my children and my school-- however, JMA does a lot of talk, but ultimately, does not have the level of commitment to be a school that expects and fosters such excellence.

From the moment we walked into this school 2 1/2 yrs ago you could feel and see the chaos and lack of control by the teachers and administration. My child went into this school as an A/B student but, due to the lack of control in the classrooms and the bullying he and his grades have suffered. We've tried getting into the charter schools for the past 3 years but haven’t had any luck. We have him in the lottery program again now. If it falls through we will be placing our home up for sale and moving so that we can keep him out of the high school and this same type of environment.

My daughter has been at the new J.M. Alexander school for a month. We moved here from NY over the summer and she really struggled fitting in and bullying at her old school. We worried she would have a hard time at such a big school in a new state but she LOVES it! We are so excited every day for her to come home with a good report of how the teacher/staff are nice to her and how she has new friends. We are impressed with the nice new building and with the guidance counselor that was able to get her whole schedule changed last minute.