Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School

Mar 4th, 2022

Jan 7th, 2022

Dec 31st, 2021

Dec 18th, 2021

First, the community around this school is mostly great people with great kids. Second, they do a pretty good job on faith instruction. Third, they have a few truly great, caring teachers that we were fortunate to interact with. Sadly, that is where the positives end. The school leadership did an abysmal job of navigating the pandemic. The guidelines and protocol reflected a stunning level of ignorance on basic science, planning was non-existent, and families that decided to do remote learning were treated as second class citizens before ultimately being cut off with virtually no warning. Staff and administration were frequently seen about violating mask requirements. Quarantine decisions were made with the mindset of including as few students and staff as possible rather than following the protocols from the state. The pandemic aside, there are a number of other issues. The homework burden on young elementary students is often ridiculous and flies in the face of the recent science on the topic. Band education is a joke, despite the valiant efforts of the very-talented part time band teacher. It has been relegated to an occasional after school program. Lunch times are pathetically short and the cafeteria is run like a basic training DFAC, with some drill sergeant stand-in roaming around shouting and kids through the PA and imposing quiet time as punishment for the audacity of socializing. Recess gets cancelled at the slightest bit of uncomfortable weather in a way that suggests they are more concerned about the comfort of the recess aids than they are about what is best for the students. Some of the teachers are truly awful and one in particular is not just a bad teacher but a bad person. She bullies and torments kids that don't fit her mold (rather than try to impart skills and help those kids improve). Year after year parents complain to the administration and to each other about this person, and how she destroys the joys of learning in their kids, and year after year the administration gas-lights the complaining parents, telling them this is the first they have heard about it. And none of these matters can be aired out to the school leaders because they run the most back-room, off-limits, 'we don't care what you think' school board I have ever seen. You must ask permission to attend and if you want a topic discussed you have to submit the exact text of what you want to say for review and IF they permit you to stand in their hallowed presence, you are granted 3 precious minutes of their time. And despite this being in violation of Archdiocese protocol, they persist. Now, think about how a school board that is actually concerned about what is best for the kids would operate, and see how far removed Saint E's is from that standard. Lastly, when we pulled our 4 kids from Saint Elizabeth and enrolled them in SWAC public schools, we expected our students to be ahead of their peers. After all, most of our kids tested above grade year after year and generally earned very high marks. We were STUNNED to see how much the contrary was true. Our kids were behind their public school peers on almost every subject and skill. SWAC isn't perfect, but now our kids are learning more, and some of them are in ACTUAL honors classes (something not offered by Saint E's) and we are all better off for it. It was heartbreaking for us to have to leave the Catholic Schools Community, but with as poor of a steward of that community as Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School is, it was inevitable. I am sure that there are better Catholic schools out there. I recommend you find one.
Jun 30th, 2021