Reviews of Spartanburg County School District 2 (Kindergarten)

Amanda Fletcher

My daughter attends BSMS and she just brought home her elective choices for next year and I was NOT impressed. When I was in Jr High/Middle School I took home economics, wood shop, typing, creative writing, and first aid & safety. These are basic life skills!! Learning how to create an app or learning about STEM careers are not necessary for middle school aged children. That is more suited for high school kids who are trying to figure out what to do with their lives. My daughter could care less about a STEM career at 13 yrs old. Also, I'm not understanding why they only go to gym for half the school year. This is so bizarre to me. Then you wonder why kids are so out of shape these days. My daughter calls lunch "recess" because that's the only time she gets to go outside for half the school year. I'm also not impressed with the staff at this school. My daughter goes to these enrichment classes before school starts every morning. It was explained to me that this was like a tutoring service. She goes for both math and science and she has gone for about half the school year. Well her grades in both of these subjects have continuously gone down all year. I'm confused by this... I thought the tutoring was suppose to help bring her grades up. I asked my daughter why she thinks her grades are going down and she told me that she is too embarrassed to ask questions during class because the other kids make fun of her for not understanding the material. Not once has a teacher reached out to me with concern over my daughter's grades. The school has had only one parent/teacher night during the whole school year. Im not crazy about the school giving out iPads to the students but it is what it is.... There are some students that aren't allowed to bring their iPads home. My daughter is one of those who doesn't bring her school iPad home and that was by choice. We didn't want it in our house and have to be responsible for it. However, the school makes it difficult for those students to do their homework. My daughter had four reading assignments this year and two of them had to be on a book that you had to download onto the iPad. So there was no way for her to do this assignment at home. She had to read the book when she could at school when/if she had any free time. I know for a fact that there are literally millions of paper books out there. This should not have been an issue. I'm definitely not happy with the school nurse at this school. There were several times I was called for non-emergency matters but most recently my daughter complained of stomach cramps and we received a call from the school nurse and she had me convinced that there was an issue with my daughter's appendix. So of course I came and got her and took her to the doctor the same day. The doctor rolled her eyes and said, "This school nurse went to the extreme...its just a little stomach bug...its been going around." I took my daughter home and the next day she was completely fine. So I wasted money on a doctor's visit and my daughter missed a half a day of school for nothing. Oh and the parent pick up line is ridiculous. School lets out at 315p but I wouldn't suggest getting there until well after 330p. With the set up they have going...you'll be sitting there for a while.