Roosevelt Continuation School, Millcreek | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

Let’s be fair about Roosevelt….this school has gone through some drastic changes since 2005, when the boundaries for the school were changed. Since then, yes, our test scores have gone down, and behavior concerns have gone up. But the teachers there are very dedicated; some of the most dedicated teachers I know and I’m proud to be among them.

The majority of our students, over 90%, qualify for free meals; they live in multi-unit apartment complexes with hundreds of units. These apartments are a 30 minute bus drive, one way, through heavy traffic, industrial sections, cross under I-15, and all the air and noise pollution anyone could tolerate. Seven buses transport 90% of our students.

We have a large population of immigrants and refugees, and over 40 different languages spoken. Many of our refugee students suffer from PTSD and have never seen anything remotely like a school building. Our students come to school hungry, tired, stressed, in dirty clothes, with tooth aches; they come from the homeless shelter, pay-by-the-week motels, crowded apartments, a friend’s or relative’s home, and even a night or two spent in the family car. They come to school not ready to learn for more reasons than we can count, and some students come to school faithfully because it’s the only safe place in their lives that provides structure, a sense of safety, a sense of belonging, and three meals during the day.

As society changes, and students become more and more exposed to the negative impact of our world, the harder it is for them to learn to trust anyone. They are functioning on their basic instincts of survival, and demonstrate “grit” everyday they make it to school. Roosevelt is not a school for everyone, whether teacher, parent, or student. The teachers and staff are dedicated to providing a safe place for our students, and creating relationships that build trust so our students can simply be a student for the sake of learning. We strive constantly to find ways of engaging them in learning, in fostering their self-confidence, in teaching goal setting and having a positive mind set. Trust is the most important though, because trust breaks down barriers. We strive to do this everyday under a system that does not fully support, or trust what we do in our classrooms. We are lacking resources to help our students be successful. We are under scrutiny for everything we do, and all the laws that our government puts upon public schools and teachers. We have over-sized classrooms, and not enough support staff. It’s definitely tough, but it is also extremely rewarding. In this era of school reform under politicians with untested ideology and who do not understand pedagogy, we are held to a standard that is far from being public education friendly.

We hope that others who see through rose-colored-glasses, can look beyond a single school letter grade rating; to look past the rhetoric; to ignore the false claims and look at the whole picture of stakeholders – teachers/staff, district, parents, students, state, neighborhoods… and see that there is great potential when our students are given a fighting chance.

I dont even know where to begin! Guess from the beginning, my son was bullied threatened and beat up and nothing was ever done, I’ve brought it to the vice principal and again to the principal herself and it was all somehow turned around on my son yet he was the one coming home with scratchmarks and bruises on his body (they claim they dont tollarat bullying yet they never do anything, BUT when a chid defends him or herself THAT’S when something is done and its the original victim whom gets blaimed) I have been requesting REPEADEDLY for my daughter to have testing done since KINDERGARTEN (she was held back in kindergarten) and she is going to be in 2nd this year nothing has ever been done, ALSO my daughter whom clearly has a learning disability has been picked on, called stupid pushed shoved AND beat up at recess and again NOTHING has been done!! (Yet when she defends herself she gets intouble) the school has been hounding me to keep the kids in school yet they are always getting sick because the school staff only care about a pay check and don’t bother sending the kids whom are clearly ill home, they ask me to send in “proof” every time they are ill I’ve faxed in proof my son ended up with strep throat and a contagious skin infection my daughter developed and more! just for the office staff tell me they haven’t received anything!! my son’s teacher sends home a letter stating he hasn’t been turning in his homework yet my son has been insisting since the very beginning of the school year that they do their work at school and his teacher never sends him home with “homework” this school lacks in profecionality (personal documents come up missing, attendance is not recorded accurately, and nothing is EVER the school staff fault, it’s all the children & or parents fault) then when I keep my kids home for being ill, or personal issues with myself, OR I get flat out sick of scrap they send their FALS recorded attendance to the school district and want me to attend some “pre court hearing” :/ :/ :/

My son attended this school for kindergarten and first grade. He was bullied, and though it was brought to the attention of the staff multiple times it was ignored. When he finally decided to defend himself the school came back with “Well your son fought back this time, so all of the bullying must have been his fault”.

The teachers that go in as good teachers leave broken, and the other staff genuinely don’t care about the students.

My son alleged that sexual abuse happened from other students in the restrooms, the air conditioning did not work and there is no safe walking route across 700 east. I do not recommend this school to anyone.