Stenstrom Elementary School, Oviedo | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

My two sons attend this school and for the past two years it has been hell.

Last school year, we were having issues with both my sons being able to keep up with the work and my oldest son was being bullied. I reached out to Stenstrom, their teachers and administration, for help. That’s when it all started.
We are an impoverished family. We are a biracial family, but my kids mostly identify with African American. We only have one income coming into the household at this time so money is very tight. And yes, we utilize all programs that was offered to us in helping our households needs. With that being said, Stenstrom has made sure to throw this in our face and judged us as parents based on stereotypes.
Last year, they made it very difficult for my children to get the educational help they needed. I felt myself repeating myself a lot about my kids developmental past because all in all no one there cared. We’re just some poor family in housing that shouldn’t have had all these kids. A good friend of ours told us to start emailing instead of speaking to them over the phone because emails to the school are public records and it’ll show that we have been reaching out to them and they have no choice but to take action on my concerns. At this time, my oldest son was being bullied, coming home miserable and did not want to go to school. No parent wants to see their child in this kind of psychological state. So we ended up having a meeting. All in all the Principal basically told me in so many words that my son was tattle tailing and needed to toughen up and his teacher basically told us that he has a lying problem. As the school year went on my sons were struggling with their education and I kept telling the teachers and counselors and they threw in my face about their attendance… Because my children had attendance issues, even though it was because of having surgery and the hand foot and mouth disease, they could not assist us with them getting specialized education. So I worked on their attendance, sick and all, I sent them to school. Only to have them sent home, spending money on uber or Lyft because we had no car which they were aware of, all because they wanted us to send our kids to school no matter what. Now, because it was pretty late into the school year, we all decided that their attendance improved vastly so now that qualifies my sons to be looked at being put in an IEP. So we have the meeting in the beginning of this school year and I could feel the judgement in the room. My sons behaviors were brought up and how they didn’t even know what certain words meant at their age, ect… Once again I brought up their developmental past, how my son was thought to have Aspergers syndrome by his doctors, and how they were both retained because they did not understand their schoolwork… Again. Everything I said was new news to them. It is now going into April, and there has not been any other follow ups for my sons IEP.

Now fast forward to present day. My middle son has a history of behavior issues in his prior schools but has gotten much better. This was also brought to Stenstroms attention but I will not be surprised if they claim it is new news. My two sons sometimes fight, accidents happen at home, and sometimes my sons sneak off and do things they aren’t supposed to. Anytime we’ve had an accident or something happen to my son physically due to elements in our home, we have always took him into the emergency room or urgent care and then touched base with the school about it. Last week, my son had an accident at school and needed a change of clothes, and we got a little upset because our car is not working properly right now and when my husband got there, my sons pants or underwear was not even wet. This is probably the sixth time my son has gone to the health room and claimed he urinated himself and we’ve felt the clothes and it was dry. So my husband did get a little rude with whom ever was in the health room. Two days later, CPS is at our door. Poor parents, be careful.

My son attends this school and is currently in first grade. My son has ADHD and this school clearly does not know how to handle a child with any form of ADD, ADHD, etc. Last year my child was in first grade, ( yes he had to repeat due to learning with ADHD and with the standards the school needs is not easy for any ADHD person) and had an issue with one of the teachers, who approach my car at the student pickup line and said how horrible my child was that day and I stated to her “she was aware that my child did not have medication for that day and clearly she does not know how to handle a child with ADHD. She then proceeded to slam my car door. My son end up getting Ms. Kratz who was the best teacher for him. Unfortunately this year she got moved to kindergarten. He now has a new teacher which understands Matthew to a point but still has some difficulty. Today in the pickup line another teacher approach my child and started yelling at my child and I clearly heard it from across the parking lot. I contacted the principal immediately and stated that the teacher who yell at my child was Ms. Fraser, who is a first grade teacher, and that this was unacceptable. I was told she had to double check with the other teachers that were present to see if this was true. To me you’re telling me that I am lying and that’s unacceptable to me as well. You sit here and you teach these children to be respectful to others but yet your teachers cannot be respectful to the children that attend the school.

Where do I begin??…I went to a Parent Night tonight and everything was going well. Met my son’s teacher and she was fabulous! Then we went on to meet the math teacher (Mr. Garcia). Well his PPT was great and gave out a handful of useful information. At the end, he asked if parents had any questions to make sure to see him. Which I did. Well I had ONE question regarding homework which my son seems to be confused about. Mr. Garcia had the pleasure of being sarcastically rude to me in a very condecending voice. Even after I brought it up to his attention, he seemed to either not be aware of his behavior or not care. In all, this meet today really has made me re-considering keeping my son enrolled. This should have not occurred at all….teachers are supposed to teach- not belittle parents or their students. Big thumbs down!