My children attended Keith for a few years. Unfortunately, every single year we would hear the same excuse about why there were so many things just missing the mark. "It's just a difficult year," we'd be told. Well, when I'm paying $14,000 a year for my child to supposedly receive the best education out there, I don't want to have to constantly hear excuses. To the school's dismay, it is a very tight knit parent community here. Parents of students in other grade levels are not shy about sharing things. Here are just a few of the MAJOR issues there:
1. They lie to you about class sizes. I was standing in the hallway at the end of this last school year when the once character teacher now turned admissions person, was telling a family that classes would not go over 18 kids. I was appalled at that very bold lie as almost every single grade level in the elementary is over that threshold. Let's not even talk about how they left the pre-school teacher with 19 kids on her own, without an assistant (completely against DCFS regulations). Then the head of schools flat out LIED to parents to make us seem crazy when she was called out for the lack of attention to the issue. This brings our next problem.
2. The head of school (lower school) is never actually there, she never answers her emails, and she's been caught on numerous occasions lying to parents. She was trying to convince friends of ours to medicate their child for ADHD and in the process she told the parents that she had observed the child in class. So, the parents reached out to not only the classroom teachers, but the specials teachers and, in fact, they all confirmed that she had not been in any of their classes.
3. Some of the teachers there are not professional. They recently had a teacher win a golden apple, that same teacher was overheard by a parent bashing another teacher and telling another staff member how the head of school had told her this teacher was getting fired. That's not exactly something a parent wants to hear. Also, I'm not sure how the head of school has time to gossip but doesn't have time to answer her emails? It's also common knowledge that not one single parent actually voted for this teacher to be a golden apple winner. It's quite comical that she had literally just arrived to the school. It was definitely admin pushed in order to try to make the school look better.
4. The way money is mismanaged there should seriously be looked into by law enforcement because it feels criminal. This is the most expensive private school in the region yet apparently they're broke. Then to find out the lower school teachers are paid substantially less than the high school teachers when the elementary side is the side of the school that actually makes money. You can't retain good teachers if you pay them like crap. We deserve the best teachers for what we're paying.
5. Let's talk the actual buildings and classrooms. All it takes is 5 minutes at the school to find dozens of areas where the buildings are actually falling apart. There's crumbling brick, areas that constantly flood, classrooms with ceilings falling in. LET'S TALK THE CONDITIONS OF SOME OF THESE CLASSROOMS!
6. The classrooms!!! Believe it or not, this hella expensive private school has a classroom that gets flooded with poop water every time the nearby toilet flushes. AND THEY HAVE CHILDREN IN THERE! The intermediate grades building has so many unacceptable problems. First, there's no heat. These kids are forced to sit and learn in rooms that are FREEZING during winter. The water there is 100% not safe for the kids to drink yet the school doesn't close down the drinking fountains. read more