Joseph Martin Elementary School

Posted: September 22, 2025

My son started at JMES in the middle of last year. At that time there was a change of teachers, and we were promised we would meet the new teacher, but that never happened. From the beginning, we noticed that communication was not good. Even so, for the 2025 school year we decided to give the school another chance to start fresh, but honestly the experience has not been what we expected. I don’t see good communication from the teacher to the parents. My son has always had very good grades, and in his current report he has excellent marks except in one class. I don’t think parents should only find out that their child is struggling when grades are released. The teacher should have communicated earlier so that we could provide reinforcement at home. We even wrote to the teacher to ask how he was doing, and the response was “excellent, he’s doing very well,” which reassured us. However, the grade did not match that response.

Another important issue is that school activities are announced with very little notice, which makes it difficult for families to stay organized. In addition, my son had an incident where another student stole something from his backpack, and the teacher never contacted us or handled the situation according to my son. He also had problems with another student, and when my son tried to explain or express what happened, he was told it wasn’t his turn to talk. I think it is essential to listen to children, even if it’s “not the right moment,” because that doesn’t mean what they have to say isn’t important.

I also believe parents should be notified when emergency drills take place. I find it inappropriate to only find out when picking up my son that they had a lockdown drill. Even if these are just practices, they should be communicated in advance so that parents are informed and prepared, since it creates unnecessary concern not knowing what is happening inside the school.

My son is disciplined, follows study routines every day, and I do my best to make sure he feels good about his classes. He even sends me voice messages from school telling me what is going on because he feels the teachers don’t do anything. For this reason, I believe JMES needs more structure, better communication with parents, and greater attention from staff toward students in order to truly become a good school.

Posted: September 22, 2025

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Posted: June 1, 2024

I really like this school. Our daughters have loved all of their teachers. Between teaching us information that they have learned as well as their test scores, I can tell that the teachers are engaging with their students. I really cannot attest to disability accommodations but I haven't heard anything negative. As far as student safety, our children enjoy going to school. I do wish that there was a way to be more involved like preparing materials at home, as I want to volunteer; but I have a toddler who has a strong personality at home and I don't really trust everyone with him. I really want to shoutout Mrs. Scoggins who accommodated our child when she needed more challenges and also openly communicated how we could support our child more. I look forward to our children graduating from this school.

Posted: June 1, 2024

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Posted: May 25, 2023

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Posted: May 25, 2023

Really good school inspiring love it much

Posted: May 25, 2023

Posted: May 25, 2023

Posted: February 11, 2020

This school just sucks. My child has had issues with another student and I can't get any thing done about it. Also yes my child can be hyper and talk allot at times but thats what 5 year olds do, but when she gets in trouble for sticking up for herself that wrong. We have told her to tell her teacher but she tells us she tries and the teacher won't listen to her. Just because my kid talks out of turn sonetines doesn't mean she doesn't have something important to say sonetimes. A teacher should NEVER ignore a child

Posted: February 11, 2020

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Posted: September 10, 2019

Anyone thinking about enrolling their children in this school, DON’T. My daughter was bullied and made fun of. But the disturbing part was it wasn’t the other students bullying and making fun of my child it was the Teachers. This issue was bought to the Principal attention and she did NOTHING.

Posted: September 10, 2019

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Posted: August 21, 2018

We have no experience to form an opinion on this matter.

Posted: August 21, 2018

Our experience has been good, not great, not awesome, but ok. I hope to see Great this year.

Posted: August 21, 2018

Our experience has been varied from year to year. It’s unclear to us how useful it is because our point of view is that homework should be practice but yet we find ourselves doing a lot of teaching.

Posted: August 21, 2018

Each year brings a new challenge. Our experience has mostly been good but there have been some issues for us.

Posted: August 21, 2018

The squeaky kids get a lot of attention but the shy, compliment ones get overlooked.

Posted: August 21, 2018

I for the most part agree with the leadership but I feel the principal could make a more visible presence and in regards to the lunchroom situation there should be less group punishment. I also believe the school leadership could keep a closer eye on communication from teachers to assure that professional communication comes home. There is nothing more concerning that getting information from teachers that has multiple errors especially when they are teaching students.

Posted: August 21, 2018

We have no experience to form an opinion on this matter.

Posted: August 21, 2016

Posted: August 21, 2016

Posted: August 21, 2016

Posted: August 21, 2016

My daughter has attended JME since Kindergarten. They genuinely care about her well-being and success in the classroom. Communication is great and they know all of their students well. I wish this school incorporated middle school as well!

Posted: February 19, 2015

Myself and others found that at this school in particular some teachers physically discipline and emotionally damage children. I think a visit of social services is needed! Another guardian spoke to me about this school in some instances physically and inappropriately hurting their children. From my experience I can say my child was called a Looser from his Teachers' mouth which hurt him deeply till the point he was frightened to see her the next day and he stated in front of her what she said to him and she still lied. How can a teacher be filled with so much negativity. My child was unaccounted for on the first day of school as well. Negligent and very unwelcoming staff as well. If you're disabled they discriminate and aren't military friendly. The principal, assistant principal and her office staff try to intimidate parents who find them and their staff incompetent and have factual evidence on how they operate. Terrible experience.

Posted: April 18, 2014

Joseph Martin has knowledgable caring teachers who work very hard to make sure that every student succeeds. They have a very diverse population of students ranging from special needs, ELL, economically disadvantaged, homeless, etc. It is a very challenging array of students to bring up to grade level for the over-rated CRCT Test. I find it sad that our students abilities are graded by one test, and even worse that our teachers effectiveness is judged by the results of the same one test. We've become a test society & forgotten that creativity, innovation, and social growth are much more important than a standardized test score. The administrators & teachers of JME strive to meet the many requirements put on them by the local board of education as well as the state. My son has been well prepared & pushed to reach his full potential all 4 years he has attended. I highly & confidently recommend JME to other families!

Posted: June 29, 2013

My daughter has attended this school since she was in kindergarten. I have had great experiences with this school up until last year.I felt the teacher was not very friendly to her and I almost took her out of the school. Every day she would come home and tell me how she treated my baby. I was not very fund of this 2nd grade teacher,Hopefully this year will be better. I do recommend this school to other parents.

Posted: July 11, 2011

This is a Great school with wonderful teachers and an excellent learning environment. Would highly recommend to any parent.