Roosevelt Elementary School

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.

This was my elementary school for 6 years. I have been fortunate enough to not only make some life-long friends, but I also had some of the greatest teachers while I was attending this school.

My son attended this school for kindergarten last year(Mrs Anderson) we both think she is an awesome teacher. This year he is at the same school and has (Mrs Casperson) he says she is really nice. Mr Skeen is also an awesome and fun principle and is a social person.

This is by far one of the worst elementary schools I have ever seen or been apart of. My daughter is in 4th grade and attends Roosevelt, she comes home everyday with no homework, her grades have dropped significantly, no structure, a lack of respect for students , staff and parents. Just very unprofessional.....we will be changing schools

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.