Andover Elementary

Up until this year, we were thrilled with Andover Elementary. However, up until this year, we had no issues and complaints. This year, we’ve had a couple issues with report cards and make up work. I reached out to the Ms. Clayton (principal), but she’s never available to speak to you. I finally got a call back regarding another issue and she was not only rude and unprofessional, but she offered no solution to the problem or willingness to help.

We moved at the end of the last 9 weeks (3rd 9 weeks) and there was issues converting my child’s grades over to the new school district. OCPS does not give letter grades in specials (Music, Art, or PE) in elementary school, but his new district does. The new school district wasn’t sure how to convert those grades over and wanted the assistance of my child’s principal and special teachers. The new principal was more than willing to work with myself and Andover Elementary, however, Ms. Clayton was not. Not only did she shoot down the new principal’s suggestion for rectifying the situation, but she didn’t offer any other type of solution. When I repeated what she said to make sure I was understanding her correctly, she told me that’s not what she said and repeated herself again. Basically stating she wouldn’t do what his current school was asking (which is what I had repeated to her the first time). She basically refused to help or offer a counter solution. She also accused me of yelling at her after I made the statement that I was advocating for my child and if it was her child in the same situation, she would feel the same way. I never yelled at her. In fact, I was trying to get her to help me, why would I yell? I needed her to call the new school and reach out to his teachers. I think it boiled down to the fact I was asking her for help and she just didn’t want to spend the time or the effort. I don’t feel my child’s grades should suffer, because the two school districts do things differently.

Considering my child went to Andover almost FOUR YEARS without any behavior problems or any issues, and they weren’t willing to help me in any way, I find it extremely unprofessional of Ms. Clayton. He’s been at his current school about a month and they were open to any ideas. They bent over backwards trying to come up with a solution and make everyone happy.

This isn’t the first issue we’ve had with report cards. During the 3rd 9 weeks, my child was awarded Principal’s Honor Roll (straight As). Then his report card comes home with a B. I tried to reach her then. She’s NEVER available. I thought this was just normal, until we moved here. I’ve NEVER had an issue trying to speak to our new principal. He’s ALWAYS available or calls you back promptly. The grades were fixed both times (first time because of Ms. Anderson, the vice principal and this time because of his new principal).

The teachers are great, but the reason for my 3 rating is that the principal isn’t willing to advocate for her students or try to fix any issues, when needed.