William S. James Elementary School

1 Laurentum Parkway

School District

Harford County Public Schools
Grade

K-5
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:17
Type

public

School Map for Harford County Public Schools

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on January 17, 2025

There are some great teachers at the school but our experience here has been awful. There seems to be a major disconnect between the classroom and administration. Having built relationships with the teachers every year it's apparent the administration, especially the principal, have very little idea of what's happening in the classroom. It becomes a bit frustrating because there's a lot of lip service, meetings, and faux care for your child when it's obvious they haven't even bothered to speak to their teacher. You can sense there's a divide between the teachers and principal/admin. I recommend going straight to the teacher for any type of help you may need. I would say this school is not at all family friendly. There's a major us vs them complex with the administration which I never felt with the teachers. The safety of this school is extremely poor. In the past two years it has been vandalized several times over and is essentially a hang out area for high school aged kids. They've had ongoing problems with kids fighting, doing drugs, giving kids drugs, harassing parents/students, etc. They brought in a resource officer last year for this and recently put up no trespassing signs but there's no follow through and nothing gets resolved. Anyone who wants to be on the property will be regardless if they've been trespassed or not.Conversely, many of the teachers and staff are fantastic. You can tell they truly care and are there to help, and we've been very grateful for that. Otherwise the school should be ashamed of itself.
Submitted by parent on May 28, 2024

This was once a wholesome school that was very much family oriented. 2 years ago a new principal came and it immediately changed. Staff retention had dropped significantly and it’s clear staff, parents, and children are unhappy with the new leadership. Principal Farver is very hard to talk to and makes it very clear that decisions at the school are hers to make and takes nothing else into consideration. Until leadership changes, this is not a school I want to send my children as emotional damage is being done on a daily basis to both staff and students.
Submitted by parent on January 24, 2018

I love that this school isn’t huge. A lot of one on one attention. You get to know all of the staff and they have House days when students of all grades get to do activities together.
Submitted by parent on January 24, 2018

Super helpful staff. They made sure your child succeeds and they are great at communicating. If there is a bullying problem they do everything they can to fix the problem. Love love this school!
Submitted by parent on December 08, 2014

WSJ is a great elementary school. I love how the principal, Mr. Richardson, knows each child by name and even most parents. He's extremely involved in everything and the children really enjoy him. My daughter has loved both teachers she's had so far. I think the work could be more challenging, but I think this is more of the new common core aspect that's being implemented in schools and not the teachers fault. The school is a little outdated but they make do with what they have to work with. Overall, I love the school and I'm happy with my daughters education there.
Submitted by parent on October 24, 2013

my school is william S James Elementary. This is a very good school with exceptional leadership and parent involvement.