Guilford Elementary School

7335 Oakland Mills Road

School District

Howard County Public Schools
Grade

PK, K-5
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:11
Type

public

School Map for Howard 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 student on June 12, 2024

The safety in this school is very bad. The current grade I am in has many fights and many people have broken a bone. Also, some of the teachers in Guilford Elementary are very rude and do nothing when someone is getting into an argument or a fight. One of my ex-friends is very rude and won't leave me and this girl alone. My ex-friend wants to be my friend again and keeps on talking to me, even though I say not to talk to me. The water fountains in here taste like acid and the bullying in the school is very BAD. Do not recommend.
Submitted by student on October 22, 2023

I do not go to this school anymore but this school is amazing school. I learned so much and the staffs are very active and help the kids learn and behave very well. This school is so diverse and very social. Every race and kind is accepted here!
Submitted by parent on September 07, 2022

My daughter loves it there. Very diverse student body. The teachers are so diverse also. A true representation of howard county.
Submitted by other on April 16, 2021

We're loving our experience here! Over the past 3 years, we've had 2 kids attend here and they're happy and thriving! One of them is in a gifted and talented program now. The principal, teachers, nurse and front desk staff have all been helpful and caring. This past year has been tough for everyone during COVID but the school did a good job providing virtual support to the best of their abilities and the teachers did their best to keep the kids engaged. They did a good job handling the partial back to school transition as well. We love the diverse community. The PTA is active and involved.
Submitted by parent on September 28, 2018

Overall it's been great. I love the diverse community. The PTA seems to be active at fundraising. Parents appear to be involved. I love that there are kids attending from many other cultures.
Submitted by parent on January 25, 2018

We had our concerns going into GES because of the great school rating. However, this is now our 3rd year there and our experiences have been positive. The admin staff (principal and VP) have coffee and conversations throughout the year for parents to come and discuss issues. GES encourages parent involvement and i go in on my lunch hour a couple of Fridays a month to help out. We had an instance of some teasing (not sure that it amounted to bullying but my child's feelings were hurt). I emailed the teacher about it - she got back to me that day to acknowledge it and provided her approach for dealing with it. Not all teachers are the same but this impressed me. More recently, I have spoken with the principal about an issue with my younger child and it was clear that they had spoken about the issue internally and had avenues for us to pursue to help ourselves out. The teacher emailed us a game plan on how she plans to tackle the issue. My experience with the teachers at GES are that they will make the extra effort. I know that there have been comments about behavioral issues and it does seem that there are some severely disruptive students with special needs, however the school has extra, dedicated staff to help mitigate the disruption in the class room. Being involved is definitely a benefit and i am seeing an uptick in parent involvement on the PTA. These are all indicators of improvement.
Submitted by parent on January 26, 2017

This is our first year here at Guilford with a son in first grade. We are actively involved parents in field trips, classroom volunteering, PTA, etc. The teachers are dedicated and I will have to say that the Principal is very accessible, he comes to all the PTA meetings, has an open door policy and responds quickly to problems as they arise. No school is perfect but being involved with the school and the Teachers/Administration knowing us and our child has made this school perfect for us. If you have a problem with anything try to be involved a little bit at the school. If you ever get a day off just come up and have lunch with your kid or ask your kids teacher if you can volunteer for 30 minutes or an hour. It makes a world of difference when you are really in/around the school to understand the dedication of all that work there daily keeping all of our children educated and safe.
Submitted by parent on January 05, 2017

The teachers at this school are amazing. They take time to truly connect with their students and families to make sure each child is met at their level and is successful. Unfortunately, the principal does not measure up to the teaching staff at all. He does not make an effort to connect with, understand or genuinely get to know the children or their parents.
Submitted by parent on September 01, 2016

Any negative reviews of this school prior to September 2015 should be taken with a grain of salt. I've read other reviews complaining about this school. The new principal, Jonathan Davis, who arrived for the 2015/2016 school year is much more active and cares for the students more. He holds the staff accountable. The previous principal was a useless waste of skin.This principal is doing for Guilford Elementary what Marcy Leonard did for Hammond High School.
Submitted by parent on February 22, 2015

This school suffers from an absolute failure in leadership, even more apparent when we moved to another location. Please stay away if your child has special needs; It is definitely not a SpEd-friendly school and you will either expend considerable time, energy and stress getting what you believed to be an outstanding Howard County school; it is not. The principal micromanages everything and everything starts with "No" to anything she doesn't want to do. We spent four years in good faith doing everything we could to work with this institution, but unfortunately ended up fighting every inch of the way to the numerous roadblocks for our son's right to a Free Appropriate Public Education. Worse yet the county circled their wagons to cover up discrepancies that could have been solved at the lowest level; no special needs support until her hand is forced. The teachers are afraid to rock the boat and it's probably due to the extreme micromanagement we experienced; even our advocate was beside herself. You can't communicate with your teachers. Our son was bullied here & we felt discrimination being military. If you don't care about your child's education, this may be the school for you.
Submitted by parent on March 08, 2013

Overall, I think Guilford is a great school for our child. The teachers are engaged and communicative. The leadership seems to be as well. If I have a complaint, it's that I'd like to see more parent involvement, both in the PTA and on a volunteer basis. Too often, I see the same twenty faces at every function. And, this in a school with well over 400 students. We're perfectly happy with our child going here.
Submitted by parent on February 06, 2013

I'm confused by some of these reviews. In some regards, school is what you make of it. My child has had great teachers at Guilford. They're responsive when I make inquiries; they meet whenever I ask them to. We have lots of parent involvment and lots of opportunities to nurture a love of learning.