Paramount Brookside

3020 Nowland Avenue

School District

Paramount School Of Excellence Inc
Grade

K-8
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:22
Type

charter

School Map for Paramount School Of Excellence Inc

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 May 28, 2020

My grand daughter said the teacher are doing a very good job. She is a speedy reader. She get help when she need it. She loves going to school. When we have had problems, you can call or E-mail teacher and receive response in timely manner. A high school would be great, so they would continue to learn at the speed that you encourage their education.
Submitted by parent on July 03, 2019

My son is an 8th grader who has been at PSOE since Kindergarten, he loves it there! He gets the help he needs with his learning disability and has the opportunityto attend Park Tudor for high school because of the football he plays.
Submitted by parent on May 15, 2019

Hands down, this is the best school we have, thankfully, encountered in our city. If I had one wish, their own high school. This environment needs to carry our kids, and the care takers, all the way.
Submitted by teacher on March 07, 2019

Paramount is an incredible school for students, staff and parents.
Submitted by teacher on March 06, 2019

Paramount Schools are a great place for students, parents, and staff.
Submitted by parent on January 10, 2019

We dislike this school quite a bit, but since the public schools on the near-east-side of indianapolis are utterly unsafe non-educational institutions, what other choice to low to moderate income parents have. The Catholic schools on the east side are either so elitist that moderate income students are not welcome, or they are building the catholic community so much that they forget to educate the children's minds. Oaks will not take a meeting without a four figure donation first. Irvington has devolved into a school of last chances for kids kicked out of every other school in Indy. So a parent has to choose between Paramount School of Discipline and emotional violence or Catechism all day every day. So one stays at a school with an emotionally violent culture in order to get a semblance of education for the kids
Submitted by parent on December 06, 2018

At first I was in love with this school. Especially in regards to the garden, farm animals, and bees. However, come to find out that younger kids rarely have any interaction with any of these benefits the school offers. My son's only interaction with the goats is looking at them when he is on recess. The school’s administration and leadership is lacking beyond belief. It's hard to articulate quite how bad they are. I have requested over 4 meetings, via voicemail, email, and calling, in regards to how to overcome some discipline issues we were having. I tried to contact at least 4 different people. Even when I asked the teacher, after a phone call home about discipline, what approach I should be taking at home the response was "I don't know", and no further resources were offered. It's frustrating that the school is so willing to discipline but doesn't have anything to offer when it comes to trying to make positive improvements before those behaviors happen. All discipline is centered around negative reinforcement. Young children frequently get their recess taken away, which seems to be counterproductive. At one point I noticed my son was tremendously hungry after school all the time. It turns out that he wasn’t receiving his after school snack. I called the school to raise it with them and all I got was a voicemail call back from the vice principal stating that it wasn't his problem. It seems ridiculous that 1. you wouldn't let parents know their kids wouldn't be getting a snack so they could subsequently supply food and 2. expect parents to organize the logistics of how the children would be fed i.e. I had to look up the site manager for both programs and raise it with them each individually to let them know someone needed to feed the children. As a parent I tried to be involved as much as possible however there is literally nothing to be involved in. At one meeting I was offered advice on things like how to set up a bank account and do my taxes, both things I'm fully aware of. In these meetings nothing was discussed about my child or his progress. The other meetings were basically parenting lessons.
Submitted by parent on October 08, 2018

I would rate this as an A+. They even have a planetarium and garden with a farmers market run by students. Tackle football beginning in the first grade. It’s amazing.
Submitted by parent on July 25, 2018

I want to preface this review by saying that Paramount's practical, ag-focused campus drew us in and our first year there was pretty good considering. I do believe that what they aspire to be in the Brookside community is valuable and laudable, and for "regular" kids with parents who don't have a lot of time to devote to their kids' education, it probably works out just fine.As a parent, I felt like the school administration was constantly undervaluing the role family plays in education. Rather than involving families in real, practical ways, the school was endlessly condescending - offering what amounted to parenting lessons if they ever did engage. And when things weren't going right, they simply ignored us. Examples:My daughter's name was spelled wrong on 75% of official school records. I called and emailed numerous times to discuss this with the secretary and have it fixed to no avail. Her teacher asked to have it corrected and two years later, tests and report cards still displayed the same error. By the middle of first grade, my child was basically living in in-school suspension. We had met with the assistant principle in semester 1 to discuss strategies for supporting the discipline process at home, and we discussed at length with her teacher at our conference what we could do to support her, and what she could do to keep our child engaged (her behaviours were all pretty much tied to "boredom"). It worked for a couple of weeks, but then went sideways again. I emailed the academic dean and disciplinary assistant principal to request a meeting to discuss the link between her academic issues and her behaviour. The emails were read, but no response was received. I followed up with voicemail messages and eventually wrote to the principal and school secretary to ask that someone intervene. Total silence for 3 months. Rather than addressing a problem, the entire administration of the school chose to "wait it out" until the office closed for the summer and they were no longer under any obligation to communicate in a timely fashion. This was when we decided not to return to Paramount this Fall. I wrote to inform the school of our daughter's withdrawal, and received no confirmation. I'm still getting robocalls about back to school procedures. "Wait and it'll go away" is a terrible strategy for any organization.
Submitted by parent on August 30, 2017

We've had great experiences here! I have read some of the negative reviews and I am baffled - we have "wonderful" township schools where we live and had terrible experiences. My kids cried every day around Istep because according to one teacher, "some years are just Istep prep" - at PSOE the teachers encourage children to do their personal best while also letting them know that it's no going to matter in the long run. My kiddo now says Istep week is the best of the year.I think it's a real shame that folks have such a hold on little things they don't like and instead of speaking to administrators, they come here and strongly disagree with everything... my family has been through truly un-caring schools that see children as numbers and bonuses and we are thankful everyday that we were able to find a school that nutures our children's minds.
Submitted by parent on August 25, 2017

zero.... High Test scores but in a very degrading way... These are children not robots
Submitted by parent on August 25, 2017

This school has become outrageous and careless. They consider our children a "brand" and not a child who needs an education.
Submitted by other on April 24, 2017

Athletic director is horrible, he is also the vice principal. Trying to discuss issues with kids with him is very difficult. The principal himself is completely clueless and leaves a lot of work to the two VPs, but then they don't seem to know anything either. Also, I find it very odd that all of the people in administrator roles are male, my husband said the same thing. The school needs to diversify leadership staff, the men in charge lack compassion as well as actual leadership skills. I also find the issues with how many children are suspended but NOT redirected into anything positive alarming.
Submitted by other on February 24, 2017

My child is the brunt of constant bullying both by students (physically) and staff members (emotionally). When it is addressed with administration, Mr. Knox turns a blind eye to it all. When I mentioned wanting to see the incident reports for various circumstances, I was told they didn't exist and that my child probably wasn't a good fit for PSOE.
Submitted by parent on December 13, 2016

They are so close, but also far. Pros: caring teachers, responsive administration, planetarium, goats, chickens, apiary, robots and quality education. Cons: Other parents (show up obviously straight from the bar or in their pj's), bad communication (very rarely can I send a form in and not receive a second or third request even though we turned in immediately upon receipt), inability to schedule more than just the school year in front of them (my opinion is by this time of year they should have a certain 2017-18 calendar and 18-19 tentative calendar published), the parent/teacher organization is a joke (we want to help the school, not talk about feelings, I understand some parents may need more handholding, but why no dads club helping to pay for athletics, moms club fundraising for projects, etc.) and even when my wife has volunteered over 6 times she cannot get a call back. So with that, they are 95% a great school for the core programs today, but that other 5% is what will make them a great school for decades. They need to remember the enemy of great is good and complacent.
Submitted by parent on September 24, 2015

My daughter is in first grade here. We absolutely love it. I'm so impressed by the exposure to sustainable living. The gardens are full of veggies. The bees are buzzing. The chickens clucking. And the gorgeous goats! My daughter responds really well to the systems in place at her school to reward good behavior. She was telling her tonight she wants our house to be just like her school. Fuzzies for good behavior that later lead to a prize. She also loves her teacher. Her teacher is like a ray of sunshine. We always feel so welcome coming to paramount!
Submitted by parent on November 19, 2014

I think this school is not a good school you have to worry about the if your child will get bulled and if teachers are going to listen they act like they don't care about to kids they think the kids are liars and they lower your grades if they don't like you my daughter was jump and she got in trouble and they moved her class and the class she is in now is a lot bulling from the kids and teacher
Submitted by parent on July 30, 2014

I have 4 children in this school and I absolutely love it! IM sad it only goes to 8th grade because I would gladly keep all 4 there for high school. The teachers are great, facility great, and the opportunities are great. This school deserves better rating!
Submitted by parent on April 28, 2014

They really help the kids get to where they need to be.. My son went in not liking math at all and now he is getting better grades and liking math a lot more.. I love Paramount and will send my son there again.. :)
Submitted by other on April 17, 2014

I am a parent of a student at Paramount. It is a great atmosphere to send my child to learn in. I love the children that I am involved with daily, and also th staff and parents. This school has amazing technology that is used everyday too!