Duval Charter School At Mandarin

5209 Shad Road

School District

Duval County Public Schools
Grade

K-8
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:18
Type

charter

School Map for Duval 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 August 03, 2024

Horrible experience for both children, pulled them out of that school. iPad lead instruction. Too many teachers get away with not actually teaching and assistance for the child. Students promised certain things and were disappointed over and over again. Events consistently canceled. No consistency and school is where most students need that structure. Horrible management: best of luck to the schools growth.
Submitted by parent on April 21, 2023

I had a very bad experience all year. We only had a few months in the US. All documents and invitations submitted to the school have been accepted in advance. My child, excellent in results, was accepted into the Cambridge class at the beginning of the year. After a month, Assistant Principal Sarah Jones sends me an email, informing me that my child should not come to school until all vaccinations are done. At the beginning of the year when we asked them if we should send more documents, they said no. While after a month the school had to be stopped immediately. In the meantime, we started the procedures, but there were delays in the system for the update. I sent several emails to ask if my child could come to school until the end of the procedure. We went several times physically to look for the competent persons, but no one received us. I never got a response to my email and my child, in addition to being very stressed, missed several days of school. Total irresponsibility, racism, I don't know!? What I notice every day is the arrogance of assistant principal Sarah Jones, who collects the numbers in the car when I go to pick up the child from school. She takes note of the child's number and name, she doesn't call her name at school even, and I have to wait in another line. As a result, delays are created for other parents. One day, even though he had approached the car and noted the number, he asked me to open the car window. I opened it and without greeting or apologizing asked for the number aggressively and arrogantly. I am shocked by such behavior at school. Totally disappointed. She doesn't deserve to be on staff.
Submitted by parent on November 17, 2022

My child went to this school 5 years ago and he had no problems but now i heard that hes getting discriminated because he has a disability ive also heard that there has been fights and teachers cursing at the students me and my child are talking about moving schools because we dont think this is a safe place to be learning at
Submitted by parent on September 15, 2022

School used to be good but it got really bad. The principal kacey Harvey horrible principal don’t care for the kids or parents. A lot of teachers are mean and rude It’s fights and so many bullying from kids and teachers and principal act like she not aware or never heard of it when I have emailed them about it. She hear but don’t listen to you.
Submitted by student on May 16, 2022

I have attended four different schools in my life so far and I have never even heard of staff as worse as the one at DCSM. While there are some good apples, those are far and few between. I was enrolled in the Cambridge program, which is from what I understood, just learning a level above where the standard students were taught. I and my little sister eventually left the school after an incident where I was pretty much assaulted and no action was taken to suspend, or really, even punish such an act of indecency. The main problem at this school is too late to fix. The curriculum base is below average but alright for what it is. I highly do not suggest this academic atrocity. If I were to choose a school, I wouldn't choose DCSM if I was paid a million dollars.Special Education students are mixed in with normal students. It causes many problems. My cousin is in Special Education and I couldn't bear to see him in such distress as I have seen here.
Submitted by parent on February 10, 2021

We are in our 6th year at Duval Charter School at Mandarin and have nothing but great things to say. My children have had wonderful teachers and have made great friends. One of my daughters has been in the Cambridge program for 5 years now and has done really well with the accelerated learning model.
Submitted by student on May 18, 2020

I do not recommend going to this school for middle school. Elementary from what I know is great but that’s because they put all of their time and effort into the younger grades. The middle school part was almost neglected. I am a freshman going into sophomore year but I was at the school since it opened. I had an experience with a science teacher. She was rude and biased towards certain races. She had gotten in my face one time and on another occasion blatantly insulted another teacher in front of the whole class. I was sitting in disgust and anger as she is insulting one of the only good teachers at the school at the time. She would scream at us for talking and leave us after the bell causing us to be late to our next class almost everyday. I was too scared to talk to her in person so I wrote and anonymous note talking to her about how the whole class felt about how she was treating us. She found the note and claimed she knew who wrote it (she didn’t) and went on a whole lecture about how they could have just talked to her. I told my mom about the situation and they sent her to a teaching class. As this went on she continually got worse and she quit in the middle of the year. I know instances of bullying where nothing was done to prevent it or stop it. Everything is very disorganized and their budget is spent on laptops and TVs instead of better food or extra curricular activities. The front office ladies are rude and do not give the time of day to the students. They had teachers quitting left and right and did not hire qualified teachers. I was struggling in multiple classes because the teachers weren’t teaching us. One time in class we had a substitute and this substitute threatened to give the whole class referrals because of a broken eraser that was broken on accident. She asked who broke it and no one knew then proceeded to write referrals. They never went through but we were a Cambridge class and many of us have never gotten referrals before and some people were crying because they don’t want that on their transcript. This school is very poorly run and they care more about your uniform then your education and safety. I do not recommend going here.
Submitted by student on February 08, 2019

Terrible. The school is to small, understaffed, unfair, and a good bit of the teachers are terrible at thier job. Although in 4th and 5th grade in this school I was a high preforming student and therefore put in to high preforming classes and had no problem with the teachers. in 6th grade my grades started to slip (my fault not the schools) being in advanced classes, the teachers treated me fine and fairly eventhough my grades were very bad. In 7th grade they placed me in advanced classes again (I guess to give me another chance with advanced classes) and once again I let my grades slip up and they treated me fine. And now here we are in 8th grade, I'm put in normal classes, and now I see how unfair it is to be in "advanced" classes. In lower achieving classes the teachers treat us unfairly on an individual level while treating higher achiving classes almost completeley fairly. Keep in mind that I am a student at DCSM and I wrote this view as fairly as possible.
Submitted by parent on October 28, 2017

2016-2017 fine but 2017-2018 horrible. Put my children in public school and not one issue. My children are in programs to help them excel. There are a lot of issues that need to be fixed and not overlooked. Front desk staff gossip and not friendly. Teachers ask if your child is prejudice. They like to think they are going to sweep things under the rug. Then the rating went down and I see why! Sad to say when female principal was there more compassion and structure. This guy they have now has no clue.
Submitted by other on May 31, 2017

Overall, my experience has been poor. Maybe this school should limit it's students to the ones they cater to, so other students at least have a chance at not being left out. Seeing all caucasion administrators and staff doesn't happen by mistake, and i refuse to raise my child under the detrimental ideals of a bygone era. It is important to me that my child see diversity in success.
Submitted by parent on May 20, 2017

On the scale from 1-10 I give them a 2 only because of the front desk clerks all other incounter with staff were not understanding and very rude.
Submitted by other on March 29, 2017

Worst school ever due to the fact that they try to cover up what is truly happening to our children. We trust and leave our children with them for 8 hours days and they can't even protect them. My daughter was getting bullied for almost 3 months and no one did anything. Jerry Hulshut the principal was aware, Dean Profit was aware as well along with teachers. I filed a bullying report, contacted the school board, contacted the Regional Director of the school, sent numerous emails to the school and talked with JSO. Of course the school chose to not address the issue until my bullying report was filed which is ridiculous. Satanic things are going on in this school that they condone. Children are being made fun of and teased because they have a handicap. They are very unprofessional, communication is horrible and I don't even see how these people were licensed to oversee our children. Such a pure shame but if it were there child/children I bet they would be concerned or maybe not. Parents truly need to open there eyes and see this school for exactly what it is. My child was failed by the school and myself. Very disappointed in this school and what it stands for, thank God my child will not be returning after two school years she attended there. This has been the worst school year ever!!! #Iamaparentwhostandsupforherchild
Submitted by parent on March 03, 2017

My daughter started Kindergarten there and I am pulling her from this school with only 3 months left. Teachers leave in the middle of the year, the principle changed in the middle of the year, emails are not responded to by front office/principal/VP, and my daughter loved reading and writing before starting here - now does not want to try to learn. My daughter was also sent into the hallway unsupervised for so long that she fell asleep!! No one would acknowledge or address the problem. Very disappointed.
Submitted by other on November 23, 2016

My friend goes their and she is wierd
Submitted by other on August 03, 2016

The staff and teachers are wonderful. The do a very good job of challenging children on their personal levels. We came from a private school so the charter has been a good cross between private and public. They also work very well with children who have a disability. I like the diversity of the school as well as they have many different cultures attending. My children are happy and achieving success.
Submitted by parent on June 27, 2016

Great school, challenging curriculum, wonderful Gifted and Cambridge programs. No nonsense staff. Zero tolerance for disruptive behavior. We love it.
Submitted by parent on October 03, 2015

This is a really great school. This is my sons second year and he really does enjoy it. All grades have art, music, foreign language and PE (in addition to their regular classes, of course). They wear uniforms, which I also love. The principal seems to really care about the children but also about running a tight ship.