Jerry Thomas Elementary School

800 Maplewood Drive

School District

Palm Beach
Grade

PK, K-5
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:14
Type

public

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 December 04, 2024

The community of this school is welcoming and accommodates the needs of the children. My son has an IEP and has made so many improvements with the accommodations he has. My son struggled with one teacher and the administration worked with us and found a teacher that helped him grow by leaps and bounds. I would highly recommend Jerry Thomas!
Submitted by parent on November 10, 2019

Avoid this school if possible. They want only perfect children with parents that donate a substantial amount of money. Save your child the turmoil.
Submitted by parent on May 05, 2019

Definitely been a positive experience for my daughters
Submitted by parent on April 22, 2019

My son has an IEP and struggles in reading. His teachers have worked so hard this year with him and he's made so much improvement! I'm very pleased overall with JTE!
Submitted by parent on March 29, 2019

Zero stars if I could. If you come from a different state like I did, it’s night and day difference on how schools are ran. I think that teachers and staff should go to a state like NJ and see how they run education the right way. I also do not feel this school is safe. If your child stays after school no one picks up phone in office god forbid a parent is late there is no way to let anyone know. The campus to me is far from being secure. For example in NJ, you had to be buzzed into the school or you could not get in, once in the lobby area they had another wall with bullet proof windows and once again you could not get out of the lobby area without being buzzed in a second time. After that you were immediately escorted to main office before you could go anywhere in the school. In order to pick up your child you had to sign them out at the end of the day. If they are not familiar with you, they asked for your ID and sometimes brought into main office so that they can check the list that you were able to pick up the child. This was great because you had to sign out the time, date and the parent had to write their name that way if someone god forbid was not suppose to be picking up your child it was all recorded. The classroom doors were locked to any one in the hall. If you wanted to get into classroom you had to knock and a teacher would let you in. They had lock down drills which this day and age you need them so that everyone knows exactly what to do including teachers. Also parents in NJ were not allowed pass the lobby or gym when picking up and dropping off. I was not happy when parents were allowed to walk their child right to their classroom for first week of school. That is so unsafe if you think about it. All these parents were all over the campus with no one monitoring who’s coming and going.
Submitted by parent on January 31, 2018

I am disappointed with JTE. My child has a learning disability and the school has done nothing to help. The teachers are very stressed and I don't think they can handle so many students. Their schedules are crazy and my child sometimes comes back with the lunch box full, because "there wasn't enough time to eat". The school is focused on standardize tests.
Submitted by parent on October 18, 2016

This school is common core to it's core. Drop your kids off and get out of their way. There are no volunteer opportunities posted on the school's website or brought to the attention of the volunteer parents. There is no Volunteer News posted on the schools website. Really?? A school of this size and there are absolutely no activity requiring volunteers and no news whatsoever. Don't expect teachers to respond to any questions or concerns you have. It will not happen at any point. Despise everything about this school and fully regretting moving my child to this district.
Submitted by parent on February 27, 2015

Where to begin. First, this review echoes other reviews of parents that have been critical of the school. See yp.com. Even with all the standards set by the District and the State, it's shocking that my child has not had a proper agenda all year. My child has adopted a new "Aim Low" attitude by observing his "Aim Low" teacher, endorsed by the "Aim Low" administration. My child is not learning here. This entire experience is devastating to me and other parents that understand what quality education is. Here, the Prinicipals are not advocates for children. They are rather bureaucrats that de-escalate all issues to being minor and therefore not needing to be addressed at all. The administrations charter is literally to keep the institution functioning, with as little change as possible. If you were thinking about moving to Jupiter so that your child can attend this school, reconsider. You could buy a house in many other areas, with lower property cost and taxes, and use that saved money to attend a private school.
Submitted by parent on October 23, 2014

The last impression we had of the school was at our daughter's 5th grade graduation where we sat through the bulk of the ceremony listening to one self important teacher offer a bizarre speech about her students (or, should we say; about herself). No other teacher had apparently been given that opportunity. After being subjected to this rant, exceptional awards went to the majority of this same teacher's students. We were proud of many other, deserving; great athletes, scholars, artists, and well accomplished students who acted as good sports and cheered for their peers, no matter what. We hope this teacher had a nice time, filled with plenty of self-affirmation until next spring, where she can fill ger unwarranted ego again. The event summarizes Jerry Thomas Elementary school. The school is filled with a handful of cronies, who aren't even proficient teachers. So sorry for all the other great teachers and students!
Submitted by parent on August 18, 2014

This is a good school but the parents are very low in their conduct there are guys calling their ex by every name they can find in the book in front of kids. Sometimes the road rage is awfull too police don't do nothing about it as if they are not there.
Submitted by parent on January 07, 2014

School staff needs training across the board for individual learning and emotional needs of the students. Children with needs are labeled and treated as a nuisance as are their parents who are in need of support and guidance. Leadership is weak and entitled, negative, and uninspired teachers need to be replaced with fresh blood who understand the true reason they are there is to teach rather than complain about students and parents, collect a paycheck, and have a heck of a lot of vacation time to boot!
Submitted by parent on November 17, 2013

Your site professes to publish negative reviews, but you have not. This does degrade your credibility. The last reviewer is correct that this school is declining under the poor current leadership. Additionally the public should know this before investing in a home in this district. The school district has elected not to do anything about this issue so the public and our children are adversely effected. I would recommend avoiding this school.
Submitted by parent on July 26, 2013

Our great school is now a "B" school. This school has a long history of great students and teachers and strong parental support. Unfortunately a recent change in leadership has started a downward trend. The principal has let go good teachers in favor of her cronies and drinking buddies. What a shame.
Submitted by parent on May 18, 2012

My son is in Kindergarten and will be starting 1st grade in August. All I can say is that this first year at Jerry Thomas has been AMAZING!!! He has gained a tremendous amount of knowledge, and that is all Thanks to his Wonderful Teacher { Ms. Birchenough }. She understands who your child is as an individual and works with that. I'm VERY Grateful to have had her as my son's Teacher, and I will be very sad when June comes around. The school itself is Wonderful and Safe for the students. Everyone in the office is always so kind. We are very proud to be apart of the Jerry Thomas Tigers *Family*!!!