South Polk Elementary School

3585 University Parkway

School District

Vernon Parish
Grade

1-4
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:18
Type

public

School Map for Vernon Parish School District

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 March 05, 2024

Steer clear if your child has an IEP/504. A 3rd grade teacher told me he prioritizes students without IEPs and the administration seems to think it is fine. We have been fight them for 2 months after finding out they "accidentally" removed my daughter from general education and acted like I should understand the mistake. My daughter is massively behind now that she was in pulled into full time special education for the first half of the year. Now she is back in general education, but struggling very badly, and they refuse to do anything to try and fix their "mistake". It has been nothing put heartache and I have watched the joy of school drain from my daughter, and i don't know if anything will ever be able to fix that. If you are military good luck, they make it very clear they only want something to do with us for the money.
Submitted by parent on January 01, 2022

Issues started the first week of school. Administration/front desk clerks are uneducated they are not knowledgeable about handling military families. We had to ask to meet our child’s teachers. We did not receive a tour of the school. The special education teacher is impatient with her students and rude. The school begs for money almost every other month with made up fundraisers. They don’t give back to military children or families without you paying to participate in a event. We were highly upset that this was not a DOD school and unfortunately our only option besides home schooling. The new principal is professional however lacks the supportive staff to help handle the majority of the schools issues. The guidance counselor was very helpful and understanding thankfully.
Submitted by parent on May 22, 2017

This school is beyond disappointing! There are some good teachers, but the administrations incompetence makes it nearly impossible for the good teachers to do their job effectively. They discourage parents from being involved unless it is money they need for fundraising. It is extremely sad that our military children sacrifice along side their soldiers and when their family is order to Fort Polk they have to sacrifice their education as well.
Submitted by parent on May 18, 2017

Our experience at this school has been sub-par. If we were not moving, I would home school before allowing my child to continue attendance or my 1st grader to join Parkway Elementary. Our experience was disappointing through out. I know of 10 families that are leaving Parkway Elementary due to the bad experiences they have had and their overall dissatisfaction with the school. Vernon Parish needs to make major changes at this school and realize that the military population's transient nature does not give permission to provide poor quality education to our children.
Submitted by parent on May 06, 2012

Far and above the worst school I have ever seen. The teachers aren't attentive to the children unless it's lunch time and they children are subjected to treatment on par with those of prisoners in texas. My children attended 2-4 grade here and only the 3rd grade teacher took the time to help the children learn anything beyond standardized testing. When children are gifted and learn quickly, rather than being encouraged, they are told to color or draw quietly until everyone else is done. When we asked about gifted education we were told the focus is on children who fall behind and they have no interest in children who are advanced. We came from an amazing school where my children loved to go every day and loved to learn. South Polk Elementary effectively killed that desire to learn. We also had an incident where a student threatened physical violence to my children and it was brushed off, they didn't even remove him from the bus she rode to school every day. They don't care if the children learn, they don't care if the children are safe. All they care about are LEAP tests.
Submitted by parent on March 14, 2012

The Pros: newly renovated - now has walls to separate the classes, nice principal and teacher, daily agenda so I know what my son does day-to-day. The Cons:The school counselor is inattentive, the "gym" is a joke, there is no art class, the curriculum is boring, my son's teacher is not considered "highly trained" because she doesn't have her masters degree, and very rare opportunities for parental involvement.
Submitted by parent on December 09, 2010

South Polk Elementary has been a wonderful school for our son. His teacher is fantastic, he comes home having learned so much each day, and his homework assignments are fun and effective. The staff has been wonderful and helpful, and I really could fill in an entire page of praises but I'll just say that we love this school and highly recommend it to any prospective parents in the area!