Success Academy Charter Schools - New York, New York

Jem Roper

BEWARE OF SUCCESS ACADEMY

My son attends harlem West success academy. After school hours my son recorded a video of two other scholars fighting in the street outside of the school. He sent the video to his friends which caused for the entire grade to view the video. Dad and I had a meeting with principal Ocampo and his teacher. As a consequence, my son was put on a one day suspension. This is something that I absolutely did not agree with. He should not be punished in this situation because all he did was record a video and send it out, which happens all the time on the day without such punishment. I have been a true committed parent of Success Academy since the school was initially created. I have never run into a situation like this and I am completely baffled with the consequence. I really did not wish for this to be escalated like this, but I had no choice. I would highly recommend NOT sending your child to this school OR ANY of the locations for that matter.

Cam D

They prey on Low income Families with the fear your children won't succeed unless they join this network. The truth is your child will suffer mentally. I must make parents aware of the horrible environments inside of success academy Middle schools. My child has been to two locations. One in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn location is grossly underfunded. While the Manhattan location is placed in a dangerous location,... entry to Lincoln tunnel. All the locations fail to treat kids like children. Your child will be stressed out and mentally harmed by the way teachers treat them. Success truly focuses on training the children to pass state exams. February until May the focus is test prep, I fear the children aren't learning to comprehend. There are no trips, no parent teacher night to bring you up to date on your child's academics. The classrooms have 40 students to a teacher. If you have an issue within the school staff or students, you're at the mercy of the principal or CEO. You can't complain to anyone else the school is allowed to operate however they deem. It's a military environment, which is crazy because what 6-year-olds can sit still for 40 mins straight? Teacher turnover rates are sky high. My child had 2 different home room teachers over the course of 3 months. There are no explanations from the principal besides an email the day before the teacher leaves. What about the students? How does the network believe they feel? Do they care? The teachers are young and inexperienced, zero early childhood training! Most get hired straight out of college with a BA in their field. For instance, my child had a math teacher who had an associates degree from the local community college, and she was teaching math. This woman was the worst teacher I had ever seen. My child learned almost nothing! This teacher is a fifth grade teacher at Success Lafayette. This pattern of teachers leaving after a month or two continued for 2 years! No music because the music teacher left and there was no replacement for four months. The children lose in this setting. PARENTS Protect your children they can learn as long as you teach them. After all what good is a child with good grades who has Mentally issues after enduring this Network.

April HOWELL

At first when my son attended Success academy in kindergarten it was good and well then as he approached 4 grade it got where it started being unorganized and different teachers during the semester Now he in six grade and it’s still the same but much worse different teachers and you got teachers being disrespectful to kids and they not being accountable for there actions towards the kids..kids has feeling as well then its this upstairs detention and effort academy what is the logic in that yall rather pay for teachers to stay after school for that and not have teacher there early in the morning so they can go in there class room instead of staying outside make it make sense and it’s a lot of parents that really didn’t wanna take they kids out of success but had to cause of this all im saying it can be better

Khalid Baker

Horrible I mean horrible school DO NOT do it to your self. This will stress you out and your child. CEO is nowhere to be found nobody cares it’s hitting targets and goals I’m over it.

Stacey Sweets

I’m a parent of a scholar who attends Bronx 3 and it’s always something and the school safety attendant Mr.Lopez in a bully and tries ti intermediate parents in front of their children, very distasteful!

Lynn

THIS IS NOT A SCHOOL!!! We're in week 3 at the Rosedale location in Queens. So far: The teachers yelled and chastised the children on ORIENTATION DAY! They only had the children for an introduction for an hour and a half. I emailed the office with my concerns and still haven't received follow-up. In the meantime, Since day one the teachers and staff have constantly yelled, berated, and chastised my child and his classmates. My kid comes home everyday with stories and upset about how he was treated. If a child can not tell you what they learned only how they were treated and how they felt about the day, there is a problem!!! I have called and emailed the school for access to the online ParentSquare app and I am given the run around. Communication is abysmal. Lastly, two days ago my child's teacher put his hands on my kid without warning or justification. He yanked him by the arm to make an "example" of him to show the other kids how to line up on a yellow line! My child is new to Success and in the fourth grade. His previous schools have been on military bases and he has never had issues or been mistreated until now. They force the kids to smile for pictures and videos to post (totally weird), you wouldn't have to force the children to smile if they were really happy and enjoying themselves. I have called and left messages at the corporate office and am waiting for a call back. I am withdrawing my child and will make formal complaints with appropriate agencies. This is not a school. It is a CORPORATE entity who makes money off your children being enrolled and runs the school like a prison. They are only concerned with testing since that effects their funding. THIS IS NOT A SCHOOL. THIS IS NOT A SCHOOL.

Golden McNeil

I am a very displeased parent. My grand daughter has been attending Success Academy since she was 4 years old. She has ALWAYS been a top Scholar academically. She is now in 8th grade most of the staff are new and it's been HELL ever since the first day of school. The decision to remove her will come next with. there are plenty of schools that will welcome her with open arms because of grades. This is not the end of all after removing her either. The complaints toward the staff will continue. HARLEM WEST 115th 7th avenue & 8th avenue.

Joseph Akinbolaji

My child attends Success Academy Union Square and in the first grade. Those children ARE MISERABLE! They ONLY do math in reading comprehension form. They are 6 and 7 years old and must read passage upon passages they call number stories and must add/subtract/ multiply and even use fractions! The verbiage used in this passages are literally for college aged kids! Most of the children are confused and don’t know what they are doing. This causes children to lack the creation of their confidence building which is where they are developmentally! Therefore, these endless drills are in fact causing trauma! And all for what Kids get left back every year based solely on those ridiculous number stories! At this point I pray that those kids all get the help they need survive the grueling boring tedious days at Hell Academy!