Belding Middle School

"Good"

"Coming from Charter & Forest Hills Schools I was highly disappointed in this school. I have given it a few years hoping it would improve but academically they stayed average. A few of the teachers are gems but most were not well trained in dealing with non standard children. Two of my children have attended this school. I have one child well above his grade level in math and English and another who is ADHD and harder to teach. In order to get the level of leaning my above average child needed, he had to walk rain or shine to the high school for those classes. Socially I don't think hanging with the older teens is best for jr highers. My more challenging child was failed by this school. I honestly don't think there is any training in dealing with ADHD kids or the different learning styles. Only when he was in trouble did I hear from the school. The counselor never got involved and the teachers wrote him off as the naughty kid from day one. When I emailed recently if they even have a school counselor on staff, neither the two principles or superintendent responded with an answer. With no encouragement, and his faults always being called out, it is no wonder he didn't thrive and succumbed to being the bad kid. A teacher even asked him in front of all the students rudely if he took his medicine.The first week of school a teacher emailed me about his behavior. When I emailed her back about his ADHD, learning style, which he is a kinesthetic, and a few comments and pointers she NEVER responded. They don't care about solutions only discipline. I agree discipline is in order to correct bad behavior but getting to the root of the problem is also necessary. I didn't bother with going to conferences because it was a waste of time. Ultimately he was expelled which has actually been good for us since we are exploring better school options. The elementary schools seem ok for the district, so I am not sure what happened with the middle school. I can guarantee when my kids come into 6th grade they will be pulled out of the Belding schools. As a side note the Super got real interested when I started talking of pulling my above average child out of Belding High. If he would take some time to fix the middle school as he is working on the high school there may be hope for it yet. I know I have not attended the board meetings where we can suggest changes but for most working families it is not possible and doesn't change the fact that Belding Middle is failing the district kids."

"my son goes to this school,very safe,makes me feel good that he has a good principal to run the school and they have the program watch dogs"

"I like the food here"