Dorena Elementary School

"Our son has started at the preschool. The school is an essential community resource.We're looking forward to a bright future together with the rest of the upriver folk."

"Dorena is a wonderful little school, with an amazing teacher to student ratio, that most kids in a public school could only dream of. All the teachers love the kids, and I'm amazed at how everyone knows each other. I wish I had the opportunity to go to such a school when I was a kid."

"They do have some good teachers, but I have a discrepancy with some of the staff at Dorena School concerning a complete lack of common courtesy, decency, and accountability. The specific staff that I’m hoping to bring into question are Kathy Parsons, the IEP teacher, Linda Pabst, the principal, and a teacher that they have decided to deny memory of so I can’t report her to you. They know I’m new, don’t know anybody, and taking advantage of it. I got little support in the matter, so I am writing a review. I’ll give you a little foreground to the situation. We bought a house in Dorena, OR, and my son decided that he wanted to be a part of the local school. With motivation to become involved, I decided to attend the 1st parent meeting, and mind you I know NONE of these people. We were specifically addressing the issue concerning payment for the teacher’s time that was currently watching our children in the gym. Ideas were getting thrown around, someone suggested that she get paid $40. I raised my hand to share, got called, and began to say,” The state pays people $3.00…”, Kathy and the unmentioned teacher loudly and abruptly interrupted me condescendingly mid-sentence, “That’s a HORRIBLE IDEA! $3.00 isn’t worth anybody”s time!” They went on and on for a minute, I don’t remember much about what they were saying, as I was shocked and humiliated at the behavior of these “educators”. I tried to finish my thought, “As I was saying, the state pays people $3.00/hour/kid.” Kathy and the unmentioned teacher proceeded to roll their eyes, and mutter words like, ”Oh Whatever!” I couldn’t think of anything else, so I began choosing my words and how to approach the principal, Linda Pabst, very carefully. Though I was clearly upset, I did maintain professionalism in the conversation. I mentioned how I was treated right in front of her, and wondered why she thought that was okay or appropriate. I then merely suggested that Kathy Parsons and the other teacher that was responsible for the appalling behavior apologize at the next parent meeting. Linda assured me that she can’t make them apologize, but it won’t happen again. A month goes by, the next meeting arrived, I sat through the meeting and didn’t get my apology, so I was getting upset. Linda Pabst suggested that I need to get over it. I was informed that Kathy decided not to attend the meeting. The next day, I decided to go eat lunch with my son, and I had Kathy Parsons, as well as other teachers shooting glares at me while I’m trying to spend time with my son. We decided to change schools immediately. A couple of days later, I show up at the school to have lunch with my son and share his contact info with friends that wished to stay in contact for Birthday’s and such. Linda decided to approach me and scold me in front of all of Averi’s friends for doing such a thing, implying, “How would I ever explain to other parents about a grown man giving kids his phone number?”, as though I would be collecting numbers for myself, though my son was standing right there overwhelmed at how many wanted to stay in contact. My son also doesn’t write very well or fast, and needed help. I said, ”Wow, only if you asserted yourself over people that you actually have authority over. You would be doing a great job.” She then asked me to leave school premises with my son. Like I said, I can’t believe anyone would treat a new parent this way, and this was by teachers being paid by my tax dollars. I hope this has been helpful in regards to making decisions about this school. All they had to do was apologize, and I would have been happy."

"really fun"