Helms Elementary School

"My friend just said in a completely serious tone “how did people breath if oxygen was discovered in 1772.” she is 16 in her sophomore year."

"This is my second year with children attending Helms. I have witnessed many positive changes in the teachers, administration and most importantly in the student body. The teachers are able to tackle such a wide spectrum of materials and foster kids growth in both English and Spanish on an individual performance level. The teachers seem to work together like a small knit family. There has been an improvement with the programs offered from UIL, Odyssey of the Mind and a new cultural awareness curriculum. I look forward to seeing even more positive developments every year!"

"Helms Elementary School is the best I know. I love our school. We have exelent principal and exelent teachers. I being at helms for 5 years already."

"Helms lacks tremendous preparedness and organizational skills. 1. The pick up procedures lack tremendous attention. There are only two school staff outside during dismissal calling car driver names for the huge amount of students being released. The rest are inside but more need to be outside. Walkers and car drivers get released at the same gate with the same type of tag. This is the first time I seen this type of system that all parents (car driver or walker) are allowed to walk up to the gates to pick up students as long as they have the tag. The system does not differentiate between walkers and car drivers so being there early in the car line to pick up your car driver child is pointless because you will never get your kid to your car unless you get off the car. Beware that they pay attention on releasing students who are walkers while car riders stand their for the next available staff to walk them to their cars because the staff is all over the place releasing and paying more attention to walkers. They do not call car drivers names in order either. Parents violate pick up and traffic signs but no school staff is out there telling them not to. Yes, they do send out daily reminders of these procedures but the system is not being implemented. If dismissal school staff do see parents not following procedures they do not address these parents that they are violating such rules and procedures. Therefore, you also have a large amount of parents crossing the streets in front of the car lines and traffic with their children to walk across the street to their were they parked their vehicles were they are not allowed to park in the first place. The parents that do follow pick up procedures and are waiting in the car line are force to pick up their kids in the middle of the street because they are being blocked by parents leaving their cars unattended to walk up to the gates to pick up their children. This is a huge safety issue for all of the children and parents plus shows the lack of attention of the dismissal system. If Helms pick up procedures are horrible, unsafe, and unorganized I can only imagine the attention and importance they give to our children in their every day experience here. I do not recommend the school because Helms students safety is not their top priority. A school must be prepare, organized and be involved in every aspect to ensure that our children are safe and parents feel good walking away to leave their children at their hands This starts with a great leader and school staff. So I think the issue is on the Principal and the ones who are in charge of putting together these procedures. The new principal Ms. Perejon is nice but I think a principal must be for a strong, hands on, serious, determined, dedicated, and smart individual. The new principal is never outside during dismissal but yet responds that she will ensure that safety is top priority. How will she ensure safety and implement dismissal procedures when she is not outside during dismissal? Her presence and action is needed at times that require attention of the issues needing improvement but you can't expect for improvement if the principal is never involved in such important procedures. 2. Meet The Teacher Day is suppose to be to get basic information of your child's class as well as meeting their teacher for the first time. My child's teacher is nice and perhaps she is a procrastinator but I was not too impressed with her either. She was not leading the event as parents stood around not sure what to do or say. Parents would just ask questions when they felt they could approach her. She should of had all parents gather closely, welcome everyone, introduce herself, talk about the class and leave time for questions from parents. But that was not the case. I left that event more confused but especially stressed out. Also, she did not have a schedule ready for the parents since as a pre-k parent we all want to know what they will be doing throughout the long 8-3:20 day. My child will not be returning Helms."

"Helms is a great, dual language elementary school in the magnet program for HISD. We have been very impressed (and fortunate) with the continued improvement to both the campus and the program over the last few years. If you want a good learning environment for your children's early education, I highly recommend that you apply at Helms."