St. Helen Catholic School 2700 East University Avenue, Georgetown, TX 78626

"bad scary made me cry"

"Enroll with caution! We moved from CA (our girls have attended Catholic School since Pre-K and had an AMAZING experience) and thought this would be the perfect fit for our daughters. However, the small school deal was short lived. We felt constantly put under a microscope because we were from out of state, therefore, my girls struggled with conforming. My younger daughter was bullied by one individual student and a few teachers. My older daughter had a few encounters with the teachers as well. As the year progressed it became more and more clear that this was a complete subculture. We were not allowed to look behind curtain. The morning gatekeepers were an illusion of safety. Communication was poor between parents and staff. If you decided to address a situation regarding assignments or an issue with a poor (or no) outcome you were blacklisted. This was ongoing with both of my daughters. It reached a boiling point of vindictiveness that we decided to leave the school. It was sad to witness my daughter cry every morning. She was harassed on campus by ONE student! The office and the church did absolutely nothing about it. One incident involved the bully poking my daughter with her finger in her private areas. Of course nothing was done, they just didn’t care. We pulled her out a few days later. Interestingly enough our meeting with the parents, leadership, and father was like watching a sitcom skit. The father could care less, the disgusting parents of the bully were crying and playing victim, and the leadership was blaming us and our demographics on why this was playing out the way it was. At the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year another family from CA joined the school. They were present for about a week until conflict between front office/teachers and the parents took place. They left so fast they didn’t even ask for or want the items left in the lockers. As long as the staff are good ole boys and gals the leadership doesn’t let you look beyond the morning circus. Obviously none of the staff have business or customer development degrees. Parents are the ones writing the checks. Parents PAY for your circus. Last note, the end of year sports video highlighting student athlete achievements made a point to throw my daughter under the bus, again! The head coach decided to announce my daughter (who was only present for a few months in 2019) and the bully who harassed her in the same breath. Plenty of other great options."

"My daughter attended pre-k to 8th and she transitioned well to high school. Her Catholic education prepared her perfectly for contributing to the community and her faith."

"We had to leave St. Helen’s Catholic School due to academic and school policy concerns. The principal has implemented a closed-campus policy which restricts parents access to the school. This has severely limited interaction with the teachers and has created a very cold and uninviting environment. In touring other area private schools we have found this policy to be unique to SHCS and counter to the family environment embraced by other schools. Our academic concerns were validated while touring these other schools as well. We learned that SHCS academic standards were not as high as other area private schools. For example, the Pre-K students at these schools had the ability to read by the time they entered kindergarten, a skill that SHCS only starts to teach once the student enters kindergarten. This is because SHCS only teaches to the Texas minimum academic standards (TEKS). We have found that what you get at St Helen’s Catholic School is a public school education in a Catholic environment."