Does Anyone's Child Go to Palm Bay Community Charter School?

Hi D.,

I could go on and on about PBCCS but will spare you the horrid details. Instead, why not go to the Local Business Reviews Tab and pull up alphabetically Palm Bay Community Charter School and read the reviews from 3 former students/parents.

Please contact me directly at ____@____.com if you would like to talk on the phone about this school.

My best advice is to get information and feedback from various sources (former parents, current parents and meet with the administration before making a decision). But beware, they will tell you lots of things that you want to hear, ask specific questions).

Hope this helps. I am just an email or phone call away ###-###-####).

B. Basile-McKee

Hi,
My daughter was a former student at Palm Bay Community Charter School at the beginning of the school. We pulled our daughter out of the school after the Christmas Holiday break. The principal is not a very nice person. She is not nice to the student or the parents. She talks down to you and she yells at the students. She is running the school like a military school. She is not a people person. There a policy that I did not like and one of them is that you can not go and eat lunch with you child and you cannot walk your child to class even if they are in Kindergarten. I would seriously do all the homework you can before you consider this school. There are some other charter schools in the area if that is what you want for your child. There is Odeseey, or Palm Bay Charter. Also there is a new elementary school out on south Babcock St. that I heard was very good and up to date with all the electronics for the students, if you live in the district for that school. The name of the school is Sunshine Elementary. Palm Bay Community Charter school had lost about a third of there student body and teachers by the Christmas Holiday. I know that new schools have issues but if it had a decent principal with some compasion for kids it might not be so bad. Also what is MOMs club.

We had one excellent teacher out of many. Some were ok. Problem was the good teacher's hands were tied by school policies and paperwork to do even the job they would desire to. The school in general was a mess. My 4th grader had 4 teachers in one semester. Most of my 6th graders original teachers left by 2nd semester. I was on the PTO and saw a lot of things others did not. I absolutely would not recommend the school. Many things they advertise are false. For example, Individual Learning Plans. Non-existant. Low teacher student ratio??? 25 kids in 1st grade and up is low??? Not around here it isn't. Pt Malabar, an A school, 6 yrs in a row, has 18-20 average per class. Over 30% of the students and teachers had left by end of 1st Sem. The school could be great but is being run by mainly one person, the Principal, and her side kick, the Pres of the PTO who seems more concerned with the Principal's requests than the by-laws which the entire PTO board voted on. The PTO is being run by the Principal who is not actually a member. All other PTO members will not speak up about this, at least not when I was there.

It is also obvious that the school is more interested in making money than educating children. The principal wanted at least one fundraiser per month there. We were told our only function as the PTO was to raise money for "her". She pretty much decided how to spend it all too. The teachers were told "This is a business and must be treated as such, our primary goal is to make money."

If your child needs any extra help, you will be paying for tutoring, as no before or after school help is offered. I don't believe parents should pay for extra reading, math, or FCAT help, when the school stands to receive the bonus check of up to $100,000 if they make it to "A" school.

Also, don't expect to see anymore playground equip there. The school property ends at the fence on the east side. When the skate park is built, there will not be anywhere for PE to take place. I don't see how a skate park will benefit the school, but that is owned by the City.

See I feel the opposite. I have had my daughter there since day 1 and I LOVE it. Her teachers are all great, the work with me on things and are always in communication with me on there progress. So not all is bad there for everyone.