Durkin Park Elementary School

I've been pretty frustrated with the situation at Durkin Park honestly. The chronic absenteeism rate is way too high—last I checked it was over 25%—and you can really feel it in the classrooms. When so many kids are out, everything feels chaotic and it's hard for the teachers to keep any kind of routine. My biggest gripe is the communication; it feels like bugs are going around constantly and we get very little heads-up from the office. Plus, with the student-to-teacher ratio being what it is, I don't think the staff has the bandwidth to really monitor if kids are washing their hands or if the desks are actually being wiped down. It definitely doesn't feel like the cleanest or most organized environment for the kids right now.

My kids have been at Durkin Park for a couple years now and honestly, the health side of things is pretty solid for a CPS school. Whenever there’s a stomach bug or a flu breakout going around the Ashburn area, the office is usually quick to send out an email or a notification so we can keep an eye out. The classrooms look clean and I always see the janitorial staff working hard, but you know how it is with elementary kids—they still manage to bring home every sniffle. My only minor gripe is that the nurse is only there on certain days, so if someone gets a scrape or feels sick on an 'off' day, it’s just the front office staff handling it. Overall though, they take the sick-child policy seriously and don't rush kids back too early, which I appreciate.