Fernwood Elementary School

Honestly, I’m pretty frustrated with the health situation at Fernwood lately. It feels like since the school transitioned to a consolidated line unit, things have just gotten more chaotic in the hallways and the nurse's office. The chronic absenteeism rate is hovering around 30%, which is a huge red flag—it feels like half the class is out sick every other week and the school isn't really doing much to address why everyone is catching everything. Communication about outbreaks or even basic wellness updates is basically non-existent. My kid comes home talking about how the bathrooms are frequently out of soap or just generally messy. While they do some cute community events like the June jamboree, the day-to-day cleanliness and focus on actual student health feel like they've taken a back seat to administrative changes. If your kid has asthma or any health needs, you really have to stay on them because I don't feel like the school is proactive at all.

Fernwood is okay, but I wish the communication about bugs going around was a little faster. My daughter’s classroom usually looks pretty clean, but it feels like whenever one kid gets a stomach flu, the whole grade has it by Friday. The school nurse is super sweet though and always calls me right away if there’s a scraped knee or a fever, which I really appreciate. I just think they could be a bit stricter about the policy of keeping sick kids home until they’re 24-hour symptom-free, because sometimes it feels like a bit of a revolving door for colds.