Henry R Clissold Elementary School

To be honest, I'm pretty concerned about the state of the building at Clissold lately. My kid mentioned some weird smells in the hallway, and I recently saw reports about leaking valves and plumbing issues that haven't been fully addressed. It makes me wonder about the air quality and mold, especially in an older building like this. On top of the maintenance red flags, the chronic absenteeism rate is around 18-20%, which is super high—it feels like there's always a bug going around and the school isn't doing much to get it under control or keep things sanitized. For a school that boasts about IB and Montessori, they really need to get the basic health and safety stuff together. Hard to focus on a high-level curriculum when you're worried about the actual environment your kid is sitting in all day.

Honestly, Clissold has been pretty solid since my kid started in the Montessori program. The classrooms always seem really clean and they definitely don't mess around with the sick-child policy—if a kid has a fever, they’re going home, which keeps the seasonal bugs from spreading too fast. Communicating about local flu spikes or stuff going around the IB grades is usually pretty quick too. My only minor gripe is that the nurse is only there part-time for the whole school, so it can be a bit of a wait for minor scratches or meds, but overall, it feels like a healthy environment for the kids.