John W Cook Elementary School

I have to be honest, I'm pretty concerned about the health environment at Cook. My biggest red flag is how often kids are out—the chronic absenteeism rate is super high, which usually means stuff is spreading through the classrooms constantly or there just isn't enough support for student wellness. Every time I turn around, there's another bug going around. The building itself feels like it needs a lot of work too; I saw they're renting special deep-cleaning equipment like Kaivacs recently, which makes me wonder how bad the grime got before they decided to do a major scrub. With the student-to-teacher ratios where they are, I don't feel like the staff can really keep an eye on hygiene or notice when a kid is starting to look sick before they've already shared it with the whole grade.

My son goes to Cook Elementary and honestly, it’s a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to the health stuff. I will say the school nurse is really sweet and they’re pretty quick to call you if your kid has a fever or trips on the playground. They’ve been okay about sending home notices when flu or stomach bugs are going around, which I appreciate. But, the building is older, and I wish they’d do a deeper clean during the winter months because it feels like once one kid gets sick, the whole class follows. Also, the playground area could definitely use some better maintenance to keep it safer for the kids at recess.