Joseph Jungman Elementary School

I really want to love Jungman because the STEM program is cool, but the health situation is stressful for parents. The school is struggling with a chronic absenteeism rate around 19%, which makes me worried about how much illness is actually circulating in the classrooms and if the kids are falling behind. The building itself is pretty old, and you can definitely feel it—the ventilation isn't great, and it often feels like once one kid gets a sniffle, the whole grade has it within a week. While the teachers are super dedicated and try to keep things clean, the high student-teacher ratio makes it hard for them to really monitor if everyone is washing their hands or following sick policies. It feels like the school is doing its best with limited resources, but the attendance issues are a huge red flag for the overall wellness environment.

To be honest, I’ve been pretty frustrated with the health situation at Jungman lately. The chronic absenteeism feels like a huge red flag—it’s over 35%, which really makes you wonder what's going on with the kids' health or if anyone is even tracking why so many are out. My child has come home sick more times this year than ever before, and I don't feel like the communication about what's going around is very clear. Between the high absence rates and the school being under-resourced, it feels like wellness isn't really the priority right now. I also noticed some maintenance issues in the board reports about broken equipment and repairs, which makes me worry about the overall cleanliness and keep-up of the building. It’s hard to feel great about the environment when it feels like a constant revolving door of illness.