Thomas J Higgins Elementary Community Academy

To be honest, I’m pretty concerned about the conditions at Higgins lately. I was looking through some of the district board notes and saw they’ve been dealing with basic equipment issues, like vacuums not even working properly, which makes you wonder how deep the cleaning actually goes in the classrooms. With the chronic absenteeism being a huge problem here (it’s way higher than it should be), it feels like the school is constantly fighting an uphill battle with student health and wellness. It’s hard to feel good about the environment when the building maintenance seems to be lagging behind and so many kids are missing school regularly. I want to love our neighborhood school, but they really need more resources to keep the place clean and the kids healthy.

I really want to love Higgins because the teachers try, but the health side of things is a major stressor. The chronic absenteeism rate is super high—like over 30%—and you can really feel it. It seems like kids are constantly out sick, and when they are in class, the rooms are overcrowded because the student-teacher ratio is way too high. It's hard for one person to keep an eye on 25+ kids and make sure they aren't spreading germs or feeling under the weather. Also, the building is older and the ventilation isn't the best, which doesn't help when flu season hits. It just feels like the school is struggling to keep up with basic wellness standards.