A Review of Northwest Elementary

There are twelve public elementary schools in the Butler area, not including cyber schools. I have been inside four of them, and I have had a personal experience with one of them. I am aiming to write a hopefully thorough review of Northwest Elementary, which is the school in this area that I have spent the most time in and around.

I have graduated, both from Northwest and school in general, but my younger brother is currently starting seventh grade this fall. Therefore, we have had a collective fourteen years between us at Northwest. Most of the teachers have changed since I attended that school; they have either retired or married. However, the principal and secretary are still there, which is somewhat comforting (much like looking in your closet at a shirt that you wore ten years ago, and finding that it still fits).

Northwest contains grades Kindergarten through sixth. There is an average of three classes per grade, with about twenty students per class (give or take a few). The students are mostly middle-class, coming from the suburbs. The school itself is located in a quiet area. To get to it, you drive down a short road lined with houses, surrounded by trees.

Inside the school, there is a security guard who makes sure that you check in at the office to get a visitor's badge. Metal detectors are set up, but rarely used for visitors. The students, however, go through them in the morning before going to their classrooms. There are gates that block off both wings of the school in case of an emergency.

The auditorium is actually a multi-purpose room, also used as a cafeteria and gym. Going past that, there are two different halls to turn down. One leads to the K-3 classrooms, and the other leads to 4-6 grades.

The teachers are fantastic. Both when I went to Northwest and when my brother attended the school, there were hardly any problems with any teachers. Of course, being good students probably helped with that!

Students have their basic curriculum (math, English, spelling, etc) while also having "specials" on each day of the week. Music, art, physical education, computer lab, and library each have their own day of the week for each class to participate in. I should also mention here that Northwest has a very extensive library.

The only gripe that I have with the school is their gifted program. Lawfully, it is not valid. They do not follow proper protocol and sometimes the whole thing can seem like a farce. However, if you are willing to look past that, then Northwest has no major flaws.

Out of all the schools in the area, I highly recommend it for elementary education. Great location, fantastic teachers, and generally mild students make this school exemplary.