Lakewood Ranch Prep - Lower - Bradenton, Florida

Patrice M.

We are very very happy with this school! My son is thriving and my daughter will be joining him there next school year and we can’t wait. Yes, it’s a new school so…..for the first few months we were all on a bumpy road together but the teachers and staff have worked endlessly to work out the kinks. Now things are falling into place and things are sailing much more smoothly. We are proud to be part of this special school community.

melvin H.

My grandson signed up for this so called prep school. It is owned by a FOR PROFIT company as a charter school. You and I pay taxes and this privately owned company gets the money. Since it is for profit the owners are motivated to spend the least possible from the public funds they receive. The building constructed is inferior to the local public schools. No playground exists and when it opened it was total chaos. They did not even have any organized method for pickup and my grandson,s father was there for TWO HOURS waiting in line. No public transit or buses and the school is intentionally located in an upper middle class neighborhood to discourage minority or disabled student attendance. Classes were too large and the first two days of teaching were also chaotic. It is likely that the company that owns and runs the school
Will be the sole vendor of goods and services to avoid public audit and disclosure of personal profit. It is my understanding that the principal owner was a good political buddy of former governor Jed Bush and special legislation was lobbied through the state assembly for such charter schools. I find the entire scheme disgusting but it is now the manner in which government funds are expended. You are forced to pay your hard earned money to the government. Then private, religious and for profit politically connected organizations get the funds and profit from your tax money. Fortunately my grandson was able to return to the public school he previously attended and from which he has received a good education for the first three years. The few days he spent at the for profit school were very distressing even though he is mature for his age. All of the tax money paid to that school goes toward his education and there are no politically connected clowns who profit. The only prep my grandson received from the charter school was preparation for our current politically corrupt system of government in my opinion. Would you like to know how much of your tax money went into the pockets of the charter school company? So would I. But it seems that information may be publicly unavailable. I do know that to the extant any amount went into their pockets it was just that much less of the public funds that did not go toward education of your child.

Eric S.

I’ll start by stating how excited we became when we heard about this school being built. We were even more excited to hear about the WISH model and village self-paced classroom environment. Let’s fast forward to the end of the first quarter and two weeks into the second quarter. We are extremely disappointed at the constant lack of communication in a daily/weekly/monthly basis. Everything has been last minute. To get any answers for anything voicemails and emails fall on deaf ears for days on end. One of our children really struggles with Learning and has an SLD. We were promised that the village is self paced and she will learn at her own pace along with her classmates. Well that hasn’t happened and she is struggling more now than ever before.

DONT LET THEM TRY TO SELL YOU ON THE VILLAGE CONCEPT! ITS NOT WORKING AND NEVER HAS!

Next, this for profit school is continuously begging and on a daily/weekly basis for “supplies” I don’t mind donating but you can’t keep going to the same well day in and day out. Eventually it too will run dry.

Also, Each family is expected to volunteer for a minimum of 20 hours per year and another 10 hours per sibling there after. If you cannot fulfill those hours you can buy your time at $30 per hour. Like all these families has extra $ to dish out or the time to spend on campus volunteering.

Lastly, I know everyone in that building is trying their best but y’all need to pump the breaks in that train and remember what the real focus needs to be! “Students first and always first” let it flow naturally and the rest will follow.

It saddens me to say that today we officially pulled our children out and are moving them back to their previous school. I know I’m not alone and there are many other families about to do the same thing along with many that have already made that move!

Butch O.

I am hoping that most of these issues are growing pains and will be worked out. We were excited about the school and concept, but it is not where it needs to be at this point. I can not have my kids sitting in the holding pattern while it is getting figured out. I will leave it at lack of communication.

Marlee D.

The school is nice. However, pickup was horrible. My parents had to wait 3 hours in the pickup line to get my sister from school.

Renato C.

Wonderful teachers and friendly staff!! You guys ROCK!!!!

Gavin H.

This school is amazing!

Stacy H.