Haman Elementary School

How is possible that I haven’t Unilocaled my Son’s school yet?!
Let me give you the lowdown…
My son has been attending Haman since Kindergarten, we left briefly in the 2^nd grade — very beginning for about a month and a half to attend Washington Open — long story short it didn’t work out for us and we came back. YES, we left the Holy Grail of schools and came back to Haman. Why you ask? The Teachers, the curriculum and the kids.
*Disclaimer: I only mention WO in my review because it’s the only other school I have first hand experience with, so I use it in my review of Haman as a point of reference. I don’t want to give the impression that it’s not a good school, it’s a GREAT school — just wasn’t for us.
The good…
We’ve been blessed to have the BEST Teachers every year we’ve been at Haman. They’ve all had just the right ratio of Love to Discipline. They truly care about my kiddo and often went above and beyond to make sure my son was learning, but also not bored — He’s a whiz with numbers and was often accommodated with more advanced work.
One of the surprises we experienced at WO was the fact they didn’t emphasize or have a dedicated computer lab. My son LOVES his computer lab days and it’s helped him IMMENSELY with his math skills. He was more than bummed to find out that it was not on the radar at WO. No, the computers at Haman are not the latest and the greatest, but they are more than sufficient and they offer the programs he loves to use. The great thing is, that these same programs are accessible at home as well with his school login so I don’t feel so guilty letting him play on the computer for long periods of time (Anything to get his mind off of Minecraft, It’s like crack I tell ya!)
They have a good mix of kids and backgrounds at the school, and for the most part everyone is friendly. Like all schools you’re going to have some bad eggs, but as a whole I find the kids to be cool peeps. I hate to turn this into a this school versus that school but I do want to point out another difference I noticed in our brief time at WO. This may seem inconsequential to some, but I noticed the girls tended to play with just the girls and the boys just the boys. I found this odd coming from Haman where they boys and girls played freely and happily together. I’m not really sure what to make of that, but it did strike me as odd — I expect that in the older grades when hormones start raging and boys and girls suddenly come down with bad cases of «cooties», but not so much with the young-​ins.
The Principal situation seems to have calmed down. We’ve had 3 in the past 4 years. Nothing nefarious going on, 1 retired and 1 accepted a better position with the County. The last one Ms. Wakefield seems to be doing a good job. From what I understand she has been well received by the other Teachers. I do like the fact that she was previously a Teacher at Haman so she has a better understanding of the wants and needs of the school. She doesn’t seem as approachable as the previous Principals, but maybe it’s me just picking up weird vibes.
Now the not so good…
Money, Money, Money or a lack-​of to be more accurate. This is a problem that MOST schools seem to have and it shows in the lack of field trips, outside play equipment, after school activities, the arts etc. The PTA tries desperately to raise money by various functions which leads me into my next complaint in regards to the school.
Little to NO parent involvement besides the usual suspects of the PTA! Look, I get it. This is a working class kinda school. Most kids here have at least 1, but often times BOTH parents working full time, but come on I know more can be done! The PTA even goes out of their way trying to hold events on off times, the weekend etc to get more families out and participating in these school functions. You don’t have to donate money, not even really volunteer time if you can’t make it, but come out to the festivals and the bake sale, flea markets etc and bring your kids. The kids love it and they take pride in their school when they are actively involved in not only the hard work of class work, but the fun stuff too. I volunteer quite a bit, mostly in my Son’s class, but even I know I could be doing more. I will say though it seems like every year it does get a little better so at least it’s trending in the right direction!
To sum it up, I love Haman, my Kiddo loves Haman and more parent participation could turn this school from a really good school to a really great school.

My son is in his second year of school here. He had a great year in kindergarten but our first grade experience hasn’t been as great. Their class sizes are small but there isn’t really the chance to move classrooms and his teacher is easy to work with. Their after school YMCA program is really awesome though!