December 2023 by Ally W
I had the misfortune of attending Northeastern School District as a student, and I am proud to say I am now an adult, and no longer even live in the district.As a whole, the experience at this particular school was odd and overall not positive.My time at Spring Forge wasn't terrible compared to that of the elementary school I attended in the district... but that is for another time.The staff here was not the friendliest. Donna Miller, the lovely "instructional assistant", was the most miserable human being I think I have ever met. Snarky, rude, and had the capacity to scream at an entire cafeteria. Any minor inconvenience would send her into a yelling fit. Being nice was never in her demeanor. I vaguely remember her voice sounding hoarse, presumably from yelling at students on a constant basis. I was scared of her. She would've been better suited for a job that did not involve children, and lord help her kids if she had any. I would pity them.My biggest point of concern, however, was one peculiar, strict rule they had that made no sense. To exit the building at dismissal, all students had to go through the main hallway connecting the classroom area to the front lobby and exit doors. Imagine every student in a school having to be crammed into one hallway.But imagine if you then have staff, usually the very, erm, friendly Donna Miller, as well as a thankfully more tolerable staff member, Michelle Hake, standing in the middle of the hallway.YELLING. EVERY FIVE SECONDS. "OVER TO THE RIGHT!!!"Of a full hallway space, one side was left completely empty, with staff standing in the middle yelling at kids to stay "over to the right", obviously wasting even more hall space. This left enough room for students to have to walk TWO BY TWO, with zero breathing room, through this hallway.I am still curious about the logic behind this. It caused chaos every day. If you tried to walk on the open, convenient, and fully accessible side of the hallway, you were yelled at to "get over to the right". There were even instances where whoever was staffed in the hallway would grab the kids who tried to walk through the open side of the hallway, and forcibly move them into the crowd of students walking two by two through the very narrow passage of the hallway we were allowed to utilize. The very few days that there were not staff stationed in the hallway for the sole purpose of enforcing an absolutely wasteful and barely tolerable rule, everyone was able to utilize the full hallway. There was no pushing, no shoving, and no chaos... duh, because we were not forced to be crammed into 1/3 of the actual width of the hallway.The concern for students' wellbeing was not a priority at this school. The two issues I touched on in this review were the most pressing, but there were definitely other rude staff members who I didn't have to deal with but in passing, such as Lisa Dubbs.I sincerely hope that conditions and staff have improved or will improve here. If it wasn't good ten years ago, it is possible for it to be even worse now.
