Treetops International School

I love this school. I have 3 children here, 3 very different children. This past year, they have received a stellar education, but more importantly, they have been loved. We will be back in the fall, on this wooded campus, to be part of the treetops family. Where can you go to school where everyone knows you, and your family, and cares, and supports you in the parenting quest you have embarked on? The teachers actively seek to know your child and seek ways to teach them effectively. This school is not in a rut, like so many. Teachers are happy here, as are the administration. There are some sacrifices, like no transportation or hot lunches. There are a some after school activities. All and all, 5 stars. I trust them with my family, and it has been well deserved.

As being the only review, I guess I’ll give a skellington review, and touch on a basic info on the school, as well as a couple tid-​bits that I guess I had missed when being told about school here when taking the tour, that might be useful for parents deciding on whether or not they want their children to go here.
Treetop school is a charter school for K-​12 a student that is «tuition-​free» in the fact that the tax money that would have gone to your original ISD follows your child here. They are one of the few independently run charters in the area … meaning that it’s not owned by a parent company that also owns various different private schools or day cares, or what have you. So they are very much a charter school in the truest of fashions. Which I like because I know it’s not a money making endeavor, it’s about offering a different form or choice in schooling.
They very much promote a community feel to the way the approach things. Each grade does a community field trip, like my daughter’s class is going to donate items to the animal shelter & tour a fire stations & library. They participate in an adopt a highway area that older students, staff and parents work. As fair warning they ask/​require 60 volunteer hours per family per year. They want you involved in what’s going on with your children in their school. Before you jaw drop, it’s honestly really easy to get your hours if you’re willing to communicate with your teachers or office staff about how to earn your hours with work schedules. Honestly I’ve found most of it is things that I would be doing anyway. Like you can get credit for being a parent chaperone for field trips, for bringing in & buying items for holiday parties & activities, or things for the classroom that you would do at a regular public school. As well as you can earn time helping the teachers out by cutting things out for them, donating items to the classrooms, coming help clean & set up for parties, and if your able or willing come teach the kids a new skill, language, that you know how to do! (Which I mean come on, no matter where your kids go, help your children’s teachers out … we all know most of them work for way to little & invest a lot of their own pay into things needed to do their jobs!)
Enrolment is, go in and apply. For at least kindergarten it is a raffle system. Beyond that I think they have waiting list for the older grades, but I’m not 100% sure what goes into that part. I know most of the students are once they are in, usually only leave if they are moving or a random change in situation. As full discloser, I’ve heard that the biggest drop is from elementary to middle school. They have a TON of extracurricular activities like a swim team, theater, academic clubs, etc. They just don’t have the student body for a football, marching band, etc. that a middle or high school that a school with a large number of students can pull off.
I can say that I have very little to complain about so far being my first year as a parent with a child in elementary school. Most of it is small things like the supply list is a little longer than what I’ve seen for public schools, nothing to major, but it was odd seeing printer paper & construction paper on her list knowing that most public schools provide that for their teachers. Yet that very easily can stem from, smaller school, smaller student body, smaller amounts of tax dollars coming in the doors, So supplies & funding needs to come from somewhere. They do really good about fundraising, box tops, getting on the things where if you tie your school to your Kroger or Tom Thumb card or mention your school to target when you check out they will donate a % of your purchase to your school type things.
Over all I can say we can recommend this school … its more about the students than it is about the data & test pushing that a lot of schools have become. If you want to know more message me!