Clover Ridge Elementary School

The school is great academically, however the environment the so called "booster club" creates is unbearable. They give you this whole speech about how inner city schools do bad and get more money, while Clover does great and gets no funding. However, no numbers or proof is provided to support this claims. This story they've created leads to the booster club demanding hundreds of dollars to be "donated" per child. How do they demand this money? By keeping track of who donates and how much they give, and harass and shame publicly those who do not meet the ideal $600 donation. I personally had my kid's teacher tell him in front of the class that his parents hadn't donated and because of him the class wasn't going to have an ice cream party. My kindergartener came home sad and crying because of this and I had to explain him that we couldn't afford to give money to the school (this is after we bought the required and optional supplies at the beginning of the year, bought a Clover shirt, volunteered for a couple of events, and paid for field trips out of our pocket- not enough, apparently!). Another parent was confronted by her kid's teacher during open house, telling her in front of everyone to just give a couple of hundred dollars already. The meetings and speeches by the booster club are all about money and very condescending. Yes, this might be a middle class neighborhood but a good percentage of the school qualifies for free lunches. This is a public school, after all, something the booster club parents tend to forget. The way they conduct their donation drive is senseless, and the fact that the teachers and principal support and help this charade just makes it worse. I would happily donate money or my time if the environment at the school was better. But there is a clear division between those who have money and are welcome, and those who don't.