Gabriel Ortiz Oasis Middle School Bradenton, Florida Gabe Ortiz Gabriel Ortiz Michael Mercado Oasis Middle School Edna Bailey Rochelle Stokes Oasis Middle School Bradenton, Florida-A Sham of a Middle School Bradenton Florida

Oasis Middle School in Bradenton, Florida is a joke.  The kids sit on out of date broken down computers and tablets that are barely functional.  The school cannot afford to buy updated equipment for the kids, but somehow Assistant Director Gabriel Ortiz manages to take long, extravagant trips overseas, by way of a "grant" Ortiz mysteriously receives, although the source of the funding/grant he receives is never named.  I don't think it's too hard to figure this one out.  

The trips are unrelated to his work at Oasis Middle School as Assistant Director.  A few years back Gabriel Ortiz went all the way to the Globe Theatre in London to study acting, his chosen profession.  In fact the only training and degree(s) that Gabriel Ortiz has are in drama/theatre, or reading, which he teaches.  Gabriel Ortiz happened into teaching later in life when I am guessing Ortiz could not support himself as an actor and realized that it was never going to happen for him.

The big "backstory" around Gabriel Ortiz is that he grew up poor in California to a mother who was a drug addict, most of his brothers and father are in jail, and he and his mother were taken in by his grandmother and a "village of women."  I think that this is a bunch of s**t.  I was also told by the Director of the school, a woman named Rochelle Stokes, grew up poor in Philadelphia in a tiny house with something like 14 people.  However, according to Rochelle Stokes Facebook page she is a graduate of Bayshore High School right in Bradenton, Florida where Oasis Middle School is located.  Hence, I think the stories surrounding Ortiz and Stokes are fabricated, much like that of actors you hear about that lived in their cars and such.

Oasis Middle School cannot keep a teacher and has a turnover rate that is unbelievable.  It would be easier if the kids didn't learn the names of the teachers because the teachers do not stay.

The only teachers who are certified at Oasis Middle Scool are Assistant Directors Gabriel Ortiz (whose only degrees are in drama/theatre) and Rochelle Stokes.  Not even the Director of the School, a woman named Edna Bailey, is certified.  The school uses a "curriculum" called Study Island.  The students sit on barely useable machines and basically teach themselves.

Oasis Middle School changed campuses a few years back and the old campus was infested with bugs.  The cafeteria where the kids ate and had some classes was infested with bugs and little German cockroaches and the school worked very hard to hide this from the district.

The school acts like they are there for the kids, but in reality the people at the school are only there for themselves.  If a parent has a child with special learning needs they might think that Oasis is the place to go, but those parents will be very, very sorry.  The people from the school will say whatever they think people want to hear, but once your kid is in the school, and the school receives funding from the state/county, they will often cut the kids loose.  The school also knows they get extra funds for ESE (Exceptional Student Education) students.  When I worked at Oasis I watched the administrators at the school have kids at the school that they had no intention of keeping, the school just waited long enough to get the funding, then kicked the kids out.

The Director of Oasis Middle School, Edna Bailey, used to say that Oasis Middle School is "not a behavior management school."  However, the majority of students at Oasis Middle School go to the school for exactly this reason.  I visited another local public school recently and even the people who worked at that school noted how "bad" the kids from Oasis Middle School are.

There are a lot of options out there for your children people and you have the option of school choice.  Save yourselves from Oasis Middle School.  You can do much, MUCH better than Oasis Middle School in Bradenton, Florida, but it would be hard to do worse.