1285 La Cumbre Rd
Hillsborough, CA 94010

Top notch educational experience with great teachers, with 1-2 exceptions

Academics are inconsistent due to teacher leaves / turnover or ineffectiveness / lack of accountability. Luckily parents have the time and resources to commit to after school enrichment programs or tutors to ensure their children learn the fundamentals. As a result, overall test scores look good but often the students at or exceeding benchmark are in after school programs. So, be cautious about North’s celebration of the test scores and, if you send your kids to North, you should consider Kumon, Russian Math, etc. While I can cite these academic gaps at North, I’m not sure there are better options in the education system right now — at least amongst public schools. Where I think North truly falls short — even amongst public schools I’ve encountered— is as it relates to bullying; bullying is not addressed effectively at North. The discipline framework is applied inconsistently, which results in kids / families being treated inequitably. And where issues concerning a couple troubling students get addressed by admonishing a group, which doesn’t stop the individual behavior and confuses / punishes students who actually play a productive role. As a result, this dynamic creates toxic stress and challenges for many kids. For example, a student may want to play alone because of the bullying…that kids will get called out for having social issues. It’s traumatic for kids and parents. To that end, I do think that the North environment is harmful to the wellbeing of many kids. It’s not to say that there isn’t action about bullying — there definitely is — it’s just ineffective, exacerbates the problem, and leaves kids and families feeling like they don’t matter and, ultimately, it’s not “worth it” to speak up. Therefore, kids / families give up reporting the bullying and, in the absence of reported issues, administrators can claim success. Meanwhile, kids are dealing with anxiety daily due to the bullying.While a parent can solve for the academic gaps at North, it’s much harder to mitigate the impact of uncontrolled bullying. To that end, I would encourage prospective parents to do due diligence on this and evaluate other schools.

My son is finishing his freshman year and loves it. We are blown away by all the AP class options and SMHS is a pathway to any college and their track record proves it. The environment inviting and feels like a family. School spirit is amazing. We have had other kids go to expensive private schools and literally can not find any additional value that we are not getting at SMHS. We are just so happy.