211 E 18th St
Richmond, VA 23224

Current student here, this place is a horrid place to send your child. First of all, four of my teachers have left due to the conditions at the school. These conditions are terrible, and here's why:1: The leadership is terrible, principal, and especially the assistant principal love to boss around the students for no reason. The assistant principal will randomly stop kids from leaving the school when it's time to leave for absolutely no reason. Another time was when he yelled at everyone in the lunch room to be quiet, called on one random kid who wasn't doing anything wrong, and ordered him to sit at a different table away from his friend. This is clearly a horrible overstep of their power.2: The school building itself is genuinley falling apart, there are floor tiles that are completely broken, the roof is sometimes leaking, bugs have infested classrooms on multible occasions, there is a notorious rat infestation, and on top of that, the bathrooms almost never work. There are tons of sinks that are broken, 50% of the time the soap is not even there, and they know this because we have told the people at the office about this, yet they decide to do absolutely nothing.3: The excuse they give when we ask them if they can fix up the school is "oh, we don't have any money." They very obviously do though, however. They bought over 400+ Yondr Pouches (Pouches designed to keep our phones locked up during the school day) and we calculated that all 400+ Yondr Pouches are worth over 10K. The Yondr Pouches themselves are a bad idea, but I don't want to go offtopic in this.4: The school is very unsafe, as there are usually multible fights per week, students are jumped regularly (I've heard about a student being jumped twice in the time span of a month.) The measures they have put in place are inadequate to combat this issue. It is better than it was last year, but it's still an extreme issue. 5: Most of the teachers are great people, and a lot of them try very hard to teach us, but there are some that barely try, or even make it harder to learn in the classroom. One of the teachers litteraly just assigns us stuff that we have barely been taught about while watching instagram reels in the corner, one of them threatened to decapitate a kid a few years back, and one that we currently have calls the school security team on kids for the smallest reasons.In short, do NOT send your kid to this school. You will regret it, I have barely learned anything.

The staff is there for a paycheck...

I attended OHS from 1998-2002. As an alum of Open High School, I can proudly say that I grew into a lifelong learner and thinker because of the independence and quality of education provided by the teachers and staff of Open High. The small knit community and class sizes allow teachers and students to get consistent feedback as well as growth in different subject areas and personal matters. Teachers act more as mentors as they guide students through the knowledge. Self study and curiosity are encouraged and welcomed. I do not recall an emphasis on SOLs but I recall passing them all every year. Students who graduate from Open High School tend to be great additions to society. Most attend and graduate from a university with advanced degrees. The class of 2002 alumni mostly have Masters degrees and Doctoral degrees in their perspective fields. Most of us are still friends 18+ years later.Open High School is a TOP school within Richmond Public Schools.

As parents, this is the best decision that we could have made. We came from a private school in the first 9 years to move into the public school system where in Richmond is not highly regarded. But this school is the crown jewel of RPS. The quality of the teachers, counselors, students and administrators has been nothing less than spectacular. The challenge given by the teachers and administrators to the students could be overwhelming at first, but the way that the challenge is nurtured leads to a complete graduate that is ready for college. Students that come back to RCHS after a year or two of college credit the years spent here as the building blocks of seamless transmission to higher education. It is really a hidden gem in RPS.

Armstrong High School is full of caring teachers and students who are willing and want to learn, unfortunately, there are always a few students, who make it bad, for the school as a whole. What would really make the school better, is to just put the kids who are disrespectful, violent and ignorant beyond measure out! Stop tolerating their foolishness, so the teachers can teach, and the students can learn. It is time to make the students and parents more accountable, and stop putting the total blame on teachers. As a parent, I have been inside Armstrong and seen teachers go the extra mile, with their time, patience and their money, to help the students. Armstrong isn't a perfect school, but it has the potential to be a great school, with the right support from the parents, students and the community.

Amazing School. Teachers are amazing and so nice. The students there are so kind and smart also.