5 Madelyn Street
Lisbon, ME 04250

LHS is awful. The students show up to school high or drunk, will vape right in front of you, and are openly racist. I have had kids do drug deals right in front of me. There are probably at least 4 school fights per year, and that doesn’t count the small arguments in the halls. They have little to no emotional/mental support, which was easily seen when a student committed suicide. The most I have seen them do for mental health except for the 1 week of therapy they had available after the loss, is therapy dogs (although I haven’t seen any recently). The guidance counselors seem only qualified for guidance, and not counseling, as they can rarely assist students with the proper emotional support they need.Students use their phones in class constantly, and are rarely stopped. Grades above a 2 are celebrated, because students rarely try to get anything near a 3, and the principal seems like he’s only there for the money (i.e. he tends to seem disinterested when spoken to about things that are important to students). I will say, a majority of the teachers do seem to have a love for the subjects they’re teaching, but overall, because of the students, I do NOT feel safe in this High School.

Yeah not great when you have ants in the lunch room.

I have two children who are attending LCS and every bit of their education is an uphill battle. One of my children is significantly ahead of their classmates in terms of academics and is forced to stay in their grade bored with the material because they are learning nothing new. The school is unable to establish any type of “gifted and talented” program due to a lack of staffing due to being one of the lowest paid schools in the area during a time of a national teacher shortage. Some of the teachers choose to teach controversial adult content to students starting in 4th grade rather than anything related to the subjects they were hired to teach. The school and district administration doesn’t address parental concerns regarding the material being taught. Regarding social/emotional support like the above rather than support students development in a positive way, teachers confuse the students with personal subjects they are not trained to teach, informing students they can choose to be “furries”. Special Education: my other child is in special education, by that I mean that they have an IEP, which is where the special education program stops for LCS. The school lacks the special education staff to adequately support the special education needs of its students and the case managers will refuse to include needed supports in an IEP if the school does not have the staffing to support them leaving our most vulnerable students to fend for themselves, in violation of fair education laws.Safety: due to a lack of staffing, violent special education students are placed in traditional classrooms, these students are free to destroy their classmates property, the school property and harm others with no compensation or corrective measures in place and the teachers are expected to handle these students alone.Family engagement is really hit or miss with the teachers, some teachers are fabulous, others seem antisocial and very rarely communicate with parents unless it cannot be avoided. I was very much opposed to school choice before I encountered this school system, now I wish more then anything I could get my children out of here.