643 Ridgeglen Way
Highlands Ranch, CO 80126

We will give an honest review of our experience and observations over many years. Principal works hard, is approachable and seems to be liked by most parents and employees. Office staff is no longer friendly and can be downright rude on the phone. So maybe don't take it personally. Specials offered are nice but there are too many. Kids don't get enough time in each to learn much in any one subject. Phys Ed is really lacking. If you want your kids to learn sports, rules and test basic physical aptitude it won't happen at school. Good social emotional lessons. Very good school counselor but sadly she quit. Academics are okay. Northridge is one of only a few in the district with the discovery GT program. Teachers and parents call it a school within a school. It helps Northridge with high testing scores it receives every year. The school also spends weeks teaching to the standardized tests and putting kids under pressure to perform leading up to the test. Maybe that is standard at all public schools? Discovery program at the school is not good for students who learn too early they are not special or good enough or smart enough to be included in discovery. We have even seen the rest of the students referred to as "non-discovery". There are a lot of cliquey parents associated with the discovery program depending on the year who can make other families feel excluded or as if their children are less than. Other school districts manage and integrate GT programming better and more compassionately. Really high turnover rate with students and teachers. A few great teachers. Too many teachers and support people who are really burnt out and negative who need a new challenge, grade to teach or career change before it affects too many more kids. Being able to connect to your child's classroom and teacher is inconsistent and mostly lacking. A few teachers request classroom volunteers. Majority in each grade do not welcome any help or any parent presence. This is uncomfortable and has concerned us for many reasons. The school building is old. They fix and update some things but the age and too many students crammed in to the old building takes away from their learning experience. This has improved somewhat with fewer and fewer students every year. Still too many kids for the building. Overall Northridge gets a C from us as a public school in Douglas County in 2023.

The experience at this school was disappointing. If you have a child with disabilities or health challenges, the staff will treat them poorly. The PE teacher would send my child that was using a wheelchair to the office for PE instead of trying to include them. Staff would tell my student to find all assignments on their websites if they missed a day. There was never anything on their websites. None of the staff would adhere to IEP accommodations. We moved to a much better school since fighting these people was worthless. No wonder DCSD continues to get sued for their treatment of special needs students. The staff at MRMS just didn't care. Plus, the parking lot was designed by a sadist. Drop off and pickup is a huge mess.

Good club, skilled teacher, lots of Ap subject, satisfied with my child readiness school proving for collage.