The Riley

I am the parent of 2 BHS graduates who were accepted into UNC and NC State, the 2 largest schools and both prestigious regionally and nationally. These schools accept < 20% of applicants. Their experience at a larger school on a block schedule similar to college courses readied them for college. They both took a variety of AP classes, and their friends in the IB program did well and were admitted to top-flight schools as well. Broughton is a real community, with families across the socio-economic spectrum, and recognizes students across all abilities with the prominent Caps on a Roll program. I found the teachers to be professional, engaging with parents, and supportive of students without hand-holding them.

This school has been terrible for my kids. There is no warmth or caring here. The principal is ex military and she runs the school like a jail. No bathroom breaks, no lockers, assigned seats in every class and lunch, no chance to make friends. There is no trust in the kids, the administration takes joy in metering out punishment constantly but there are zero opportunities for positive reinforcement. The school dance was a joke, announced one week prior, 3-5, no dress up, my kid got in trouble for starting a Congo line, my other kid for making a hat out of paper towels. Minority kids are targeted especially. We know of multiple families whose children have been suspended over ridiculously small infractions. Yet the country club kids get away with constant bullying and girls wearing extremely inappropriate clothing. The teachers are fine. The administration is horrific. From the first time walking into the school we were met with a bad attitude, distrust, and defensiveness anytime we have come to ask for help. 6th graders are expected to function like adults on day one. Between the miserable administrators and the country club popular kids it makes for an overall stressful, extremely negative environment and my well-behaved kids have been very unhappy. We will not send our younger kids here, we will go with a magnet option instead.

We are new to the area, and our daughter is going to PGES from another zone (the other school is capped). We had no idea what to expect given the not-great ratings, but we have overall been very happy with the school (and the ratings make absolutely no sense to us whatsoever!). Our daughter seeks challenge in school, and her teachers have been great about doing the best they can to help get her there, answer our questions, etc. (Having any support for GT/AIG is new to us, as the district we were in before in another state had zero support for teachers or parents/students in that situation.) The principal is very nice and supportive. Our daughter's teacher has been very kind and helpful in working both with our daughter and with us. My only substantial concern is that there seems to be far too much food-oriented rewarding at the school, which is not universal in the district, but too common from what I have gathered (it's the same for our son's middle school). This is complicated and concerning if there are health or behavioral concerns around food for some children, as we deal with, particularly with no school nurse on the grounds the vast majority of the time (that is a state/district issue). That said, the school is good about working with us when food presents a challenge in school. Overall, we have been as happy in most ways, and in some ways happier, with PGES as we were with our kids' former school (rated an 8). It's been a very good experience overall.