Highpoint Forest

We’ve had an outstanding experience at Sarah Smith Elementary. The teachers are caring, engaged, and genuinely invested in helping every child succeed, not just academically but socially and emotionally as well.What stands out most is the sense of community. Parents are incredibly involved, the PTO is active, and there is a real feeling that everyone is working together to make the school even better. Communication has been excellent, and we’ve always felt welcomed and heard.Academically, we’ve been very impressed. Our children have been challenged, supported, and encouraged to develop a genuine love of learning. There are great enrichment opportunities, and the school does an excellent job setting high expectations while creating a warm, supportive environment.We’re also excited about where the school is headed. Strong leadership, a fantastic new principal, and the significant investment planned for the campus make it feel like Sarah Smith’s best days are still ahead.No school is perfect, but we would wholeheartedly recommend Sarah Smith to any family looking for an excellent elementary school with dedicated teachers, engaged families, and a community that truly cares.

Great teachers, great STEM learning, great clubs, and wonderful and kind administration.

Coming from the Smith/Sutton cluster we didn’t know what to expect but wow. This is an incredible school focused on each individual child. They quickly identified my child’s academic accomplishments and placed her in a class where she could progress even more. The activities, parental involvement along with IB principles are the icing. Dr. Miller is the most hands on principal I have ever seen. The teachers really care. Many of our neighbors skip the private route because of this school.

The staff at this school are great! The students are very racist. My son had issues with racism the entire school year. It is a predominately Hispanic school, them not liking African Americans is new to us. We dislike no one. I did everything throughout the year to get my son switched out of this school, the board did nothing even with doc notes! My son has never had any issues being in school until he came to this one. This was truly heartbreaking newly moving to this town, and having to deal with this everyday. It was my mistake even moving to this zone not knowing you can’t do anything about it. But this was also my learning experience moving forward in life. Staff done some things to end what was going on, but what honestly can be done when it’s the upbringing of the kids in attendance.

I went to Galloway from K–12, so this comes from a very long firsthand experience. There are definitely positives: it is a kind, supportive environment, the teachers generally care, and the school does a good job making students feel seen as individuals. I understand why a lot of Buckhead families are drawn to it.That said, looking back as an adult, I do not feel like it prepared me especially well for real life. There was a lot of emphasis on “be your best self,” which sounds good on paper, but in my experience there was less emphasis on discipline, toughness, accountability, and the kind of academic rigor that actually helps once you leave a protected school environment. It helped get me into Alabama, but I was not especially well prepared once I got there, and that became obvious pretty quickly.Now I work in residential real estate, and while I do fine, it is not exactly the kind of challenging or deeply fulfilling professional path I once thought a school like Galloway was preparing me for. It is a very relationship-driven job with long hours, and if I am being honest, a lot of where I landed had more to do with family connections than with any real edge the school gave me. That is the part I think prospective families should think about. Galloway was good at making students feel comfortable and affirmed. I am less convinced it was good at pushing them hard enough to thrive on their own later.