Garden Acres

After a few years of experience with multiple children, I will be leaving with a bad taste in my mouth. Pros: The administration is great. They are friendly, even though the office is constantly busy. The music teacher is fantastic. She is very good with children. What I have not liked is the overall lack of professionalism and communication from the teachers. In the last few years, I have not received one phone call from any of my children's teachers, even though there have been numerous issues that could have been resolved with a quick phone call. When issues have been brought to my attention, I was very disappointed in the arrogant attitude from the teachers. I heard similar complaints from a relative which makes me feel like it is a school wide problem. There should be a teamwork mentality, not a "I know better than you" mentality. It is unprofessional to blame the parents for every problem happening inside the classroom, instead of problem solving, using school resources, or calling for a parent conference. We are all on the same team.

Avoid this school if possible. I’ve had one struggling learner and one non-struggling learner attend this school. Both had terrible experiences. My daughter with an IEP was not provided services and I was lied to about it. She received zero support from her teachers after several attempts on my side to beg for help. Multiple principal and assistant principals also refused to ensure she learned. My other daughter disliked summit because there are multiple fights a day and it was chaotic. She was humiliated a few times by teachers. The culture is just toxic and low income students are blamed instead of adults taking responsibility.

Highland Park is MCCSC's best kept secret. The teachers and staff are so caring and do a lot to keep families involved. They offer a ton of extracurriculars like robotics club, drama club, gardening club, and even have a nature preserve on school grounds! My kids have had a great experience and are excited to go to school.

Bullying and nothing is done about it. So hurtful and traumatizing that the child has been very badly affected by it. Favorite tism parents involved in the school board or in the school.There are children get the award , sometimes over someone that maybe had more talent or had worked harder. The art teacher didn't have cheers for the students and never returned any of the artwork , except maybe one or two pieces at the end of the year. She would yell at the kids in randomly.Give them a bad grade for the day when they didn't even know what the reason was. She had no communication with the parents. I don't believe she has even gone to calls or gotten a college degree.She's just at high school , went to teaching their possibly. The principal taught the kids from 11 years old and up at the beginning of a school year, telling them about p*** sites and things that they shouldn't go to online giving them actual websites. Children that knew nothing about it.Of course , would then go look these things up and be exposed to things they never were to have even known existed. And a lot of the kids didn't even know what in the world he was talking about , they were so young. Parents were not informed of him having this talk with the students.It was totally inappropriate and it was reported outside the school.Coaches , that would let the other team members exclude someone and not allow them to play in practice or in the game , just totally ignore them.