1032 Bennett St
Westhope, ND 58318

The administration in this school is ineffective and incompetent. The words "grossly negligent" come to mind. They do not deal with bullying. There are no classes for gifted/talented students, just as there is nearly no support for those with special needs. The staff are undertrained and underpaid. It's a pity because the town itself is lovely and it is one of the nicest geographic spots in North Dakota. Bottineau will never live up to its potential and will keep losing its population because the school system is staffed with mediocrity and laziness.

This school does have quite a few decent qualities, however, there are more negatives than positives in this school. While you may get a decent education with quite a few of the courses (mainly in the fields of math, science, and history) you are likely to find massive problems with other areas of the school. The first of these core fundamental problems is their treatment of special needs kids, especially with some examples of at least one staff member actually bullying them and treating them as lesser beings or "inconveniences". The second one is the problem with the rules and their enforcement. There is a massive amount of inconsistencies within the school as well. One of the core problems being the dress code and its enforcement. Though it specifically states in the student handbook that there are no extremely short shorts allowed or low cut tops a majority of students wear these and only a few are ever punished. This is only made worse by the fact that only certain teachers only seem to enforce it, much to the dismay of the principal's statement of how they would all do their part to enforce it. Another problem with the dress code seems to be with special events. The school regularly has things like "Dress-Up Days" where students can dress up in costumes based on the day's theme. However, it appears some teachers do not get the memo as on these days most of the staff will be fine with these costumes. However, some have been known to become very hostile if one of these costumes has a hat as a part of it. Hats have always been a part of a mock holy war within the school as the principal is very fanatical about hats not being worn inside (except for on days where you dress up, of course in which he is fine with that). While that is perfectly acceptable some teachers will become very aggressive towards you for wearing a hat in school on these dress-up days. So, in essence there needs to be consistency on that aspect of the school ruling because when it comes to a lot of these "school rules" there are too many mixed messages for a student to possibly understand what is acceptable. This can also transfer over into the class as well. As there are some teachers who love to have discussions with their students and small debates where in others your grade can actually suffer for questioning a teacher. So, in the end, do not go to this school.