10380 E Cholla St
Scottsdale, AZ 85260

Overall, we have been very happy with the school. My daughter is in the Mandarin immersion program. Although both the 6th and 7th grade Mandarin immersion teachers are new, based on the assignments and projects, I can tell they are very invested in the students. There are some complaints by other parents not in the immersion program that the immersion students only have 2 periods a day. They have to create a BRAND NEW program, where there are no materials to "borrow" from, unlike other traditional subjects like math, ELA. I can see that these teachers work incredibly hard and my daughter is learning a lot. 6th grade math and social studies are also phenomenal. 6th ELA is dismal--the teacher often leaves the classroom to have coffee during class time. He didn't really teach either, and just have students copy notes from the online text book. He frequently loses students' homework and penalize the students for it for turning it in late (when he eventually discovered the submitted homework). I hope he gets replaced soon. Other than that, the school itself is wonderful. However, the entire school community is very disappointed with the district for not replacing our principal, but only hiring for an interim principal for 1 year. The new assistant principal is also only for 11 months. DCMS is a high performing school. Why the district chose to cut resources from a great school is beyond me. Whoever principal and assistant principal they hire will not be expected to be of quality. Why would a highly qualified educator apply for a temporary position?

Very little school spirit or sense of community. In other areas Homecoming is a time where people come together, they kids here barely care, there isn't a reason to care. The layout of the school is like an airport, long hallways are crowded, strange bathroom tiled walls. Bathrooms are either closed or have students vaping and harassing. Not enough seats for students at lunch. Some decent teachers but overall the good ones stand out because the others are just getting by. The IB program seems fine but many don't make it all 4 years. Crabby music department, competitive sports, overall stressful environment without any fun. Hard to meet people, cliques all around. A lot of Trump flags, big money family parties, drugs, racism, not a lot of diversity. If you are looking for a school with a good balance of education and community, look elsewhere. Feels like a place you just need to get your credit and move on from, no one will look back and miss being in their high school years, just happy to be done.

Great teachers and a wonderful environment for students.

A child at this school told my child they were going to bring a knife to school and stab him in the back. The principal talked to the kids & did nothing more. Also failed to mention to me that the child that initiated the threat (none of this was provoked either). This is a problem waiting to happen.