1135 Madison Ave
Winston Salem, NC 27103

Bolton is the local school for the Ardmore/Hawthorne community which is primarily comprised of middle-class homes with college educated parents. However, 99% of students come from low-income families—it’s right here on great schools. That is because Ardmore families do not send their children to Bolton. There are six families on my block with young elementary kids and now that I have withdrawn my child...zero attend Bolton. It's private school or home school. Bolton buses children in from across the city for diversity in a huge gerrymandered school zone that doesn’t serve anyone properly.The culture is not conducive to learning and is focused on discipline, procedure, and lots of worksheets. Our daughter was here less that 4 months and we had two incidents of her having to defend herself from pushing and touching her clothes by little boys. We also had to opt-out of homework because our kindergartener was given assignments to complete over the course of a month. You get to choose the assignments, but kindergarteners should NOT have homework.The school looks like the just one I attended for elementary 30 years ago, it’s very old and run down except for large tv’s in every classroom. It did always appear clean though. They use an app called Classdojo to communicate with you, but you have to send written letters to them about everything even with phone calls and app messages. They tell you not to send your child with any sickness whatsoever, yet badger you about an absence. There is no accountability, everything is blamed on their "Systems" and "Procedures."You’re treated as if you should be grateful, you as a parent ,are allowed a modicum of inclusion in your child’s education. We’re completely done with public school and WSFCS in general halfway through Kindergarten due our experience here.If you parent intentionally, please consider other options before sending your child here.

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the worst experience ever we've been doing this for 3 months no at home and we talked to a teacher once who have been to be social studies teacher and we've never talked to her since my daughter's been looking at a computer and learning on her own and failing and nobody does anything about it she has disabilities and I had a fight to get an IRA IEP review after the hospital even thought it was a good idea spend the worst school meadowlark was meadowlark Middle

I taught at this school for many years and have nothing but positive things to say about the students, parents, and staff members. I am filled with pride when I think about my time at the school and miss teaching there very much. The students are challenged academically and held to high standards, but they generally rise to and exceed these standards. The college professors in particular will hold the kids to account, and it shows in their development both as students and individuals. If you want your child to develop a strong work ethic, feel supported by both their peers and teachers, and grow into thoughtful, respectful, and diligent individuals, send them to this school!Please be mindful that this school is not for everyone. Students will be enrolled in college courses immediately and this has proven to be difficult for some individuals. The school also does not offer after-school sports (students can still participate, just at their neighborhood school), however there is an abundance of clubs on various days that almost all students participate in. Parents also need to understand that micromanaging their students' coursework is a no-go here. College professors sometimes outright refuse to speak with parents as they only communicate with the students themselves. Don't be turned off by this - it simply encourages the students to learn how to speak to their professors when they need help (questions, extensions, etc). In my opinion, this is one of the most important life skills that is taught at the school. That being said, parents are still a HUGE part of the Early College family and are encouraged to volunteer whenever possible. The school provides ample opportunities for families to get involved and participate in their kids' high school experience. I truly loved my experience here. I am so proud of my students and I had so much fun watching them develop into incredible, thoughtful, intelligent, and creative individuals.

We are typically a homeschool family but my daughter wanted to try middle school out for the social aspect and is now terrified to go back to any school. I knew the public school system had gotten worse but I never would have guessed it was this bad. I’ve told friends about the experience we had at this school and they are mortified. Back to homeschool for us. She made friends with one amazing girl at school who ended up being pulled out during the middle of the year because her parents had it with this school. The art teacher here is amazing which is what she wants for her career path but, being terrified every day if my daughter is going to make it home alive isn’t worth it. Guns, bullets, weapons, drugs, vape pens, pepper spray, teachers & students with questionable TikTok accounts, teachers giving out their personal info to students, fights every day, and teachers being suspended if they protect themselves or another student in a fight. NO THANK YOU. No amount of education is worth this amount of terror. Luckily I’m a stay at home mom with an education that is able to homeschool. I feel immensely for every parent and student that has no choice but to attend this school. We are both so relieved she doesn’t have to go back there. I saw my daughter change so fast once she started this school and now she’s back to being her happy motivated self. While she was here she was depressed, forlorn, stressed and anxious. I forgot to even mention the buses, that’s an even worse situation and they had to keep going through drivers last year & don’t have enough drivers this year. Students will also airdrop inappropriate pictures if they have an iPhone. This school is H-E-double-hockey-sticks.