1340 MATTIE Street
Saint Augustine, FL 32084

I would rate my experience at this school very well. The teachers are fantastic and so is the staff they are all also very generous.

The treatment I received while picking up my daughters from school today was in acceptable. As an African American father with my custody agreement in hand, I was made to feel as though I were a criminal. Despite having proper documentation, I was left waiting more than 20 minutes while staff contacted the resource deputy to stand by an action that was completely unnecessary, especially given that I remained calm and never raised my voice at any point. While the principal and guidance counselor eventually handled the situation appropriately and helped resolve the issue, the experience leading up to that point was unacceptable. In particular, the woman in the front office seated to the right (when facing the desk) demonstrated inconsiderate and incompetent behavior that escalated the situation rather than helping it.No parent should have to feel profiled or treated with suspicion while simply picking up their children especially when legal custody documents are provided. I hope the school addresses this issue so other families do not go through a similar experience

I have 3 children, 2 are adults and college graduates, 1 attended this school for 9th grade. We have lived all over the US and Europe. I can not even begin to understand how this school is allowed to exist. The school leadership believes that their whole job is protecting bad teachers. It’s alarming how bad some of them are. I love teachers and have several in my family. This school seems like the place they send bad teachers to live out the rest of their days- With a few exceptions (thank god for her honors physical science, art, and history teachers). My student applied to this school to attend an academy that she was actually passionate about. Now she would rather just attend regular high school. That should tell you something. The architecture career academy teacher and the honors geometry teachers were the main problem. One of them likes to answer legitimate questions students have with smart-butt remarks like, “You can’t fix stupid,” or, “Look it up yourself.” He allows racial and homophobic slurs to be used in class and has been overheard using them himself. The geometry teacher doesn’t teach as much as he talks endlessly about the marine corps and how much he loves Trump. The students knew they could get him off topic by bringing up either of those 2 subjects, and they did so regularly to disrupt the class. My student ended up teaching herself geometry on her own time on Khan Academy. Again, the administration doesn’t care. Complaints go unanswered or you get gaslighted. A lot of these bad teachers are tenured so our community will never be rid of them until they retire or die. Is it a coincidence that so many bad teachers end up at this particular school where the county’s most disadvantaged students live, or is it on purpose?This school does not care about safety at all. The parent pick up situation is absurd. You have to leave the roadway and drive in a ditch to stay in line. The front desk staff just lets anyone in like our country doesn’t have a school shooting problem at all. It wasn’t until after the 2nd semester that they sent out an email explaining the new safe entry procedures which were then only sporadically followed. It’s an open campus so kids can come and go- this has been proven to be an unsafe practice time and again.