14718 Young Road
Healdsburg, CA 95448

With my child's 6th grade year coming to an end, I'd say overall we are very happy with WMS. I think it's an excellent standard of academics, most teachers are very engaged and supportive (not all, keep reading), the sports program was great with amazing coaches. 6th grade doesn't have that many elective options, but my student and I are very excited for 7th grade electives. I wouldn't say that the absolute 'no violence' policy is logical, as it means a child cannot protect themselves without receiving the same punishment for self-defense as the student who made the initial violent act. When this came up for both my student and a friends student, the recommendation was to go get an adult. That makes zero sense if you're already in an altercation. For my student this was a very minor aspect of their year. Ms. Gonzales, ELA and History teacher, was truly a menace and caused so much anxiety and frustration for my school-loving child. They've never wanted to miss school until encountering Ms. Gonzales, who by all accounts seems to truly dislike children. She struggles with technology, but won't acknowledge her mistakes and tells the children to just figure it out. She'll change assignment parameters last minute, leave out information, etc and then criticize the children for not having all the information, but they aren't allowed to ask her questions she says she's already answered. She receives door dashes in class, cooks in her air fryer and eats during class time, and is known to have a bad day if she runs out of her cold foam creamer spray can. She also will mock children by name in other periods, or in their own period when they aren't around. The one time I reached out to her directly about something I was sure my student was misunderstanding, her response to me was so defensive and angry about the whole class's performance on the assignment and didn't even address my actual question, that I didn't follow up again for fear of retaliation against my child. By contrast, my student had an elective rotation with Ms. Mulligan who seems so organized, caring, supportive and kind. I wish my student could have experienced her first year at WMS in her environment.

HHS offers a solid traditional high school education, especially focused towards students who are not university bound. It's great for career and JC focused students but it doesn't offer enough challenging and honor based programs (besides obsolete AP requirements) for the students that want to stretch and thrive. Generally HHS is catering to the median, and it breeds a culture of mediocrity and malaise where some of our more accelerated students yearn for enthusiasm, passion, risk and challenge.

The principal is very engaged with the student body. He makes it a priority to get to know the children and their interests.Our children love to go to school where they are learning from educators who really believe in them and help them to understand what they are capable of achieving.We are extremely satisfied with our experience at Alexander Valley.