279 Pine St
Grand Junction, CO 81503

This is quoted from a review of this school from 2016: "We have been there 4 years, through former and new principals. I have found that kids that are high performing and popular will do fine. You will see the same kids get recognized over and over. There is no support for the average student that starts to struggle. Head in the sand is their motto. Teachers and administration seem overly focused on extreme behavior issues and offer no encouragement for average to below average students that have not acted out. They are quick to let students make decisions (not necessarily a bad thing), but do nothing to hold them accountable or encourage higher performance. Late work is perfectly acceptable (I am sure this helps the school look better) and with the exception of one class there was never repercussion. I have repeatedly asked for help for my student only to get ignored.". Here in 2026, nothing has changed. If your student is self-motivated and driven to succeed, then they will probably do just fine. And the school will have no problem riding on the coattails of that student to make themselves look good. This school has a "student-led" mantra. And if your student is lacking/failing in any way, and you as a parent reach out, you will be met with resistance, made to feel like you're a burden on the admin/staff for even reaching out. You will be called "VERY involved parents" at showing that you actually care about the well-being and success of your child. Our child had 6 Fs through an entire semester, and was allowed to do make-up work during the last two weeks of class in order to "pass". This school only cares about making their numbers look good. Nothing of substance. Again, if your student is driven, they will probably do great. But do not look to the school admin to help if your student is falling behind in any way. That's apparently too much work for them. They want to be made to look good without doing anything to actually help when it is needed.

I have two kids who are in the Challenge program at OMMS, and these are some of the most discouraging teachers I’ve ever seen. Students submit high effort projects and get back scores of 2.5 / 4 with absolutely zero feedback on how to improve or meet expectations next time.Considering this is supposed to be a dedicated gifted program, the school seems to go out of its way to kill creativity. Math is one grade level ahead, but you have kids capable of working several grade levels ahead. The class content is identical - if I wanted my kid to just work at the same pace but ahead one year, I would have just let them skip a grade.

My kids have been bullying terribly and nothing happens to help them feel safe. Last year a boy was threatening my sons life and my son was truly afraid this year they put his bully in his class...