5008 Juniper Way
Golden, CO 80403

On one hand, Drake does a very good job with what they have to work with internally: learning, teaching, social-emotional support and safety. Better than many other middle schools in Arvada.On the other hand, there is an ongoing public safety issue with the masses of motorists cramming the parking lot and neighboring roadways during rush hours. The school asks parents to respect neighboring businesses by staying out of their parking lots. What are we left with? A tiny parking lot with poor signage and a daily pressure cook on parents and students in Drake's traffic zones. How many parent hearts are hardened because of the rigors of these daily population bottlenecks? I don't have exact metrics but the ripples are felt and passed along. Community trust from this chaos is broken away one day at a time.Also, I HOPE a government run institution would kindly direct it's paid employees to do parking lot duties and beyond but ultimately accountability is shifted onto parents. Who offers the directive templates? A district running a bad policy framework quietly meanders the many loopholes visible to them, not the public while those below their purview suffer moral dilemmas no paid public servant should ever have to face.It gets to the point where caregivers silently unsubscribe their children to this environment–which logistically hasn't worked for years to gain time, space, peace and hopefully a longer life!

We had two of our boys go to Fairmount and they loved the school, peers, and teachers. We have also volunteered a lot in the school and have a first had account of the environment there. We highly recommend Fairmount.

If you have the option do not attend here.