5280 Ambleside Dr
Concord, CA 94521

Highlands has been great for my child who will be graduating this year. He has great friends and teachers.

I won't be able to describe everything that's wrong with this school in just 2500 characters.The administration is beyond garbage. Even between the Principal and 2 VPs, there is an extreme amount of favoritism (and quite frankly, nepotism). There's a running joke (that has been going for several years) that as long as you're friends with one of Admin's children, you're set for the next 4 years.Outside of their own children, VPs and the Principal ONLY favor the extremely lazy, rule-breaking children (a large percentage of them being their children's friends), the athletic students (who actually break records/win trophies), and *maybe* the top 5 academic students (if they're lucky). Do you fall outside any of those categories? Good luck, you will be practically invisible for your 4 years here at Northgate.Counselors are useless. They can't give you any real answers because they have to double check everything with the Principal (who then proceeds to give the Counselors wrong information).This leads me to my next point: 90% of all staff members (particularly counselors) hate Admin. If you're in a room with a staff member during lunch/passing period, and they get an email from Admin during that time, they will literally roll their eyes and tell students about how annoyed they are by Admin. I found this incredibly funny, but kind of sad because no one really has the courage to stick up to Admin.Now, let's talk about teachers. Some are incredible, most are mediocre, and ~25% are complete (uneducated) trash. I will say, the English department seemed to have the best teachers (excluding one particular teacher who retired this year- congrats to future grades who will be spared). The social studies department was a hit or miss- some teachers actually prepare you for AP exams (making it easy for students to earn a 5), meanwhile others, like my senior year Government/Econ teacher wasted class time NEARLY EVERYDAY- NO JOKE- by talking about his deceased spouse (as well his dating life with his current partner), while also making inappropriate jokes. Despite a plethora of complaints to Admin (just from my grade- and I know for a fact that he's gotten complaints for the last few years as well- he has tenure and will be retiring soon, and will never face any consequences.I will be attending a highly ranked university in the fall. I attribute my success to my parents who ensured that I had outside-of-school tutoring/exam prep/support during all 4 years.

My son had a nightmare experience at this school. Throughout 6th grader he was bullied. I was in consistent contact with the principal to try to help remedy the situation. I really did not want to move my son to a new school. After 6 months of no resolution, I had to take my child out of this school due to lack of action from the administration. I could get into the details of what my son endured, but there aren't enough characters available. It was a nightmare. The school staff and administration is a joke.