S Rob Roy
Gallup, NM 87301

My son graduated from this high school. At the time, the school was split along racial lines; that is, around 65% Navajo and about 20% Hispanic. The remaining 15% was mainly white, with a few Asians. The Navajo kids were friendly. The Hispanics more or less bullied the Navajos. The whites and Asians kept to themselves. A lot of the Navajo kids would drop out, or go to school intermittently, by their junior year.Teachers were for the most part, average. The good ones would only stay a couple of years to get experience, and then move on. When questioned, a few of the teachers could not answer a simple question about what their degree was in. I do not if they were being evasive or smart alecks. I think the former.Counselors were a waste of time. Heck, I knew more than they did about college admissions and college visits.The sports programs were disjointed from a lack of leadership (i.e., real coaches).Anyway, I am glad we moved before our second child started high school.

As a current educator, the teachers here work very hard to inspire diligence and creativity among their students; however, the current principal has lost many good teachers during the past year because expectations for teachers are not clear and he does not address the concerns of his employees. Teachers are required to teach exactly the same material and in the same exact order at the same time as the other grade level instructor so there is virtually no autonomy.New teachers beware, students are not randomized when assigned to their classes which defeats the purpose of teachers having to administer identical tests with the other grade level teacher. This school's grade dropped from a "B" to a "C" from the 2016-2017 school year to the present.Parents beware, certain students below a certain benchmark are ignored. The current principal requires teachers to "focus" only on those students who are close to passing to the next level. Very unfair system.