Van Ormer
Mc Alisterville, PA 17049

We had originally four children in this school district. Our youngest was in the special education program, which involves very little education. For almost 3 years my son was essentially locked in a room, provided minimal supplies with little to no educational guidance. Their view of special education is out of sight out of mind. They regularly fail these kids, and we have helped guide several other parents and how to transfer their children into other programs, or to the other County School which though they receive similar funding is the complete opposite. The singular parent-teacher conference we attended the teacher only wanted to talk about how stupid masks were and her love of trump, we didn't actually hardly talk about our kid at all. We had two sons in the high school as well, due to the poor curriculum and low standards we were able to transfer the one to the other County school which offered better programs, and a sturdier curriculum that kept him engaged. There were also severe issues with bullying to the point where it was dangerous which is the other reason we transferred him. Our oldest state in the school district, which knowing what we know now we would not have done if we had known about the rampant drug and alcohol culture that is perpetuated in the school, particularly by the assistant principal who believes in the good old boys club. Even with proof of what was going on, the dealing, the use in school and out of school, the adults involved, it was repeatedly swept under the rug and at one point we were called liars. It's hard to fight a system that tells your children it's okay, because at the end of the day their only focus is fudging the numbers on the standardized tests and their graduation %. We actually just a couple days ago went to look at our son's grades, he had actually failed classes for two quarters and we had concerns about his graduation. When we pulled up the year report we realized the school had bumped all of his grades up to passing. So on top of the general culture they are essentially handing out participation trophies at this school. This is not a school to go to if you want your child set up for success. The assistant principal even talked him out of a career path that would have had him making mid six figures within 4 years of high school. If you move to Juniata County, make sure you're in the Juniata School district not the East Juniata.