Ryan

Hillside Elementary is an absolute failure of a school, and spending kindergarten through fifth grade there was genuinely miserable. The environment is openly hostile to students of color, with a staff that plays favorites and shamelessly protects the popular white kids while icing everyone else out. It’s an unsafe, toxic place where bullying goes completely unchecked. My first-grade teacher, Sherri Campbell, was horrific, and my third-grade teacher, Lesli Trigg, was equally hostile—she even pinched my arm hard for not having my papers stapled in the right order. When my father immediately emailed her about it, she accused me of lying, even though I had literally felt the pain and was sitting at my desk crying, and not a single adult bothered to check on me. Despite my parents constantly hauling themselves up to the school for meetings with administration, the adults just covered for each other and did nothing. By the time I was seven, I had severe anxiety and zero friends because of the relentless exclusion and racism from both students, teachers, and even the "room moms." If you're a student of color or need actual support, save yourself the trauma and go to Mill Run Elementary instead. This school singlehandedly destroyed my mental health.

I can only speak for the Head Start/STEP program. However, what I will say is that our child started on a Thursday, and by Monday his teacher, the case manager, and Vice Principal had already decided to push our child out of the school without any prior communication with us. We feel this school is not well-equipped to handle young special education students.

Eh it was alright, transferred here when I was in 3rd grade and it was pretty good, but if you live in the district then just please don't send your kids to eagle ridge middle school bro like it's so awful there, just transfer to a different middle school or something it's not worth it.