230 W Avenue O
Black butte, CA 93551

I graduated in 2019. The only commendable and honorable program and teacher from this school is the band program and instructor. He's changed a lot of kids lives with the programs he's run over the years. He's truly here for his students and wants us all to succeed and do our best. He and he alone is the only reason I graduated from this school. He motivated me and believed in me like no other teacher and he alone is the only reason I am giving this school a good rating and recommending it.As far as the other teachers, in my personal experience- none of them taught me a thing. The math department is lacking significantly. The English department was good my freshman year- but the teacher I had then left the school my sophomore year. They want you to figure out the work for yourself- if you have a learning disability like dyslexia or ADHD, they will not help you, nor be understanding. If you are undiagnosed with this- they also will not care enough to notice or help if you are struggling. Yes, LHS is a poor school and we may be looked down on for that- but that is not something that is important nor significant as far as I am concerned. College readiness and real world preparedness is what is important and this school fails. I do not believe this is the student's faults. The only reason I feel I was prepared was because of the values and lessons taught in the band program. Truly. I became responsible, learned leadership, felt more obligated to focus on my grades, and I learned to not give up and to try harder to improve myself. So if you do look into this school and end up attending- join the band. It's the saving grace and silver lining of this school. It gave me hope that I would turn out alright and survive after high school. What I learned in LHS's music program, and the memories I made are absolutely invaluable. It's what made me happy, thankful, and proud that I went to such a school.

My child attends this school and is currently in the 8th grade. TEENS should be getting ready for high school instead they look like elementary students.The rating of this school is a ZERO for me. BULLYING is a PANDEMIC at that school. Seems like the students run the school while administration watch like it's a circus there. SUPERINTENDENT should manage his district and SERIOULY apply the ZERO TOLERANCE rule!His role is SUPERINTEND an organization. I seriously recommend other schools until they make a serious change and not just put a band aid on everything there. Challenger Middle Scholl and the staff in it are an EMBARARRASSMENT to our kids school. Just ask them if any of their kids are in that school, of course not! They are homeschooled. Wonder why. The kids school grades are like those of elementary kids. Please don't blame it on the poverty stuff, you can be poor and be smart. The reason is that the school gets more funding if left this way. So kids are to believe that this is NORMAL GRADES for them since they live in a low poverty area, REALLY! PARENTS DO YOUR RESEARCH!

I have been subbing at various districts. There seems to be MANY passionate teachers but the system is flawed. Retention of teachers, treatment and pay seem to be an issue. Observations based on my experience working in global pharmaceutical companies, efficiency and streamlining practices are not utilized. Seems a bit archaic in process for certain areas. I am looking at career transitions in hopes of being able to mentor youth into the science field, but remains to be seen if I can jump over the hurdles. I know what I can offer, but feels that returning to the lab maybe inevitable at this rate of experience subbing...Flexibility is seen at the school level (middle/elementary), but the over arching district seems to be focused in the wrong places and stringent. Students not meeting standards at their grade level are handled differently and should be separated from the rest of the class to learn. I'm not speaking lightly on this topic... 6th graders are performing at a 4 grade level math, blaming covid hasn't seemed to fix the problem on 2023. I have had students ask me questions in spanish in 4th grade while another student translated... How did they get here?? Who is responsible for allowing this? How is this helping them learn what they should be in school? You can make changes if leadership is supportive.. that remains to be seen too here. I wouldn't recommend my child at this school unless they figure out a way to supplement these kids with assistance. Pulling them between classes seems very disruptive to students who are meeting grade requirements - there are other ways to provide additional support.... which includes compensating appropriately as well. I'm an complete outsider looking in who has spent over 20 years teaching in my pharma research labs always thinking out side of the box.I'm trying to understand that education box...