4 Warner Row
Leeds, MA 01053

Bad school, simply put. Graduated a few years ago but my sister goes there now. Teachers and admin seem to be under the impression that their job is not to teach kids or encourage them to grow or think for themselves but to control a group of misfits who are all only looking to make their lives harder. I'm not saying every child is an angel or that nobody deserves discipline, but they went about it assuming everyone was some teenage misfit. When I went there, we were often denied permission to use the bathroom. We were not only scolded for talking but scolded for laughing. Scolded for smiling. Scolded for not walking quietly and single-file in the hallways. No phones during class is an acceptable policy, fine, but we were not allowed to use them during our lunchtime either... OR school-issued Chromebooks to simply show a friend an email, nor were we allowed to simply STAND up in the cafeteria, even if we stayed right next to our seat. One year they instituted a hall pass system where each student was given one paper pass with a certain amount of slots on it, one row for the information of each trip into the hall, which would have to last the student all quarter. For a simple drink from the water fountain across the hall or a trip to the nurse's office, a student had to fill the whole thing out and sacrifice one slot. This regimen showed an implicit mistrust in every student and showed us that were as a whole not respected by the adults, who only seemed interested in the best way to maximize their control over us. There was no leeway to be a kid, to chuckle in class, to smile at your friend, to be a minute late. Needed to change your tampon? Take your 20-minute lunchtime to do that. Want to work on your Chromebook? Not without some guy huddled in the corner monitoring everyone's screen. In terms of actual academic work, there was hardly a class aside from art that wasn't made up of lectures, notes, busy work, tests, and repeat. No imagination, no hands-on learning, no creativity. Almost no teacher had passion, and it was not long before they sucked the passion right out of everyone else. They want us to be robots, is what I remember thinking back then, and I have seen no evidence that this has changed.

Our experience with Leeds Elementary School has been excellent.

We relocated at the beginning of the school year to Northampton. We called well in advance to set up meetings with guidance counselors, offering to complete enrollment paperwork, etc. However, we were told that we just needed to show up on the first day of school and hope that the classes my daughter was hoping to enroll in were still open. We showed up on day one and were received extremely coldly. Staff were rude, disorganized, and acted put out by our even being there. It took me reaching out to the principal to make headway on setting up an appt. with the guidance counselor to select courses, as she wouldn't return emails or phone calls. The high school doesn't have an Orchestra program and they don't offer volleyball. Moreover, many of their extra-curricular groups, such as Debate, are student-led without any true oversight or direction of staff to ensure a positive learning experience. The experience was so disheartening that my daughter ended up applying to year-long study abroad program. When we attempted to be proactive to ensure transfer of credit, our efforts were met with rigidity. They wouldn't even support my daughter in taking a college-level course to ensure she wouldn't lose required credit. Nevermind that my daughter is a 4.0 student perfectly equipped to handle a college-level course. We ended up having to work entirely through the local community college. Upon learning we had to unenroll my daughter from school while she studies abroad, they've even made that process as difficult as possible. I continue to receive daily calls indicating she is absent, despite having filled out the appropriate paperwork. Beaurocracy at it's finest to be sure. Normally, I would never write a review like this, but I feel it is important for families moving to the area to know what they are potentially in for. We've raised four kids, two of whom have already graduated from high school. After expexperiencing multiple public schools in three different states, we've never encountered an experience as poor as this one. Academically, Northampton appears to be acceptable; however, successful integration is hugely important to your entire family's happiness when you move. You want a school that will work with you, not against you and that will be supportive. Unfortunately, Northampton High School does not fit that description.