1418 Darley Row
Keswick, VA 22947

I have a child attending this school and their overall experience is positive.

I will say that everyone is very kind: every administrator, teacher, bus driver, etc.But if you care about an education, this school (and all of ACPS) has really fallen flat in recent years. Even before the pandemic, the school was frequently closed for a variety of reasons: teacher work days, administrative days, a handful of snowflakes, etc. Good luck scheduling around that. Your child will be home all the time. Yesterday, school was closed due to rain. I understand some students live in more rural areas and along rural roads. I firmly believe that accommodations could be made to protect them (and the bus drivers!) while enabling the other 95% to attend school! To make matters worse, they're trigger happy with IEPs and pulling children out of the classroom. If you need special assistance, good luck getting it addressed so your child actually learns. But they've done the exact opposite with the Gifted and Talented program. That program has been diluted into ineffective mush. Apparently it's embarrassing to pull children out for Gifted and Talented programs but just fine to pull them out if they're "different." But wait, learning? Educating? Isn't that what a school is designed to do? Nah, none of that happens. Hope you want your child to play the "education edition" of Minecraft all day! Because they certainly aren't learning the months of the year... Do you want your child to have the most basic grasp of history or science? Go somewhere else, they'd be better off watching PBS documentaries all day.The pandemic, of course, made everything worse. Did your kid sit next to someone for 15 minutes who later tested positive for COVID? Guess they wont be at school for two weeks! Don't worry, you can get a negative COVID test for them and they can return after...10 days of quarantine. To make matters worse, they give you NOTHING when the kid is out of school. Well, they did give us one worksheet...and the laptop...with which they are apparently expected to fill their days playing pathetic math games that teach them nothing. They clearly have no plan in place when they kick healthy kids out of the classroom despite us having well over a year and a half to get used to this "new normal."I wish I could afford private school. I wish we could all afford private school. I have to work so we can't home school and this is the best we can do. Our children deserve better. And to anyone reading this? Your children deserve better too.

Monticello High School is filled with devoted teachers, counselors and community dedication. The selection of academics provide students who are challenged as well as those who are scholars that continue with endless opportunities in their futures. The excellence in teaching along with guidance truly has made me a proud parent of the following: Stone-Robinson Elementary, Jackson P. Burley Middle School, Walton Middle School, Monticello High School.