Ashton Ranch Middle School

I have two children who attend this school. I am a teacher (20 years) and I am grateful for the current administration. They have gone above and beyond to support my daughter academically and emotionally. They set a standard for excellence in character that you don’t always see at a public school. Their variety of sports and electives have kept my son and daughter involved and engaged as learners. The teachers have been supportive and responsive whenever my children have needed any support. I would highly recommend Ashton Ranch Middle School.

they dont support us students and care more on thre funds

This is honestly one of the worst schools I've ever been to in my opinion, the school (generally most of the staff does but not administration) doesn't care about special education. I was in Positive Behavioral Support (PBS) for the first quarter of the year and that was the worst part of my year this year. If you have a child who has anger problems, outbursts, ect., please do not enroll them in the Positive Behavioral Support program, it is unsafe for students (because kids have frequent outbursts and throw stuff, scream, and get physically aggressive) and the staff don't actually care about helping, they focus on punishment rather than helping. The staff (other than the actual teacher like the behavior techs and paras) picks on students, as in giving them punishments when they've done nothing wrong. Even looking at them the wrong way can give them a "warning" (prompt). They build the classroom around this point system that I feel (personally) is designed to make your kid feel more guilty about something they've done (whether it be something as small as speaking with them with a little bit higher tone than the staff wanted them to or something as "big" as an outburst because something triggered them.) General Education is a little bit better than PBS for the reason that (most) staff isn't so rude and always constantly over your shoulder but the safety is about the same. The hallways aren't safe, there's people pushing other people down, knocking stuff over and making a complete mess in the hallway like spraying water on everyone with a water bottle. Bullying is another huge problem because the kids don't care if they get punished or not no matter the punishment. I do not look forward to coming back to school this upcoming year.

My kids started at Countryside Elementary school, just down the road and they loved school. They loved their teachers and their teachers loved them.Then the district changed things up and created Ashton Ranch Middle School (ARMS) for grades 5th - 8th. Countryside is now K-4th. A lot of Countryside's upper grade teachers moved to ARMS so we know many of the teachers already.Teachers we've gotten to know from Countryside are now miserable, after just one year. They won't go into detail, but they aren't happy and many are leaving ARMS.My oldest has shown me posters on the walls, girls writing "stop the inappropriate touching", directed at the boys. This went on for about two months, reports made, but no swift results. All kids should feel safe at school!Bullying is a common occurrence, especially between 5th and 8th grades. One of my kids hit a bully for attaching their smaller friend. I figured I would hear about it, but I didn't. Some of the 8th graders ram their way through the very packed halls, nothing is done about this.There is a lot more, but it's all hearsay, some drama, exaggeration, kiddie stuff. But the bruise from the bunch, the picture on the wall, those I know happened.Paraphrasing from several teachers, it's all pretty much the same thing. The upstairs is horrible, discipline is nonexistent. Trying to maintain a classroom disciple is met with resistance, not assistance, like the teachers are the bad guys.I really hope ARMS can someday become what Countryside was, a safe, fun place to learn. My kids hate school now, but it's not too late, but they won't be back next year.

Part 2........I know if you aren't a popular kid, the students and some of the teachers will make your life a living hell. The classroom environment is okay if you get the right teachers but if you don't you're kind of stuck getting laughed at. A piece of advice if you are looking to go into Ashton Ranch I would make sure you are into the popular group because just putting this in your middle school and high school year that's what all kids are about is if you're popular or not and if you're not you're going to get bullied. If you are a girl and you're not popular, be careful of what you wea, other girls and boys will find anything to criticize on what you wear. There are only a few people that I like at Ashton Ranch and that was the cross guard lady who is also the lunch lady. Every morning I would walk to school and I'd be super excited to see her. She would make my day a little bit better. We had good teachers on the teaching part. Overall I would rate the school 1 out of 5, the fact being that the office doesn't care, the teachers don't care about the child's personal being. They only care about teaching you work, grading it and getting you out of their class.