Highland Free School

Sadly, this school put my child with special needs in danger and then completely abandoned her. This was our home district and we were happy to get my children into what we thought was a kind and inclusive school community. The problem at Miles wasn't the teachers, they are caring and creative, the problem is poor resources and ineffective and inflexible administration. The district will try to get out of paying anything they can for students with special needs. I had a letter documenting my child's need for an aide from her developmental pediatrician and they had the data from the school showing she clearly needed 1:1 support but they still would not provide it due to the cost. When my 5 year old got away from her teacher who was in charge of a whole kindergarten class and ran into a busy street they finally recognized that she needed some aide support. That was several months into the year when she had already been endangered by their reckless policies. Then when school went to online only in March 2020 and my 6 year old child with special needs could not learn that way, admin just gave up and refused to educate her. They would not bring her in for tutoring or any services, nothing, even though her special ed teacher recognized that she could not learn online and wanted to teach her in person and felt she could do it safely, admin refused and completely abandoned her. The school has remained shuttered for an entire year now, 12 months, to students who desperately needed in person education, what a travesty, I feel terribly for any students stuck in TUSD who needed in person education and have list out on so much. I am so incredibly thankful we got our kids into CFSD, they are doing an excellent job educating all children safely even during a challenging year and are a much more welcoming and inclusive community!

After 4 years of my kids attending pre-k - 2nd grade I made a decision to pull them after 5 days starting the 24/25 school year. This year my daughter started Kindergarten. There is 1 kindergarten teacher for the whole school with at least 25/30 students and 2 aids mind you there on the very elder side. My daughter expressed how they would be put on time out even though they were not doing anything wrong and she did not know why. My daughter is no trouble if that she is very shy. With this student ratio to teacher how are kids suppose to learn? My son started second grade he had expressed that he misplaced his math book and the teacher had yelled at him about it. He also had had a bathroom accident within the first day couple days of school. From pre k -1st grade my son has never had an accident at school nor public. But for him to be in 2nd grade and have one. Turns out this teacher had ignored his asking/raising his hand to use the bathroom. This teacher is also elder. If teachers do not have the patience to teach kids in elementary level they should leave the profession or teach older kids. Elementary kids need teachers who are going to have there best interest and teach kids in any shape or form! Majority of the staff loved my kids from the start. But since we had obtained a new principal Mrs Lohn a lot of teachers have left this school good teachers at that because of the animosity leaving them to hire who ever they can get! This is not a friendly community school little to no parent involvement. My son would miss so many days of school last year and we didn’t know why until he got the courage to tell us what was going on. There is bullying older kids would verbally abuse him. There is no character traits at this school. This is a sad cold school. There is no joy upon arriving little to no events and if there is it’s very sad no effort is given. Every event every assembly the principal is no where to be found not one introduction from her and you would expect her if that is her school. Please don’t put your child here especially special Ed kids please don’t put your child here! From a teacher who worked there told me not to put my special needs child there and I never did and I’m glad I didn’t. It’s awful how they treat them as I’ve seen yelling at them pulling them there is no socializing with the kids when they are outside playing they are alone while the teacher and aids sit on benches talking. Please do your research!

I had three boys here. Two for 6th and one for kindergarten. I had heard that the school welcome children who are autistic. All three or mine are. They definitely did not. The only two that actually helped my boys was ms Alexis and ms Simpson whom my oldest loved. One of my 6th graders got into trouble for doodling in class weapons from fallout. He was suspended for it. Depicting violence I guess. No matter how much they explained it and justify it to make sense; neither my husband or I understand. We just agreed and moved on. My oldest got bulled a lot. Shoved into lockers (both older boys did really). Once both my boys defended themselves after telling teachers they got into trouble. I once witnessed my 5 year old get yelled at by the teacher as soon as I dropped him off. I was shocked at the way she yelled from across the room to ask him to put something down. The principal called this “strict”. Once my son had an incident where I had become upset and I had to calm him. I finally got him to calm down then the principal “dr” Kuhn came in and she upset him again, triggered him, and she then walked away. I had to then restrain him because he began to get violent. My sister and my mom were there to witness he do this. They do not know how to help children on the spectrum and I don’t think they should be yelling at kids.

This school is great if you want your child to be an artist and marry well. Otherwise, if you want your child to learn, read, do math, turn in homework, have a real sense of "responsibility and education"...it probably isn't the place. Being fair, the staff seem very concerned about the children and it is a very "free/artsy" environment. However, this comes at the expense of actually having right/wrong/accountability/high academic standards.

My child disliked this school. The principal lacks leadership skills and walks around like she’s some robo cop. Poor leaders make poor rated schools.