Mercy High School

We have been at St. Stephen School for 5 years. The teaching staff work really hard and try their best to provide a positive learning environment for the students but the administration and office personnel desperately needs to change. There has been a high turnover of staff these past few years, in particular teachers and office staff. The principal has a derogatory attitude, is confrontational with parents, and it is obvious that she makes the school staff miserable. This year the office has transitioned from a warm welcoming environment to one where parents are not welcomed and are ridiculed when they ask a question or express a concern. Consistently there has been one particular office staff member a gray-haired lady who is rude and dismissive of parents and students and does not seem to possess any social skills to work in a school environment. The school has some positive attributes, parents try hard to build a community, fundraise, and students seem to be happy there. We have loved this school, but the constant changeover of staff and the bully-type behavior of the principal and some staff members is something that needs to be dealt with. Unfortunately, we no longer recommend St. Stephens to our friends.

We are a new Waldorf family and my son is currently a 9th grader at the school. I cannot say enough about what an amazing experience this school has been for my kid. When we visited last year, I knew that the curriculum sounded amazing as well as the opportunities (foreign exchange, class trips) but we still weren't sure how well my son would actually fit in- especially as the school is quite small.However- the school has been fantastic on all fronts- including the social aspect. Even though the class is small all the kids interact with each other and there is welcome and friendly vibe between all the students. I honestly think my kid has MORE friends than he would at a much larger school where he'd hang out with the same two or three people every day.The teachers really care about the kids, and really seem to "see" my kid for who he is. The academics are amazing and yet I don't feel like the workload is overwhelming or stressful. The projects and assignments aren't busy work. There is tons of available support from the teachers when needed.My son was accepted to several privates and application-based public schools, I'm so happy we chose Waldorf and my child really LIKES going to school. HW load seems comparable to most other privates (when I discuss with other parents with kids at different schools) but not at all overwhelming. (We had one concern that there would be too much homework, but that has not been the case. Yes, there's homework, but my child has plenty of downtime and isn't staying up until 11pm doing school work.I can absolutely recommend this school and want to assure parents with kids coming from other K-8s (public, parochial, etc.) that the school has surpassed my expectations.