Soaring Hawk Elementary School

Our kids started at ACS when they were both in Kindergarten under the previous school leader, Dean Brown. Dean Brown was focused and successful at creating a high performing school, holding kids and teachers accountable and she created a wonderful environment that we enjoyed for 8 years. Dean Brown created one of the top schools in both Douglas County and the state.Sadly, as is WAY too often the case, politics got in the way of good decision making and a few of the Academy Charter Board members disagreed with a single decision that Dean Brown had made, and she was forced to resign.The Board replaced her with a totally inexperienced 3rd grade teacher as the new school leader (Erin McMilon). By Ms. McMilon's own admission, she had no previous experience as a school administrator, much less as whole school leader.After 8 amazing years, we saw such a dramatic decline in the educational experience that we had to remove our kids. Our experience with the poor leadership, questionable ethics, and loss of teacher accountability was so pronounced that we couldn't justify keeping our kids there any longer.One of our individual experiences was so egregious that we filed a federal civil rights complaint.In summary, inexperienced, poor and unethical leadership make a massive impact on the school experience and quality and can change the success of a great school within just a few short months.I fully expect a steady decline of the school academics over the next 5 years. The school will be able to hide behind some of the problems that Covid created for a short time, but I am quite convinced that as other schools start to rebound, the deleterious effect of the current school leader will steadily show decline in school performance.There are plenty of really good schools in Douglas County. I would not personally risk my child's future with attendance at ACS.

This is my second year at Meadow View Elementary. We had moved from California, and I never heard of Artful Learning before. I wasn't sure if it would work, but once I found out more about it, it helps students learn the same curriculum just through different mediums. During my daughters first year here, there was a new Principle Lacey Dahl, reading previous reviews of the school the old principle seemed to be an issue. However, the new principle has been recognized by Douglas County as an outstanding principle. She greets children, knows most by first and last name, she has the leadership qualities and truly cares about her staff, students, and the students parents.Teachers are involved with the students. For example my daughter knows all the teachers and she likes them all and she was only in kindergarten now 1st grade. The school seems to be like a family, which is a total different vibe than California. The school could use a makeover, but I see they do try to make an effort at rebranding and they try to make school a fun experience for all the children, while keeping it a learning facility. I think the biggest problem is that most parents don't like the Artful Learning program and the school is rated lowest in Great Schools, so it turns people away. I hear a lot of families choosing Charter schools or academy's rather than staying at Meadowview, its sad but who can blame them. Its not a bad thing they choose to do this, but this cuts Meadowview's enrolment which I think would effect the schools budget to keep above water. This effects how the schools budget is handled with staff members (teachers), the programs offered, and beyond. A cut in enrollment is a cut in abilities to succeed. I am happy, but others are not as pleased with Meadowview's performance. I know that test scores have risen in areas like math, but if I remember correctly they are still below average in the district for writing and reading. Is it artful learning that is bringing them down??

Bullying is a huge problem that Mrs Roe won’t even acknowledge. A few teachers do their best but they have zero support to deal with bullying. The kids all know this and it’s created a toxic environment.

This school is undergoing a change and it's not for the better. In a serious disruption, and with little regard for the emotions of the children or the perspective of the parents, they recently removed the principal (which was the best thing about this school) and have created a really weird vibe. Although we dearly loved the school up until now, everything suddenly seems unstable, lacking in transparency, run at the whim of the church leadership. We're bailing on the Fall of 2017 and so are many others.

We ended up pulling our kids from this school due to lack of integrity and transparency of charter administration / board.