W H Heaton Middle School

I love that the teachers all know every student by name, and the school provides a huge amount of community resources to all the families. Many staff members went to Baca themselves, or grew up nearby, so it really feels intimate and truly tight- knit. The staff has made it very easy to be involved as a parent in after- school activities. I've been around a lot of children over the years both personally and professionally. I can safely say the students at Baca are remarkably polite and courteous. The culture of kindness really shines.

I have worked at many schools but none like Irving. We always have what is best for students in mind . Every teacher and staff member is ALL in. We look down the road ahead, and plan accordingly to make sure students will be successful in classrooms and beyond. I want Irving to be my forever home!

My last review somehow was removed...? It appears that the principal and the district have trouble with the truth. In my experience, as a student-teacher, I spent over 60 hours working in two different classrooms to fulfill 30 hours that were required for two of my courses. As I stated previously, the principal relies on punishment in order to control his students. Special education teachers are phenomenal. In my experience in a typical classroom, the teacher was miserably relying on humiliation, class removal, and disrespecting her students. There were approximately 30+ children in the class; with only one adult in the room, education is nearly impossible due to the teacher wasting time correcting class behavior. I do believe it was the principal and CSU-Pueblo Department chair who put effort into trying to hide my review. Both the former and latter are unsupportive of LGBTQ children and teachers. Obviously, these are not the comments District 60 wants to hear, but silencing people who tell the truth is what the community should be aware of and expect.

This school has such love for their staff, parents, and students! I love the innovation of the school!

Now that we’ve had some distance and time to reflect, I am finally able to share our experience. Our bright child with a lot of energy struggled with normal class structure, or so we thought. We thought a school like this would be the perfect fit and would feed their active mind. Yet when we enrolled our child here, their challenges escalated quickly and there were no resources in place to support them. No school counselor, teacher aide or paraprofessional. When we made every attempt to get to the root of what was going on, we were very clearly being steered to disenroll. The wording each time was “well what is it like at home” and “maybe you should look into this school”. I would never want my child to go somewhere where they are clearly not supported or wanted, so we did find another school. The difference was the proactive approach they had there, the support from the teacher and an environment that understood all children have different needs at different times. Our child flourished and now continues to excel. Many of the children that go to the school are also admitted on a referral basis and it shows at every level. Working parents will be at a disadvantage when they cannot participate in the mandatory volunteering.