Independence Middle School

This is an amazing school. The teachers have been warm, yet my child is making impressive progress. I have never had any issues. Another mom switcher her child to Lighthouse because of special needs services and can attest to how much better the teachers, class sizes and resources are here.

This school is wonderful! The principal is very good at communicating every week with the parents, the teachers are all very kind and love their jobs. Of all the Gardens/Jupiter area I recommend Dwyer. My son loved it!

This is a mostly white wealthy school, however it’s still a public school and you get what you pay for. They do not have reading coaches. They are not equipped to teach struggling students , they are also not equipped to teach high preforming students , this is a remedial one size fits all school for the average student. The gifted program is a joke and if your child is a fast learner they will be stifled and bored out of their minds. On the other hand if your child needs any extra help such as tutoring , they do not provide it, you are on your own.if you can afford it, invest in a private education. This is my personal experience with this school. It was more like a day care / social time . Not a quality education. Good luck .

I can’t speak to the school after admittance but the entire admittance process was absolutely terrible. They are completely judgmental and rude and I would never send my children there after the way they were talked about and talked to. So much for catholic kindness and acceptance.

Both of my children attended JCS upon our move to Florida. One has gone through k-12 and the other 4 -12.My husband and I were pleased until 7th / 8th Grade. The Lower School was a loving and caring environment and the teachers were great. Once in the Middle / Upper School , everything changed. I cannot even begin to tell the absolute mess that the Upper School is. I know I am speaking for just myself , but please *know there are many others that have had the same experiences *. I am going to share hard facts here, with no exaggeration. - More teachers that I can even believe are unhappy there. The amount of teacher turnover is immense. Also, which surprised me very much, more then a handful of teachers blatantly shared that they were way underpaid and unappreciated, and shared this continuously throughout the year. This is NOT the kind of information that should be shared and the negativity reflected in our children's views of the school. One teacher even shared that she was well off enough to not even have to work so the terrible pay didn't matter, she was only there for the love of the students. - Turnover of President, Principal and Vice Principal is unlike anything I have even seen. ( We have two older children that went through NJ and PA school systems ). This is a huge problem for JCS. There was a serious issue at the end of the school last year. We were told the student would be placed on probation ( last day of school ) only to find out that he was never disciplined at all. - Teacher and Faculty students are 100% given special treatment, and get away with little to zero discipline. Please hear me when I say this. This is FACT. - PLEASE hear me when I say this. JCS does *not* abide by the laws in place for Anti Bullying (Florida Statute 1006.147, also known as The Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up for All Students) . My daughter was aggressively bullied in school and online by a male student *leader* over the course of 2 years. We followed protocol in reporting. We were told that "he's a good kid". We were told that my daughter was "over reacting" . Guidance never even took time to follow up. She became a different young woman, She was humiliated by this student during classes and then also by a teacher. Meetings with the Principal and President were shocking. ** NO ONE CARED ABOUT MY DAUGHTER**. I was bullied by the President himself ( wish I recorded )***. ( I filed police report ). Please, PLEASE know these are facts.