Wells Junior High School

I was happy to see someone else finally leave a review that reflects the current status of WES. It inspired me to share my experience, which hasn’t been good. Individual teachers are great, but the district is in a downward spiral. I fully support the teachers, but they are working in a difficult situation.We moved here because of the schools and that was a mistake. I wish I knew then what I know now because we would have moved elsewhere. Your experience here depends entirely on your last name or how close you are to a member of administration/ the school board. Someone else mentioned that this is also the case with hiring and that seems to be true as well. This school in particular burns through administrators incredibly quickly. Central office does as well in key positions. The average lifespan for a principal at WES seems to be 2-5 years. We’ve actually had a few great ones who have left the district, which was terrible for the school. The last two to leave were both great with my children. They were so supportive and kind. Wells lost out when both of those people left. I reached out to a few people who have left in recent years to see what was going on (teachers, support staff, and administrators fromthroughout the district). Everyone was very professional, but there are some common themes - intimidation, an ineffective school board that doesn’t supervise the superintendent, favoritism of people with ties to the right people, and hiring based on salary instead of qualifications. Pay attention to summer hires as well. Critical postings are always made after the last school board meeting of the year and then magically the friend of someone in power gets a job they aren’t qualified for over the summer.I hope this review helps someone else have a more clear picture of the district than we had when we moved here. Again, I fully support the great teacher. They are trying their best but the system seems to be broken at the top and nobody is willing to try to change that.