Holland High School

We are so thankful we chose our neighborhood school! Holland Heights offers beautiful diversity and the staff exude kindness and compassion. I love how Mr. Derr (principal) greets kids every morning as they come to school. He goes great lengths to make himself known among the kids and they develop a healthy and safe relationship with an authority figure. He also has a passion for connecting parents and kids in tighter relationships. These are just a few reasons we love Holland Heights.

Holland West has a wonderful community of students, teachers, parents and staff. Teachers and staff strive to provide an enriched and safe learning environment. My children have attended this school for 6 and 4 years. It is a k-7 model which allows older students to model and mentor our young students. Teachers in older grades collaborate with teachers in younger grades to buddy up and share learning. The PTO is vibrant. There are opportunities for after school activities and middle school sports begins in 7th grade. The band and orchestra programs begin in 5th grade and build into an excellent tradition of middle and high school music programs.

Jefferson is a school which has been dealt a difficult hand. In the past that has resulted in poor test scores and poor reputation. My children have been at this school starting in 2022 and have seen a deliberate and amazing change in the school under the leadership of Sara Folkert. My son started at the school in a transition period between the old principal and Sara, and the change has been amazing to be a part of. The demographics of the school have not changed, however there has been an obvious positive trend of the teachers and staff at the school since we started there. There were many days that my son would come home from school frustrated that there was another child disrupting class when he was younger. Over the last two years, these have for the most part stopped completely. The staff have been trained well in handling these difficult scenarios and handle them so well now that they are relatively unnoticed in both of my children's classes. My children have been able to meet and exceed expected testing results while going to this school.

Mi niña lleva dos años asistiendo a esta escuela y hasta ahora tengo buenas experiencias con los maestros. Es muy difícil cuando hay múltiples culturas involucradas y se hace difícil las relaciones interpersonales pero los maestros tratan y ayudan a todos por igual, yo estoy agradecida con el apoyo que le dan a mi hija