Ionia High School

I went to Ionia Public Schools all through K-12 and had a great experience. I felt that I was more than prepared for success during my undergrad, masters program, business career and life in general. I was dual-enrolled through the affiliated community college (for free) my senior year and never had to take a college English class! The teachers, staff and admin care about the kids and families of the community. I love this district so much that we moved back home after college and are raising our three children here. Bottom line is this - you get what you put into your studies, education and schooling.

I went to IHS from 9-12 grade. It is apparent that there are many issues within the school district. From the time I was in 7th-12th grade there were 15 teen pregnancies that I know of, maybe more. There were also regular bomb threats. During a 2 week period there were 3 separate bomb threats because someone realized we could get out of class when the SWAT team arrived. Very disruptive classrooms, HORRIBLE counseling. My counselor was horrible at his job. He did not help me look into colleges at all and it was clear that he couldn't manage the large amount of students he was supposed to be counseling. There are many prisons in Ionia. When I took one of the state standardized tests, ACT/SAT the prison alarms would not stop going off because an inmate had escaped. There was also a girl who's cell phone kept going off. Do you think the teacher removed her phone or the student so the rest of us could try to salvage the test? No. No no no. She was from a prominent family. Why care about the rest of the students from no name families? There are a few teachers that are amazing. My art teacher saved my life along with a handful of other real educators. However, IHS is unfortunately more concerned about keeping up with appearances for the rich leaving the mid and lower class students to fend for themselves. My parents did not encourage me in school at all. I wish someone in the school had. It's difficult to feel motivated as a child when no one encourages you or sees your potential. Hopefully things have gotten better, but I doubt it.

Even though the scores are very concerning (i.e. only 19% of 11th graders are proficient in math; reading is the only subject where 11th graders even barely reach half of students being proficient), I still gave an average, 3-stars, due to these scores actually being what's average out there in our government schools, unfortunately. Sad.

I went to Ionia High School for my four hs years, unfortunately. While it does have some good points, it has many bad as well. I enjoyed being on the swimming and diving team, but that was about it. Hardly any of the teachers can control their classrooms, which made it hard to learn, especially when people were picking fights with me in the middle of class, throwing things, talking, yelling etc. I almost failed Algebra because the teacher's classroom was a zoo. The punishment system sucks also. I got in big trouble when a kid lied about me punching him, despite not having any marks to prove it. The principal believed him over me, of course, due to his family name being popular, and I got punished. My junior year (2007-2008) there was literally a fight every 1-2 weeks, FOR THE WHOLE YEAR, some of which I was involved in. Some classes are good, but most teachers are there for the paycheck and couldn't care any less about their students. While some teachers had a passion for their occupation, most were dry, bitter, and easily irritated. I feel that I could have done better in high school had I not went here.