Helena High School

If your child has an IEP, know it will be a major struggle.Students were friendly.

I have had 2 daughters go through this school over the past 20 years and I can only describe the experiences an HORRIBLE! We were able to get our first daughter through (With constant fighting over her IAP and push-back from the school over following it) but she did graduate due to my wife and I standing up for her. 10 years later, with our youngest daughter, we had to go through it all again! She had an ATV wreck her freshman year and had a brain bleed causing short-term memory loss. Although we ensured the school was well aware of it, had the doctor explain the problem to them several times, finally had an advocate from the state come in and thoroughly explain it to them, and sent countless documents and complaints through the school administrators it culminated in a meeting with the school principal (AFTER NEARLY A YEAR) telling me "I would not know your daughter if she walked through the door right now" and "my staff don't have the time to remind her about her assignments (again SHORT TERM MEMORY LOSS!!) I made the decision that day to remove her from the school. She applied for and was selected to PAL where she thrived, graduated, and is in college now. The Helena school system has been a complete disappointment to me over the past 20 years (especially HHS) and I am planning on putting my grandson into a charter school if possible to save him and our family frustration for the next 12 years!

There are no words to describe how disappointed I am in my own school. Through my four years i've experience first-hand what it feels like to have your school pride die. I was born a bengal and I will die a bengal, and some people may never understand how much it hurts me to say, 'I have no bengal pride'. Helena High School has issues far beyond the surface and I worry they will never get fixed based on the incompetence of our own teachers, students, and administration especially.