Riverside High School

Its an OK school, some great teachers, some not so great. My girls love it, though. They made good friends. Good Latin program, engaged teacher, they are starting to read The Gallic War. The engineering program is good, and the leader is great - but mostly showed my girls that they don't want to be engineers, which is valuable. Good string music program, band not so good. All sorts of students, very various - very educational that way.

Fabulous. The engineering electives are top-notch (though a bit too heavy on the workload/complexity of projects and deadlines for high schoolers). The principal has innovative ideas and seems fearless in implementing them. We have 'smart lunch' right now, where the *entire* school has lunch at the same time. Teachers can have office hours and offering tutoring help, kids can use the time to study - or - to just go outside and play ultimate frisbee or hang out with their friends. In a school of its size, this is challenging, but they seem to be making it work! My son's teachers have all been very supportive of his learning differences and have worked with us to keep him challenged academically.

Riverside has been a great school for both of my kids, providing a broad educational experience, a variety of clubs and sports, an award winning PLTW engineering program and an award winning student newspaper. My daughter was well prepared for college by her experience at Riverside.

There are certainly good qualities at this school--however, with an AP student who is not feeling engaged or supported, I'm concerned about my child and even more so, the kids that aren't in honors or above classes.

The mentoring the kids get through the Engineering program is excellent, and the non-Engineering classes and teachers have been good too--which is important, because the Engineering classes make up only an eighth or so of my son's total classes. The block schedule has been a surprisingly good fit for him. He enjoys his classes, is learning a ton, has time for clubs and school activities, has a peer group of really upstanding kids, is able to hone in on his interests, and is generally happy at school. It would be hard to ask for more (from his school anyway; the state and federal governments could do way better to support public education. We're beyond grateful that Riverside continues to have committed, outstanding teachers in the current political climate).