Mountain View Middle School

The school is good overall. Some teachers are fantastic--Mrs. Dodge, Ms. Dubek, and Ms.McCaffrey are all great teachers, and my kids very much enjoyed their classes--and most of the rest are good as well, though there are some exceptions. (There is a baffling emphasis on coloring in Spanish classes, for example.) Principal turnover has also been an issue in recent years, and Mr. Seipp seemed to be in over his head, as evidenced by a lot of teachers leaving over the past two to three years. Now that this has (hopefully) stabilized, though, this is a very good school overall.

As a parent/educator, I did my homework and was turned off by high turnovers and an apparent lack of consistent leadership. Class sizes are shrinking, which might seem good at first - but there's a reason. I didn't sense a strong feeling of school pride from parents, staff, or students. I want to believe this is 10 school, but I have substantiated doubts.

Beware of Mountain View School, there is bullying among the children that is not properly controlled. Teachers are very young and not experienced.

How does one define gifted education at this school - former and current Board of Ed board members' children. Seipp and Morillo are more than capable of bringing this program up to 21st century standards and valid.

Mountain View in Mendham Boro covers basics. Mendham Township Middle School is much better at looking at the whole middle school student - more activities, more schoolwide enrichment through the curriculum and stronger teacher participation in student activities during the year. Mendham Township holds crisp criteria for its students who need additional academic challenges whereas Mountain View's criteria is arbitrary. Even if you meet Mountain View's "criteria", the program itself amounts to attending a class and taking the SATs early.