Tumalo Community School

Cascades Academy has a beautiful campus and a warm community. Most teachers/staff are dedicated and kind, and the hands-on/project based philosophy seems appealing and gives the school strong potential. That said, some families experience frustration with leadership being closed off to those outside the ‘inner-circle’ and resistance to feedback, even feedback from long standing teachers. With significant travel commitments and lower compensation, faculty can seem stretched and the school seems to hire based on the candidates ability to travel and take low wages and not based on having strong knowledge of their subject, creating a high teacher turnover. Academically, expectations of quality work feel limited across most grades and students and given minimal oversight and guidance in academics, conduct on travel school and instruction on forming positive habits creating an overall lack of structure and accountability for the students. Although the school promotes itself as outdoor-centered, PE takes place indoors and the school is very screen-heavy. Including Roblox during class, click-based texting and inappropriate internet use as students use personal unrestricted computers at school. With this said, I would not discourage a family from touring/shadowing Cascades Academy as many schools have similar issues, but I would encourage asking thoughtful questions to admin and speak directly with current families to gain a fuller perspective and push upper management to create change so they can start to match standards of other private schools.