Highland Elementary School

This school does not teach the children much. The district does not have a librarian so the children have not had a library class since Covid began. They have also not had computer classes since Covid and instead have the children use apps on their Ipads. At drop off and pick up you can witness all of the staff outside yelling and being rude to the children. You can tell these employees do not even like children and are clearly just there for a paycheck. Drop offs can take up to 25 minutes because each time a school bus pulls behind you in the drop off loop the staff screams at the parents that they have to pull back around the loop without letting their children out as to let the school bus unload the children first. You then have to pull around the loop again with the possibility another bus may come behind again repeating the process as more cars are also entering the loop from the street. To make the situation worse they then decided to block off the small side lot which parents used to use as an alternative to the loop process, forcing all parents to enter the loop at drop off. The teachers do not pay attention to the students. My child has told me that other students have been able to sneak out from the classroom into the halls while the teacher was in the classroom. During lunch periods the lights have been turned off to (silence) the children when they become too noisy. Apparently the only time of the day they have to chat with friends, they are also yelled at for being noisy. It seems to me that this school only employs miserable people that hate being around children all day. Once I had a relative pick my child up and they told me thy witnessed a staff member yelling and being so rude to a child that they were about to yell at the staff member. The child walked to the exit door at dismissal and seen his father standing at the door waiting for him and the staff member SCREAMED that he was to come back inside because 'she' did not give him permission to exit. The the staff member also seen the parent and told him rudely to go.

Overall my experience with this school has exceeded any and all of my expectations. From their outstanding pre-K program, intermediate pre-k, as well as elementary grade classes, all Staff, Teachers, parents and students have made our experience at this school nothing short of amazing. You are made very welcome and immediately taken in as a family member. The amount of care and concern and love for each and every child at this school is exemplary. We attended this school prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and during, we found that the school was more adequately prepared with their technology and action plan when a quarantine was mandated that there was no delay in education being provided to those students. They gave clear and concise communication and all staff is always available we find more so than our local public schools or neighboring catholic schools. We were even more so impressed with all of the curriculum requirements , STEM lab provided, and extracurricular activities programs they have to offer in this school. We found our child had more one on one instruction and support available as needed. This was the BEST decision we could have made for our children. Highly recommend.

As a female student, I have had to put up with harassment from male students, dismissal from staff, and having to figure things out on my own. The staff is severely condescending when you need help as a student, and will only try to resolve an issue when a parent gets involved. I’ve had to lay on the floor due to the lack of space for the older kids to take a break, and the boys are put higher on the priority list than the girls. Even when I’ve been crying or having an anxiety attack, I’ve been pushed aside for a boy having the same problem. I am put up to a higher standard than the boys because I’m “mature for my age”. This has resulted in a boy getting away with lying about harassing me, he has even gone as far as stalking me online, when I was told that he would have no way of contacting me over the summer. I am asked more favors, expected to deal with everybody’s behaviors when mine are dismissed, and am seen as lazy or rude when I don’t. There is constant screaming in the hallway, and even though there is laws that say that some kids can’t be suspended or expelled for certain behaviors, it gets to a point, and when I start to get overwhelmed, the staff just laughs it off. I started to talk to a new therapist working at this school, and she was/is way better than the rest of the staff. They don’t pay the staff well, WISCA teachers are nasty to the Watson teachers and staff, they don’t get enough benefits for the high stress levels and toxic work environment, and then complain when they’re short staffed. I am going back to my home school as soon as possible. If you are a student that is low needs/high functioning, or are a parent of a student that is so, please use every support your home school has to offer before considering this school. The staff aren’t qualified to help with academics, and are really poor at helping students emotionally.