International Community School

Extremely toxic culture, same set of teachers for far too many years - very easy for them to develop favorites and not change. Grading scale is unhelpful for college applications, curriculum is too strict with very few electives to choose from - no useful life skills courses.

We initially had high hopes when we sent our child to this school.Pros:- School curriculum is well balanced and has many good ideas.- Some of the staff are friendly and do try their best to be positive.Cons:- Toxic culture of student to student bullying with many terrible and disturbing incidents occurring or later revealed to us (affecting many other students beyond just our child). These incidents sadly revealed the teachers and school to be shockingly resigned/accepting, slow to react and at a loss of what to do when confronted with the issues.- Despite claiming to be able to deal with neurodiverse students (eg. ADHD), the actual reality reveals that many of the teachers when faced with it to be negative, impatient and ill-trained to handle such students despite low student to teacher ratio

My child graduated at ICS and went to a very good college and the one she selected. She told me she was happy at ICS. It is NOT a school for students that want to enjoy sports or other activities. It is 100% academic. The majority of colleagues of my child went to the Universities that they wanted. I heard that after ICS, college was "piece of pie"for them. Our time at ICS was stressful, lots of homeworks, no time for bullying or drama...it involved the whole family to happy the student to succeed in their academic life. Some students had depression and anxiety but so I heard about students from other high schools. Before you apply for the lottery, look at your child, read about the school program, and listen to what other people tell about having 5 hours of homework a day and developing organization skills. If your child is not this kind of student, she will not be happy at ICS and neither will be you. At the time my student was at ICS there was NO support for students with learning differences. The students were also too busy to bully or be bullied by someone.

It is a small school and my student feels like it is a family. Students are academically focused and exhibit very good behavior. I am happy with the support between the students and the support from school staff. The teachers are nice and flexible when we need flexibility. My social and athletic (with lots of time commitment to sports) kid is very happy in ICS.

This is an excellent school for the right child. It caters to students that want to learn (as it should, and should continue to do). The classroom is a wonderful place for those students that want to learn. The classes focus on a more I depth learning, and not just surface knowledge.