Cheyenne Traditional Elementary School

Our family loves Cheyenne. Academic and behavioral expectations are higher for students and we see this as a positive. The kids rise to the occasion and learn that discipline and hard work lead to academic success. Great teachers and involved parents make this school make this school a great place to be.
--Submitted by a parent

This school has been a horrible experience for middle school. The amount of homework is absolutely ridiculous. 3-5 hours per day! Kids have no time for after school activites, and little time on weekends becasue many of the tests and projects are due on Mondays as well as homework on weekends. There is no balance in the kids lives. Plus they are treated like elementary school kids. No freedom at all. The teachers are not nice. They do not care about the kids (with the exception of a few), and they act like they do not want to be there. They say in appropriate things to the kids in class and do not treat them with kindness or respect. The schools main focus is dicipline and rules. The adminstration and teachers do not want to hear from parents. The parents are told, if you don't like it, it is a "school of choice". They could not care less if you leave. This is a school for kids who need a lot of structure, dicipline and rules. The teachers do not encourage any type of creativity whatsoever. All in all it was NOT a good experience!
--Submitted by a parent

Middle school here is highly stressful with very demanding work load. Kids definitely lose sleep time and play time because of time-consuming homework, 4-6 hours daily just for homework! I think teachers should be more considerate. Just 2 months into school year and kids are already exhausted. Maybe some kids turn into bullies because there s no more balance in their daily life.
--Submitted by a parent

This is a great school and my kids have had excellent teachers. I agree with the one post that the school has had problems with bullies. The principal, Mike Duff and vice principal Mark Haugen were terrible leaders and did address the bully problem well. Both were arrogant and I am glad they are gone. This school has some very good teachers and I think the new administration will be a big help. My principal rating is due to the prior administration.
--Submitted by a parent

Bullying is a MAJOR problem at this school. As long as the kids are making A's, they are NOT held accountable for their behavior. The kids in middle school can drug their classmates and receive a slap on the hand by being suspended for 2 days. This school has a terrible tract record with bullying, and it is because of very poor leadership at the top, which trickles down to the classrooms. My child has been bullied as has many others, and the teachers put the blame back on the poor victim who is being bullied.
--Submitted by a parent

The principal is a politician and has no control over the staff. Teachers are union employees. The middle school is a very harsh enviornment. PTO has a few very involved parents, but overall there is not much family involvement.
--Submitted by a parent

I never had a child in this school....was never given the chance! I was a single mother, not of high financial means, so I was (not so politely) pointed in another direction. Very sad the kind of discrimination even caucasians encounter. Their loss because my son is extremely bright!

We had had high hopes for this school and decided to drive him past 3 others to attend based on the "traditional school" program. We were all for rigorous acedemics (saxon and spalding), discipline, and unifiorms, but we found our son's kindergarten experience to be far less than steller. His teacher had just transferred from jr. high-aged kids (maybe on her way out?) and didn't make a great transition to 6-year olds. Problems ranged from answering her cell phone in class, watching movies or tv in class every single day, and just being an overall negative person to parents and students. We approached both her and administration, we got nowhere. It's really a shame to, since Scottsdale doesn't offer another traditional school or even a K-8 program in the Chaparral HS system.
--Submitted by a parent

DITTO on the review posted 5/6/2010. Pros - Uniforms, great teachers, Spalding language program, high standards Cons - Extreme rigidity, inflexible staff and and administrataion, ONE SIZE FITS ALL approach, no differentiated learning, weak gifted program, extremely SLOW math program (Saxon). In all, we enjoyed this school but it is very much a school for average children. If your child needs extra help or advanced work this is not the place for them. The math program is woefully slow and the school refused to accelerate it despite the fact that most other schools using Saxon advance it a full grade. The teachers are top notch but are not allowed to use any creativity in their teaching as they're all required to teach the same material in the same way. After two years of fighting for more challenging and differentiated work, we're moving to a more open minded school.
--Submitted by a parent

I have had one child in Cheyenne for 2 years, and another whom I moved to a different school last year. Cheyenne is a phenomenal school. Cheyenne is unlike many schools in today's day and age, which teach to the least common denominator. Expectations are high, and most of the kids rise to the challenge. I can't help but to laugh when I read complaints that the homework is 'monotonous' or 'repetitive.' Yes, homework is often monotonous or repetitive, but this this is not unique to Cheyenne, and this has been true since the dawn of time. The real story here is that Cheyenne does not lower its expectations so that those who are one or two standard deviations to the left of the mean will be okay, and this is a good thing. Any kid with average intelligence and drive and parents willing to be involved will do well at there.
--Submitted by a parent