Los Cerros Middle School

My child is promoting this year and overall, I've been happy with our experience at LCMS. The Principal, VP and admin staff are professional, thoughtful and approachable. There's a lot of emphasis on prepping for high school & personal responsibility/ownership, which I appreciate. For the most part, the faculty has been good - I like that they have office hours or lunchtime group sessions for the kids to utilize for additional help & do a lot of project based learning; however, I've had challenges with their organization & follow up, which has been difficult because my child is lacking in these areas as well. That said, I never had an issue working with any of them in resolving issues. If anything, I wish they would focus more on steering kids away from school loop and emphasizing utilizing their planners for schoolwork tracking. We had too many teachers that said "refer to my website" or " check school loop", which were often not updated timely or at all. Ultimately, do I feel my child learned a lot? Absolutely. Do I feel that my child has a good foundation for high school? Absolutely. Do I feel your child will get a great education at Los Cerros? Most definitely.
—Submitted by a parent

I find the many reviews for this school to be strange. Very little is mentioned as to the academics, enrichment programs etc. My middle schooler is having a good experience at this school, challenged in advanced math and sciences with excellent teachers, happy to participate in the other classes. One teacher seems to be disorganized but they get the work completed - often its with extra homework over doing any of it in class. The principal seems to be involved, the vice principal appears to be the authoritarian of the school. Bullying is non-existent if its discovered (very strict policy against this). I would rate this school well as it should be considered when looking at middle schools in the area. Athenian of course should be rated higher but for 30k/student that's to be expected.
—Submitted by a parent

A good many teachers at this school are sub par and have an attitude. They aren't really expected to have to answer parental concerns. This attitude flows down from the principal who doesn't make her teachers perform.
—Submitted by a parent

This school will not do much good to your kid's self esteem. Education in this school is not about teaching and encouraging kids; it is about disciplining and punishing. The Principal seems to be nice but has no power.
—Submitted by a parent

The principal is great and only some of the teachers are great. If your kid is at this school and is popular - watch out! That's NOT a good thing. There are so many self absorbed kids in this community! They are very sneaky and have most of the adults/teachers completely fooled into thinking they are the good ones. It's hard for the good kids to get noticed because it's the loud mouths and brown-nosers that demand all the attention. The problem, of course, is the parents in this community that are living vicariously through their children, allowing them too many freedoms, especially online with little to no parental supervision. Watch your kids friends carefully!
—Submitted by a parent

Los Cerros is a fantastic school. The teachers are great, motivated and actively involved with our child. The curriculum has been structured so the subjects presented engage and challenge the students.
—Submitted by a parent

This is not the school for your kids! The education is challenging, but only because most of the teachers don't teach it! The strong points of this school are the few teachers like Mr. Atwater, who is said to be retiring. The majority of the teachers are full of themselves and do not listen to the students opinions. If you are considering transferring your child here, dont!
—Submitted by a parent

I found the classes to be pretty easy, the teachers range from good to very, very bad. Over all not that bad (unless of course you get all very bad teachers).
—Submitted by k p, a former student

This school offered the absolute worse educatonal experience to my children. The teachers were highly unmotivated. The principal was found to be not very warm or welcoming. As a matter of fact, she was quite unapproachable. Students were not taught how to behave properly at school activities such as concerts and assemblies. There seemed to be a free-for-all during these events. Above all, study skills were not taught. There was a great lack of preparation for high school. I know I am not alone in my view. This school really needs to be monitored!
—Submitted by a parent

In the past few years, things have improved greatly. I had two children go through three years each when there was a different principal. The current principal Ms. Ward, made positive changes and has been responsive whenever I had a concern regarding my current middle-schooler. Also, the school counselor, Ms. Schubb has been quite helpful and available. They still overload the children with homework on some nights and WEEKENDS. It is not a consistent amount and that should be addressed. One of the best teachers all three of my children had is Ms. Munck, for chorus and English. Several teachers who should not have been teaching are no longer there. There remain some good to very good ones and some who just assign and don't teach or even look at/correct work the child stayed up late to finish.
—Submitted by a parent

Good school, teachers, office staff, principal, counselor, all around great ... happy my children are here.
—Submitted by a parent

This school is terriblel. The teachers are horrible and there is no control at all over the students.
—Submitted by Paula Streit, a former student