First Coast High School

First Coast is a wonderful school! Teachers care about their students, and want them to succeed. There are bad apples at any school, don't let that 1% prevent your child from attending one of the best schools in Duval County!

I wouldn't suggest this school to my worst enemy. I have talked to guidance counselors who were clueless. All this school is concerned with is winning football games. They could careless about the children's education, although I have met with some teachers who long to do more but can't. The classrooms are overcrowded and some of the teachers are only there to collect a paycheck. My daughter did her freshman year in HS in Illinois and due to having to relocate because of my job, my daughter's experience in high school has taken a turn for the worse and as a parent who is much involved with my children's education. I am highly disappointed. My daughter completed her 9th grade in Illinois, came to First Coast and they still registered her in the 9th grade when she was suppose to be in 10th and haven't fixed it yet as they said they would and she is suppose to be entering her senior year. This mess is crazy!
—Submitted by a parent

Because this is our neighborhood school and we didn t want to bus our kid into a magnet school we gave First Coast High a try. I would not recommend this school if your child s education is important to you. If your kid goes to school because you are required by law to make them go then this school will help your child get by. If your child wants to make something of them self in life, find another school even if it means bussing into a magnet school.
—Submitted by a parent

This is the most disorganized school that I've ever been associated with.Communication between administratIon and parents is virtually non existent. Good luck having your call returned. Fights and assaults are commonplace with little follow through from staff.Some teachers seem to have great difficulty in keeping up with work that has been turned in resulting in erronious grading.If you have another choice I highly recommend that you place your child some place other than FCHS. It's sad that the high school experience has had a negative impact on my child
—Submitted by a parent

our school has a lot of great teahers that are there for the childrens education.. as parents we need alot of them to be involved in thier childs education ... teachers cannot do it by their self.. as a parent i am so invoved with my childrens schools.. first coast has an awesome faculty... always able to answer any questions we have if they cant they direct us to the right person who can. but parent involvement is a must..
—Submitted by a parent

I go to First Coast. I have Since Freshmen year & I have found First Coast to be a good school for the only school in my area. Im in National Honor Society & it looks good for when I graduate. The teachers are really good I have a 4.5 GPA. I dont know why FC has such bad reviews because its actually good. Students from ALL of the Northside come to Coast so that can make the school bad but if you ask me I rather go to First Coast than Andrew Jackson or Ribualt schools of that nature. So if someone is saying that the school wouldnt look good on your college application itactually does if your making good grades that makes the school letter grade go up. But at FC there are alot of students that dont care and make HORRIBLE grades which makes First Coast look bad.
—Submitted by a student

This school has numerous students lingering in the hall ways seemiling nowhere to go for whole class periods. Open gambling was observed in one classroom. Numerous student fights during the week. Maybe it was a bad week, but things seemed to be a normal everyday occurrance, judging by the attitude of School faculty attitudes during observed events. Also, numerous pregnant students. The overall observation is this enviroment is not conducive to an educational atmosphere.
—Submitted by a parent

Okay I am a senior at First Coast High School, this is my official second year here because I transferred from Sandalwood. For starters, this school has had problems with the students discipline because a handful of them were brought in from other schools who have been known for their continuity of being an F school. Of course if you get all those students and throw them into FCHS then the grades will decrease and violence increases. Anyway, I am a member of the National Honors Society and I was just recently accepted to one of the top ranked universities in the country, probably the same university a 'private school' student is attending... its not where you're getting your education from , its all about how you take advantage of the oppurtunities given to you. I'm a public school student, cant wait to see your private school kid in college (:
—Submitted by a student

This is a top notch High School. From the ladies in the office, to the marching band, to the faculty, to the student body, this school has been the best school for my children and grandchildren!
—Submitted by a parent

i went to this school from 1999-2003 it was a great school then and still is i have three family members in this school right now, no school is perfect but fchs does what it can to make sure students are safe and learning, if the school board would stop sending all the bad kids to the school from falling schools it would have smaller class sizes and would be a lot more safer but as long as they let the bad ones come in it is what it is, as far as the staff there still helpful with anything they can do, but every school has there limits, maybe the ones who said this school is horrible should look at themselfs or the kids before jumping on here and writing things that arent true!
—Submitted by a parent

A horrible school!! You cannot count on faculty staff. They always mistaken my daughter with someone else.
—Submitted by a parent

I have a hard time believing you can rate parent involvement so low when the school will not let us get invoved. We have been trying for 2 years and have been unsuccessful.
—Submitted by a parent

Great helping staff. They really take an interest in your child.
—Submitted by a parent

As a father of two high school students, I have to put two cents in. This is a horrible school. The administration does not care. The teachers are scared of the students. The only subject that gets any attention is the FCAT. If you can find away to afford a private school, I would do it. It is your child's future, don't gamble with it here.
—Submitted by a parent

I'm currently a Junior at First Coast. I've read some of the previous reviews of the school and I just had to add my input. First Cosat is not perfect, we all know that. First Coast is trying their hardest! The reason I barely had a math teacher for the first 2 years is because some students terrorized the teachers so much, they didn't want to work there anymore. It's not always the teachers! It's some students and even some of the parents. Cause if their children was raised up right, they wouldn't act stupid in school!
—Submitted by a student

I agree with the last poster that it has potential, but they took too long to get it together. I pulled my child after one year due to negative influences around her causing her to behave uncharacteristicly. The day we tried to withdraw her, they told us we'd have to come back because they had to focus their attention on the fights that had just occured. I knew then that we had made the right decision. She is now in a private school and thriving. I do continue to suppport FCHS and pray for its success.
—Submitted by a parent

First Coast High School has great potential. It will take participation from all parties working together; administrators, teachers, students, parents and the community. I must say as a parent I worry about all my children's safety at 'any' school. I have yet to find a school that doesn't have problems.
—Submitted by a parent

I found the curriculum limited and archaic, the administration clueless and the involvement of parents with teachers extremely frustrating. Often it took up to 3 weeks for teachers to respond to concerns and only after harassing them on a daily basis and calling the district office were my calls answered. Safety is a major concern. I would not recommend this school to any parent that cares about their child s education. I would go as far as warning of any public school in the Duval County school board control.
—Submitted by a parent

I just graduated from first coast. We have had great administration over my 4 years there.First Coast is a developing school who has so many open doors for welling students to take.But, over the past year we have had student from troubled schools come to FCHS.We have exceptional departments that open students to so many different opportunities.I can honestly say that the teachers do care.We were on the news a few times but i must say it was not the whole truth! Half the time its truly stupid kids trying to get attention.So,if your child is going to FCHS..get involved! because it could just be your child without the name on the news starting trouble...
—Submitted by a student

I'm going into my Junior Year here and I don't like it at all. The classes are mediocre and misleading, such as the computer business skills class. It's just learning to type and nothing else. They don't even have classes for programming as something simple as php. The average student's attitude in this school are to not get involved in any AP classes (if you can call them that) and at least get the lowest possible grades to pass onto the next grade. No wonder the school average is still a D. I wish I could go to a better school, but there are none in my region without driving 45 min to another school just as bad as First Coast. At least the people you meet are mostly decent. But there's still a lot of violence going on almost every week. I give this school a 1 out of 5.
—Submitted by a student