Piper High School

Piper is wonderful. really, a school is what you make it, so you can't always look at a school's stats to see if its for you or not. the crowd you choose affects your learning experience and that can either affect you in a positive or negative way so you must choose wisely. academics are very important. if students want to learn at Piper, they will, because they have that drive and determination to get the job done. not only is academics important, but the school's atmosphere as a whole. Piper has a home feeling to me and i look forward to going there everyday. it has an awesome performing arts and journalism program. this school has many opportunities for the students and the school staff really cares. all of my teachers were amazing and they want for my classmates and i to succeed. Piper High School rocks!!!
—Submitted by Janetta Johnson, a student

I am a current student at Piper High School. I admire our new priciple, Mrs. Veldez. She is improving our school drastically from every perspective. Most of our teachers are professional individuals, ones that a student can look up to. Our school is not perfect, neither is any other school on the face of this earth; but we do strive to do our best, not for any attention, not for what critics say about our school, rather for our own benefit and for our own pride. Thank you very much for your time and i do hope people will have a different view of our school.
—Submitted by a student

Many (not to say all) of the teachers are professionals and great at what they do. It just takes effort from students to make the school what it really should be.
—Submitted by a student

Good academic programs, music, sport & art are all available at this school. Parent involvement could be a little higher, but I dont see a problem the amount of parents involved now.
—Submitted by katie coats, a former student

even though many may put a bad reputation on piper high school, i believe that it is a very good school. like any other school, bad things happen. but these are isolated incidents and should not affect the reputation of the school as a whole.
—Submitted by a student

I think that this is a great school. I have had the pleasure of sending my sons and daughter to this school and they have all graduated with honors and have went on to have successful careers.
—Submitted by a parent

School was disorganized and had a high rate of lunch brawls and fights. Classroom was unstructured when teacher was not present. Substitute teachers were horrible. We watched music videos in a few classes.School seemed overpopulated.
—Submitted by a former student

Piper is a great school. The teachers and staff are friendly and attentive. The school has been working really hard to bring their grade up from a C to a B. Piper has a great performing Arts and Art program. Every year the school publishes a magazine with students art work and poems. It also has a great Journalism program.
—Submitted by a student

Guidance suggested my daughter, a junior, take 'easy' classes as a senior to improve her GPA, instead of art or career interest. Too crowded!
—Submitted by a parent

Good school a little dangerous and dirty but it has a high sucurity and alot of camras and the new principle is really makeing it good.
—Submitted by a parent

the kids are rude and violent.the teachers don't really try to help the kids they know are failing and know need a little extra help. they just help the smart kids,the security around the school is poor. they don't do their job. they so busy trying to be friends with the kids,kids are able to just walk off campus when they please,they skip in sit outside on the benches.
—Submitted by M, a former student

Found it very overcrowded. Average on the academic scale.
—Submitted by a parent

School overcrowded, racially imbalanced,unimaginative corriculum, poor acedemic stimulation, scholastically poor, drop out rate far too high, disorganized, security poor, students unsupervised.
—Submitted by a parent

My daughter is a 9th grader it appears a student can skip up to 5 clasess per semester without any one questioning there whereabouts no one cares? It is a rough school with constant fighting.
—Submitted by a parent

The problem with Piper is that there are too many students and not near enough teachers. Its hard as a student to learn when you have 40 to 50 kids in a class. There is no safety either.
—Submitted by a former student

Piper High School has been under much scrutiny these past couple of years. Most would deturmine by the constant negitive attention that the school is bad, period. This is not exactly true however; a students experience in the school entirely depends on his or her classes. For instance, the lower level classes are made up of students with no ambition and misbehave constantly. Because of this it is extremely hard to maintain discipline and thus the 'good' teachers refuse to even step into the classroom. Thus, barely competant teachers given the lowest wages are employed at this level. General classes may not even complete work through half the period. This is totally opposite for the higher level classes. The teachers that instruct AP and Honors classes are, with no exaggeration, some of the best in the state. The students there are almost sheltered and the ciriculum is beyond superior.
—Submitted by a student

My son received a terrible education at this school. Despite the fact that he graduated with an academic reward for his grades, he needed to take remedial classes at the Community College, and can barely pass his classes. Pay the money for a private education. It is worth it.
—Submitted by a parent

This is my 10th graders first year at Piper from a private school and I'm very pleased with the helpful staff and teachers.They're available to me when I need them. Security's gotten tighter in 04' and the automated phone call notifying parents of new changes and meetings are especially helpful and make me feel counted as a parent. We all need to do our part and as parents. We need to realize that teachers aren't substitute parents and can't always be accountable for other children's behavior. I'm sure it's hard enough just trying to teach and get through to students on an academic level.It isn't just Piper that's changed for the worse. The world just isn't as innocent as it use to be. We all need to do our part. Remember it takes a village to raise a child.
—Submitted by Theresa Channer, a parent

I went to this school myself in the eighties and it was even bad back then. We had a name for it, Piper Prison. This school has turned progressively worse as the years have passed. The grade ratings for the facility are horrifying. My son was supposed to attend this year and I was so against it, we sold our home and moved to Wellington just to provide him a better education. I am not kidding, that is the sole reason we moved. He now attends an 'A' school. I highly encourage parents in the Piper Zone with no alternatives to send their children to magnet schools. The path your child takes with exposure to the current elements at Piper is in your hands.
—Submitted by a parent

I just graduated from Piper back in June and it was the worst 4 years of my life. When the former principal (since replaced as of June 13, 2003), the school saw the highest fight rates in Broward County for 2 consecutive years. The recent student government election scandal placed Piper in the newspaper 4 out of 7 days. Now, I took mostly Honors and AP classes and I will give them the fact that the teachers in those class types are second to none. But, the overall administration and the poor security makes Piper the embarrassment of the County, and ever of the state. The trash that is all over the school, the fact that the bathrooms are never clean, no soap or paper towels, and the very poor condition of the grounds is just too humiliating to discuss.