Hill Middle School

WOW! Not happy about these comments. Don't think I will send my son to Hill Middle. HELP, anyone know of any good private schools in this area? Can't really rate the school since I was just checking out the reviews.
—Submitted by a parent

The rating are design for ALL parents, students and teachers to put their opinions for other to see, so others can make their decision base on what they read and information that they gathered. Based on what I read and I can say the parents and student had simply put their true thoughts and opinions based on their experiences. For you as administrator telling all parents and students NOT to leave negative comments to impact the school rating and sweep everything under the rug is very deceitful. You are basically taking people's freedom of speech away. I'm sure you wouldn't have problem with people leaving positive comments, so why only stop people from leaving the negative comments? Please do let parents and student make their own judgement base on the truth! If Hill Middle School is a great school, I'm sure parents will see that themselves.
—Submitted by a parent

As the principal of Hill Middle School, I welcome any parent concerns and wish that the concerns would be addressed directly before posts are made. The latest post states that "two teachers quit" however this is not actually fact. The two teachers referred to both took leaves, one for health and the other for further schooling. Again, as adults, they have the right to take a leave when necessary, and neither of these individuals left without great hesitation. It was not their choice at the time. I do invite people to the school to visit and our administrative team is available to answer any questions parents may have. This IS a great school, and while the staff are not required or mandated to utilize Edline, as an administrator, I can only encourage the use of this tool for parents. There are many challenges facing educators today, and to have negative remarks posted for the world to view, without further investigating facts prior to posting, adds to the challenges of great educators who are doing everything possible to build a future for our students. Read what you may, but investigate for yourself. Thank you to the 970 families who do enjoy what this school does for their child!
—Submitted by a teacher

My son did all three years at this school it is a below average performing school. Regardless of what the district rates the school at, this school does not perform even close to an "A" school. There is no accountability I had to go to the school because of bulling in the boys locker room because there was no teacher monitoring. My son is very smart and has high goals and this school does nothing to challenge him to assist his competitiveness for high school and beyond. The discipline is a joke the kids are wild. We are have way through this school year and two of my sons teachers have quit and both classes are high school credit math and Spanish. I can't wait until June I would seriously look at other options before sending your child to this school. I have two still in elementary and they will never attending this school.
—Submitted by a parent

All four of my children have attended this school and it has gone steadily downhill. I finally had enough and pulled my youngest out after one year. The bullying is out of control and the administration and staff do nothing to control it. Administration offers excuses but never solutions. Edline is rarely updated by most teachers. The principal is out of touch with this age group and is not accessible to parents when there is a problem (which is often).
—Submitted by a parent

This school has a very well run environment. I visited today after a meeting and was pleasantly surprised at the calm and warm atmosphere that was surrounding me. These are middle school students and I was smiled at, students moved so I could walk through the crowded halls during the passing period, and I was very happy to see most every adult in the hallway greeting students. From my visit alone, I am considering sending my child there without question. I definately don't agree with the negative from my first impression today!

This was an A rated school for many years under Mr, Davis, unfortunately under the new principal the ship is sinking fast in my opinion. She has lost control of her staff, constant food fights in the lunchroom, very little participation by teachers on EDLINE, and worst of all preparation( by most teachers ) for FCAT, Mid Terms and Finals consist of a study sheet that is never reviewed in class by teachers for students. In my opinion this is incompetence. In case your wondering my children have excetional grades in gifted classes, no thanks to most of the teachers and principal of this school.
—Submitted by a parent

This school is perfect if you want your child to have lots of friends and going to their birthday partys or even spending the night. But the 2011-2012 we had a food fight in 3rd lunch where kids were going home because they got mash potatoes in there hair. But there is not even a lot of home work you only get homework in your core classes such as math or science but depending on the teacher you might only have homework in math and every once in a while for science or geography we have very good sports we always for football our record has been 5-1 but also most of the comments are old and mr.davis wasnt a good principle now we have ms.scaglione who is wonderful because she let us listen to our ipods in lunch after the food fight we have a great staff and our deputy is awesome come to this school make friends and have fun. Also we have 1 of the top bands in the county.

I hate this school, my daughter will not be attending another year there and I will not be allowing my other children to go when they get to middle school either. The kids are wild and have at times even been violent. The teachers...... I'm not even going there! awful school and awful staff. The grammatical errors in the reviews from some of the students speaks for itself.
—Submitted by a parent

My daughter is finishing her 3rd yr here at Hill. Like all schools there are good and bad. We had all honors classes for every year & 6th grade was bogged down with homework 7th grade was just challenging enough and 8th grade I believe is preparing her for high school. She is able to get help from teachers before school or during lunch if needed and teachers are good about returning e-mails to engaged parents. Unfortuneatly the new administration is not up to par and we are loosing some very good teachers as a result. This will greatly impact the furture of this school.
—Submitted by a parent

I went here 4 sixth grade. I loved it. the teachers are great & actuley teach. it's not that bad,the kids are a bit wild,but thats mostly 8th graders. i REALLY wish my parents wld let me go there 4 8th grade,cuz my new skool stinks.

first of all these crazy parents dont know what their talking about. ben hill is freakin awesome . sure some of the teachers are mean but the kids are not as loud and crazy as people say they are. I would know of all people because i went there. its an amazing school and parents if you want your kids to have an amazing middle school year you should send them there. [ plus the girls there look like supermodles ]

uhhh iv been going to ben hill for 2yrs and their give lots of homework and really mean they need tho lighten up
—Submitted by a teacher

Teachers at this school are for the most part friendly, but very lazy. The kids are wild and could use a little more discipline. IMO the kids get away with waaay too much at this school.= both educationally and behavior wise. SO sad that this type of lenient educational environment adds to the downfall of undereducated society.
—Submitted by a parent

i sent my child there for the end of 6th grade. she was completely unhappy. teachers were rude. home work over load. i sent her there for 7th . same problems. she has made amazing friends there but the adults there are horrible.
—Submitted by a parent

this is a exellent school. mr.davis is a awsome prisible and the staff is great i love it I has been going there for 2 years and I loves it
—Submitted by a student

There are many Phenomenal teachers with many college experiences and can put a smile on your face. Any ordinary techer will sit in front of the classroom and say'okay class open up your book' but not at Ben Hill techers will get up from there chair to help a student and will even do a hands on experiments with the student untill they get it. I was only there for the 6th grade and i grew so much from that one year.
—Submitted by a student

At this point in time my son and daughter attend Hill Middle and our major problem is that many of the kids are just 'wild'. My son is constantly complaining that the work environment is upsetting and distracting. Many of the students are loud, undisciplined. We recently moved from another state. Didn't really realize how good it was there until we experienced the environment here. We are considering other choices at this time. Frankly I was suprised the ratings were pretty good, but it doesn't reflect our personal experience.
—Submitted by a parent

Very nice PTSA, many extracurricular activities.
—Submitted by a parent

The music dept is absolutely wonderful! My daughter is in 7th grade, she has had 2 years of band and has learned so much. My child has ADD and I wouldn't reccomend any children with ADD go to this school. The lack of teacher to parent communication until it is too late happens much too often. Other than that, the school is great!
—Submitted by a parent