Fluvanna County High School

The new school for 2012 is a nice up-to-date school offering a lot of extras, wear good walking shoes. The sports are good and the comradery in fluvanna sports is exceptional. It is sad to see 8th graders becoming "High Schoolers" at this school that takes grade 8th-12th. The security at dances is bad, no sign in/out! The 8th graders are pressured to keep up with these high school girls/boys in social peer acceptance. They are seperated during class work but they see them everywhere else including the bus ride time. Hopefully you have a strong communication/monitoring bond with your child when sending an 8th grader to this school. The school and county have very few minorities and they do not expect much fromminorities, except in sports. The office staff is very rude and demeaning. There are a few great teachers, a handful of good teachers and a lot of teachers that I don't know why they chose a career in teaching. Not too much bullying, low theft issues, there are rare fights and overall a well rounded child wearing the right cloths with advocating parents can do good at this school. PVCC is 30minaway but most roads in fluvanna county are very dangerous for high schoolers.
—Submitted by a parent

This school system needs work. If your child is highly motivated, they will do well at FCHS. However, a motivated child will succeed in any school. FCHS is lacking in teacher quality. I have a child with a diagnosed medical issue and his teacher told me, "to stop making excuses!" I have never been so insulted. The schools special education programs need attention and consistency. If you have a child that is below the "average" standard, you will need to be committed to spending time at the school and spending time teaching your child at home. There is no help for those lagging behind.
—Submitted by a parent

I have two kids. They both have been in Fluvanna County schools since kindergarten. Now they are in 7th and 11th grade. I think what makes fluvanna schools great is it's accessability. We are a small community of 30,000ish. The teachers are at every event you are with their kids. There have been bumps in the road over the years because of kids being kids that I needed to work out from time to time. The teachers always called or emailed to work on resolution. Neither of my kids is a bully and the school has a zero tolerance policy they strictly enforce. I am happy for this as my son likely would have been a target. I would like more advanced curriculum in the elementry school and I would also like full fledge language classes to be offered from elementry and not just 8th grade. The middle school and high school handle all advance classes wonderfully. The parents in this county are DEEPLY involved with their childrens school and activites. They have established working partnerships with the staff. We are a middle income family and we support low cost EVERYTHING. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend fluvanna to a friend.
—Submitted by a parent

This school has been earned the Virginia VIP rating several years running despite the county's consistent lack of adaquate funding. The teachers and administrators work long hours to help struggling students and have instituted programs like Fluco Time and SOL camp to afford students oportunities to excell in areas where they stuggle.
—Submitted by a student

i attended fluvanna from sixth grade to my junior year in high school. the best advice i can give is if attending fluvanna schools is avoidable please do not attend. Fluvanna is in poor condition, the food is very unhealthy and overall nasty, and the teachers have no idea what they are doing. if i had not attended another highschool i would not have know how chanllenging and how great getting an eduacation could be. overall, fluvanna, trash.
—Submitted by a student

My daughter graduated in 2005 from Fluvanna and is currently in her second year of college, with absolutely no help from guidence to get her there. My son will graduate in 2009. In my opinion nothing is any better, just worse. Everthing is okay up to middle school and then it's all down hill from there. It seems like they don't want parents to be involved. Expect 1 to 2 weeks before a teacher returns your call, and a lot of excuses from the teachers and the administration. Math Lab is a joke. School policies are different for each individual. Nothing is consistant.Fluvanna High School offers no summer school, like other surrounding counties. Fluvanna is one the fastest growing counties in Virginia, and the school cannot keep up.
—Submitted by a parent

Fluvanna County is the local high school covering a mainly rural but quickly developing area. Expect very little in the way of field trips. Some teachers are very interested in the students but the school board does little to push the school system to improve. Few AP classes and no vocational classes at school. Students can take advanced classes at the community college or travel to other schools for limited vocational classes. School doesn't seem to want outside interfering from parents. A no effort school!
—Submitted by a parent

I am currently a student at Fluvanna County High, and I think that some teachers really do try their every hardest to get the students at the point where they can achieve great things. There isn't a whole lot of parental involvement, which may be why the school's funding is so low, but that doesnt surpass students and staff. I know firsthand that we have many fundraisers. Now for the math lab, I did do good in there but its not worth it, you never learn anything, the only thing I learned was to beat the system when it came to passing the 'clipboards and tests', but theres also normal math teachers, Fluvannas math teachers really did try to help me,including staying after school. And if youre worried about student clicks, isnt a big deal at Fluvanna. The sports are also a pretty big deal. Overall it is a great school.
—Submitted by a student

Like most systems, it has it s ups and downs. The big downs include micro management from the superintendent. A school board full of retired teachers that act like the superintendent is the boss, instead of taking charge of the system. The administration in this school is good, and they work hard to improve the education here. But, any school where 3% of the class is valedictorians has an educational problem. The grading is too lenient, not enough challenge. Students do not write; not encouraged to expand and grow beyond the basic curriculum. This is a farming community, not overly concerned with students going on to challenging schools. Parents are not involved. They only are aware of the sound bites spewed when the schools don't get the funding that they want.
—Submitted by a parent

I attended Fluvanna's schools from Kindergarden to 12th grade. I graduated last year and am now in college. I'm doing very well, which can be attributed both to my parents and my teachers, which were, with only a few exceptions, outstanding. FCHS has several underpaid and underappreciated teachers. However, the school itself is more than teachers. The administration's policies are atrocious. As long as Mr. Barlow is the pricipal, you should not send your child to FCHS. As for the Math Lab, you have to complete a set number of lessons per day to maintain your grade. However, to ask a question, you must fill out a form and wait, sometimes days, for an answer.
—Submitted by a former student

I just graduated last year from FCHS, and althought I did not always agree with some of the teachers, most of them are very good teachers who want their students to learn. As far as a lack of honors and ap classes, they are working on that. They are also increasing the amount of music and artistic classes that are being offered. One drawback is that they did offer exam exemptions if students met certain requirements, but they are getting rid of that. They also do offer algebra on the computer, which is difficult to learn, but can be done if you ask questions. Overall I would rate the school very good for the funding that it gets. Mr Scruggs, Mr B Morris (retired), Ms Beckenstein, Mr Muir, and Mr Dye are some of the best teachers that I have ever had, high school or otherwise. I would reccommend this school.
—Submitted by a former student

I myself that has attended FCHS i love it and yes i do agree that it takes a effort to come to school and learn. After my first semester at Fluvanna i loved it there are teachers there that do care about the education of students and do offer to help them. But i have since moved from fluvanna and i am now living in florida and i do hate there schools. I am to return to Fluvanna County next year to finish out my highschool years there. But i myself believe that fluvanna is a excelent school to attend. ~ thank you~
—Submitted by a former student

I think this School is a good place for any child to go because the teachers help them as they learn. I also think that Mr. Barlow there principal is a good principal and he knows good discepline and the school just helps out and there best is good enough so it is a good school to me i am enrolled in that school and i know that Fluvanna County High School is the best and has the best education there is.
—Submitted by Hope Christmas, a student

This school provides one of the worst programs in preparing lower achieving students that I have ever seen in public schools. Students in their early years are forced to take Algebra without a traditional teacher and are asked to learn SOL material only through the teaching hands of a computer. Students who are not appropriately disciplined, do not have the proper motivation, or are lacking whether it be due to a mental disability or simply with basic math skills cannot achieve using this program. Students must repeat semesters over and over in Algebra in order to move on to Geometry, and being unsuccessful year after year will not assure a placement in another program to continue studies by another method. Without choice, students cannot succeed in math. (SOL numbers for the school look better, but too many students fall between the cracks and never get out of Algebra.)
—Submitted by a parent

I am a student at FCHS, and I can honestly say that in my three years here, I've had at most two bad classes. And that's stretching it. While few of us actually want to take the time to get up to come to school, myself included, I disagree with anyone who says that the school in itself is of poor quality. One can easily succeed at Fluvanna if one only makes an honest attempt.
—Submitted by a student

Being a student at Fluvanna High school for a year and a half, I found nothing appealing about the school. The quality of teaching was pitiful, the courses miniscule in their actual educational value, and the overall school was horrible. The school is in poor condition, except for a new wing added last year which consists of new classrooms and computer labs. I would not recommend if you want your child to have a good acedemic education to go there. They offer almost no honors or AP classes and offer nothing in the area of college preparation.
—Submitted by a former student

Education anywhere is what you the parent, and your children make of it. I have had 3 children graduate from this school. All three have continued their education. One will graduate with a bachelors degree this year from UVA, and wishes to return to Fluvanna to teach. One will graduate next year with a masters from UVA, and also would like to return to teach. The other will receive a bachelors degree from ODU next year in criminal justice. This all from two parents with only high school degrees.
—Submitted by Jenny Koczan, a parent